Community involvement

Hampshire College is very vocal about its community and how involved students are within it. But how does one get involved? Listed below are some of the community governing committees, student groups, and other community activities and information about how to get involved. (Remember: this is not a complete list of every community involvement opportunity at Hampshire College. It is constantly changing and growing. This is just a basic outline and a guide to resources for more information.)

Community Council
Community Council, according to the Hampshire Constitution, is "responsible for matters relating to the quality of life of members of the College community as well as the well-being of the College community."

Thirteen students can sit on Community Council, making it able to be the largest student body on any official governance body. Community Council oversees FiCom, which doles out money to all the student clubs, COCD, the Committee on Community Development, which funds the renovation, creation, and maintenance of large-scale social spaces for the Hampshire community, and COCA, the Committee on Community Development, which plans school-wide events such as Hampshire Halloween and Spring Jam. This is the place to be if you desire to actively work towards making the Hampshire student community awesomer.

Check out their Hampedia page, Community Council, to learn more.

Council is open to the public and meets every Tuesday at governance time, from 330-5pm, in the Community Council Office.

Becoming a Student Member of one of the Five Schools
Each of the five schools has a different way one can become a student member. Being a student member of one of the schools means attending School Meetings, which are responsible for "curriculum development and for instruction and assessment of the educational program of its School. The School Meeting shall be responsible for consideration of appointment, reappointment and promotion of faculty members." Basically, you play an important part in hiring/rehiring professors, deciding on what courses should be taught, and most importantly adding a student's perspective to the variety of issues and conversations that occur. It can be really fascinating to be a student member, as you get to peek behind the scenes and truly understand how Hampshire functions.

However, joining each school is difficult, due to their lack of clear procedures to do so. Your best bet is to contact the school's secretary (search for them on the Directory). But to help you out, the following is a list of how one is supposedly able to become a member of each of the Schools of Thought, basedon previous students' experiences:

Cognitive Science: When a position opens up, the Dean of CS will send out a notice for applications for student membership. However, the notice usually goes out to the CS list serve. One should visit the CS office in ASH to find out about current openings/possible future openings. Individuals apply for the position with guidelines from the notice. CS limits the number of student members it has, actually rejecting applications, unlike most of the schools.

Social Sciences: To become a student member of SS, one must simply apply by sending an email to the SS secretary. Faculty members review the application and decide whether to admit the individual. SS is actively looking for more student members, so if you show initiative you will most likely be admitted.

Interdisciplinary Arts: The Dean of IA announces to faculty members that a student position needs to be filled. The faculty members seek out students they think might be interested or good fits for the position. The students then apply for the position, and the faculty members have an informal vote of whether to admit the student as a member of the school.

HACU (Humanities, Arts, and Cultural Studies): To become a student member of HACU, one must be at least a third semester student or Div II student (the Dean of HACU said that this is so the individual knows that they want to be involved with HACU). All an individual must do is send the dean a paragraph describing why they want to be a HACU student member. This individual will most likely be accepted because HACU has many student member spaces it wants to fill.

NS (Natural Science): To become a student member of NS, one must simply attend three NS school meetings.

Serving as a student member for schools can possibly count for one’s community service requirement in Div II.

EPC (Educational Policy Committee)
Under the Hampshire Constitution, the EPC is responsible for "matters relating to the educational policy of the College [delegated to it]." These include (but are not limited to): the determination and approval of the curriculum, academic calendar, degree-requirements, and academic standards. According to the constitution, "it shall encourage and promote innovating programs and educational experiments." One student member from each of the five schools and one student-at-large sit on the EPC. Each School of Thought generally selects its student EPC member according to who is willing to do it and who can do it. There is no defined process for choosing the student-at-large.

Meetings of the EPC are open to the public for observation but not for participation. They are held at 3:30pm, Tuesdays (except 1st Tuesday of the month) in Cole Science Center Room 121.

Judicial Council
The Judicial Council is currently defunct.

However, the Judicial Council is supposed to provide a forum to hear and decide matters of interpretation or grievance. The matters may arise because of conflicting interpretations of policies, rules, or jurisdiction. "Such matters may also arise due to perceived infractions of the Constitution of Hampshire College or any other rule, by-law, or standard for conduct. (Hampshire Constitution)" The Judicial Council is also supposed to hear formal complaints against members of the administration, staff, and faculty. Four students elected at large are supposed to sit on the Judicial Council. Another defunct judiciary committee is the Community Review Board, which is supposed to hear complaints against students. (Instead of this process, currently any decision made against a student cannot be adequately defended against). Three students are supposed to sit on the Community Review Board.

All Community Meetings
The Hampshire website states:

"At least once each semester, Community Council coordinates and facilitates a meeting of all members of the campus community. This is an opportunity for students, staff, and faculty to come together to address concerns, proposals, or to ask questions related to current campus issues. Community Council solicits suggestions for the agenda from community members prior to each meeting. For more information and meeting dates inquire in the Community Council office. Additional all-community meetings may be called by the President or the Dean of the College."

However, the Hampshire Constitution states: "The entire College community may be convened for special sessions upon the request of the President, Faculty Meeting, Educational Policy Committee, Community Council, or upon submission of a petition seeking such a meeting signed by at least fifty members of the College community. A petition must state specific issues to be considered by the All-Community Meeting as well as the proposed date and time for the meeting. The agenda of any such meeting, shall be defined by the body or petition calling it."

If an All Community Meeting is called, please attend it. It is meant as a vehicle for the entire Hampshire community to convene and discuss specific issues.

Student Groups
Student groups are, obviously, groups led by students. These can be anything from fun things to do (like share stories, go on adventures, have fun in general, or whatever!) to working for a common goal/social justice/and so on and so forth. These are good, interactive ways to contribute to the community and have fun! Be sure to join a couple; take advantage of the beginning of the new year, when many student groups hold special iintroductory meetings.

List of Student Groups
Hampedia has a full list of all Student Groups. Many student groups have Hampedia pages which provide detailed information about them, simply click on their name in this Student Groups list.

Starting a new student group
Don’t see any group you want to be involved in? Have an idea of a new group that you want to start? Well, awesome! Go for it! It is as simple as finding two other interested people to become your fellow signers, and submitting an application to FiCom!

Here’s a true-life description of how one student began a student group:

“This past semester I was able to form a student group with some friends, called Seedling Productions. This group is mainly for people with an interest in creative drama, theatre for young audiences, theatre of the oppressed, and/or any other child drama related projects. Seedlings formed out of a need for support for children's theatre students- our main professor is going on sabbatical, and we didn't want current students to feel stranded. This semester, we focused on what we want to get from the group since we weren't official yet. We also applied for group recognition and FiCom funding. Next semester, we're going to be a real group, and the two other signers and I will have (hopefully) around $250 at our disposal. $250 is the maximum amount of FiCom money a new group can get during their first semester. (ED: You can now have $500 your first semester.) We have some major plans, though, and we hope that our group gets big enough to sustain itself and be a major asset to students even when our children's theatre professor is back. We've been trying to work with other existing groups to get our name and mission out there before the group becomes official. Next semester you can be sure that you'll be seeing plenty of Seedlings flyers around campus!

See, it's really not hard to make a student group. As long as you have at least two other interested people, you can get funding. (Of course, FiCom and the Student Development and Community Leadership Office aren't stupid, the group needs to be legit). The most important thing to do is just be on the lookout for deadlines- they can sneak up on you and sometimes certain forms are hard to track down. ” -Lydia Mills of Seedlings Productions, group founded in 2007

Other Hampshire Governance Committees
Check out Hampedia's Governance page to get a full breakdown of Hampshire's governance structure, and to learn all about all the different ways you can take part in our governance process.