Nancy Kelly

Memorandum from President Hexter, June 24, 2009:

After nearly nineteen years of service to Hampshire College, Nancy Kelly has informed me of her resignation effective June 30, 2009. As Nancy has told me, this is not a step she takes without regret, for during those two decades she has participated in the life of this vibrant institution with a passion of for its mission and with great affection for its students, faculty, trustees and, especially, its staff.

It is a step, however, that she takes with great anticipation and a sense of adventure. Nancy has decided to take a bold step into the world of entrepreneurship: she will be expanding her freelance work to full-time and finishing her manuscript of essays on the liberal arts, academic administration, and the realities of college life. I very much look forward to reading her work.

Nancy reports that she will miss the colleagues with whom she worked, as Louis MacNeice wrote, "under thunder and rain," during - and here I reflect her recollections of events -- tough financial times when principles of workplace democracy guided reductions in the compensation budget, during times when students occupied the president's office, and during one awful winter when the power failed repeatedly. Among the vivid memories she is sure she will cherish are Kofi Annan's visit, the creation of the Baldwin Scholars Program (for which she provided the name), and the time Bill Lee pinch hit on Hampshire's baseball "team."

In looking back, Nancy counts among her contributions to Hampshire the two NEASC accreditation self-studies that she led, in 1997 and again in 2007. In 1997, the college was testing the waters of school reorganization, facing vexed financials, yet also basking in the national spotlight of favorable recognition from such lions of the academy as Ernest Boyer, Theodore Sizer and Loren Pope. In 2007, Hampshire prepared for accreditation with a new president, an acting dean of student services, an acting treasurer and a mid-stream change of leadership in advancement. Nancy would be the last person to assign "credit" to any one individual for ensuring a successful accreditation visit under challenging circumstances, but by any measure, the success of the visit was due to her capacity to write, edit, plan and work with colleagues across campus on the myriad details attendant to the Self Study, the visit, and its follow-up. The visiting team was duly impressed in every way, and we owe Nancy a tremendous debt of gratitude that she helped all involved in the reaccreditation process focus on the essential values and needs of Hampshire at this moment in its history.

Former trustees with whom Nancy worked have expressed their sadness at her departure from Hampshire. Blair Brown, chair emeritus and former chair of the finance and buildings and grounds committees, remembered in particular the difficult discussions the board had about competing budget priorities of compensation, financial aid and deferred maintenance, and her accurate rendering of the board's keen awareness of the many ways in which Hampshire had to make its dollars meet a multitude of needs: "Nancy's minutes recorded even the most heated of our deliberations with exquisite accuracy and thereby created a lasting legacy for the trustees who were fortunate to have worked with her. I will miss her very much when I visit Hampshire." Trustee emeritus Michael Mann, former chair of the nominating committee, said, "Nancy understood what trusteeship was all about; she helped us be better and more effective trustees." Finally, President Emeritus Gregory S. Prince, Jr. said, "I relied on Nancy's honesty and insights throughout my tenure at Hampshire. I depended on her capacity to think creatively and to judge wisely and humanely.  Hampshire benefited countless times and in very significant ways because she consistently had the courage to challenge the momentum of the moment when her judgment and wisdom called for it."

I second these heartfelt statements of appreciation. As for myself, let a few words stand for many. On many occasions since I came to Hampshire four years ago, I have experienced how her insights, her experience, and her cogent formulations helped me and others see what it was right to do. I have learned much from Nancy - about trusteeship, about college governance, and above all about the role of the president - and I will miss her wise counsel.

Nancy has asked that the final paragraph of this announcement include her personal thanks to the Hampshire community--"to the wonderful staff and faculty colleagues whose dedication to their jobs makes this campus so very special, and specifically to Senior Associate Dean Anne Downes, whose gifts of friendship and psychological acumen are without price; to OPRA director Bob Garmirian, whose counsel is always wise; to Elaine Thomas, whose professionalism and experience are always a reliable if unnamed source of wisdom; to Susan Tracy and Sura Levine, whose quiet empathy is always dependable, even in the darkest of times; Michael Lesy, who knows how to be a good neighbor, and to Bobbie Stuart, Kathy Methot, Gai Carpenter, Karen Parker, and Killara Burn, wise women all."