Independent Work

The substance and meaning of independent work is a topic of constant debate at Hampshire. This page should serve as a gathering point to note different interpretations, projects, and programs discussed at Hampshire over the years, in order to learn from the past as we work to improve in our support of independent work in the future.

Historical Documents

 * More Power To Them: a report of faculty and student experience in the encouragement of student initiative, by C.L. Barber. Committee for New College, 1962. The present widespread concern to encourage independent work by undergraduates reflects uneasiness about the effect of our standard system of courses and credits. This report will describe one among several current projects aimed at countering the tendency of our undergraduates to leave too much of the initiative in their education in the hands of their teachers. At Amherst College, Mount Holyoke College, Smith College and the University of Massachusetts, in the academic year 1959-60, twelve faculty members tried out changes in their teaching procedures designed to promote student initiative and independence. The program was an outgrowth of the cooperative effort in planning a new style of college which in the previous year produced the New College Plan. Both projects were sponsored by the four neighboring institutions concerned, and both were supported by grants from the Fund for the Advancement of Education of the Ford Foundation. (p. 5)