Distribution Requirements

Currently, Division I students fulfill distribution requirements by taking one class in each of the Schools of Thought.

Role of Distribution Requirements
The First Hampshire College Catalog, published in 1970, states that "the college sees its obligation as encouraging the expansion of a student's definition of relevance, not pandering to it."

The Future
In May 2009, the Faculty voted to move to a four-area distribution system separate from the Five schools, based on modes of inquiry. The EPC has not yet put forward the final model of the requirements. A variety of proposals are on the table.

Distribution Requirement Proposals
"The departmental system is nurtured by the graduate school without regard to whether or not it is appropriate at the college level. The major respect in which an undergraduate college differs from a graduate school is that it seeks to liberate rather than train in a specialty. In a day of specialists it cannot neglect the specialty, but it must fit specialization into a broad background. Its faculty must differ from the faculties of graduate schools by being composed of individuals who are at least as skillful as educators as they are as specialists, who are as much concerned with their disciplines as they are with the specialized areas of knowledge...The major problem in planning a divisional organization is the choice of divisions...The New College Plan proposed three divisions: humanities, natural sciences, and social sciences. In this three-fold set-up, however, there is no appropriate place for such semantical and syntactical studies as language, logic, mathematics and epistemology. We therefore suggest four divisions, as follows: 1. The Humanities. This division would concern itself with man as revealed in his art, his literature, his music, his history, his religion, and his philosophy. What are his values, his aspirations, his inspirations? 2. The Natural Sciences. This group would involve primarily a study of the inorganic and organic environment of man and a study of man himself as an organism. It would deal with such concepts as natural law and scientific method. 3. The Social Sciences. This group would bring together the studies of man and society: historical, economic, sociological, psychological and philosophical. It would examine the manners in which societies operate, the concept of social law, and methodology in the social sciences. 4. The Languages (including mathematics and logic). The central focus here would be communication. This would involve a study of language in its three uses: the analytic development of calculi and their syntaxes, the synthetical development of empirical statements and their semantical functions, and the creative employment of language in literature. The history of language would also necessarily be involved. The foreign language program would be the responsibility of this division. Philosopically, these four divisions seem sounder than the earlier three"
 * In 1966, the Report of the Educational Advisory Committee to the President of Hampshire College recommended
 * The Schools page contains excerpts, as well as the full documents, of the documents written by the founders of the original four school (written in 1969 and 1972)