Our Hampshire College graduation journey started with my sister Leslie flying overnight (Th/Fri from San Diego to Albany. Then, on the morning of Saturday, May 16, my wife drove the three of us to the Amherst-area college.
The first task was to get the tickets in order to sit under the tented area. They were in the daughter’s mailbox. Unfortunately, it involved operating a combination lock that I, Leslie, and a random woman I asked were unable to open. Fortunately, the college postmaster COULD and did. And we did need them because demand soared after news of the college’s closure.
In fact, Hampshire memorabilia became a hot commodity. The campus store was selling out of almost everything related to the college. (That included items such as this road sign, not for sale, that someone – not my daughter- purloined.)
I ran into a guy named Nate Wardlaw. He was the tenor soloist in my church choir a few years back. Moreover, he was my daughter’s music teacher for sixth grade. He and I asked essentially the same question: “What are YOU doing here?” His sister was graduating from the college; she and my daughter were not acquainted.
The daughter wanted to wear the kente cloth I own. During the procession from wherever, I handed it off to her.
The apparel for the processional was… eclectic doesn’t begin to describe it. Graduates wore robes of various colors or no robes at all. One outfit looked like a potato sack.
Crossing the stage
You can see the whole ceremony here, though you could skip the first 20 minutes. The awarding of diplomas starts at about 2:08.00.
OPENING OF THE CEREMONY: Mike Purcell, Campus Safety and Wellbeing Assistant, wearing an iconic plush frog hat
WELCOME: Jose Fuentes 05F, Chair of the Board of Trustees
LAND ACKNOWLEDGMENT: Javiera Benavente, Assistant Dean of Collaborative and Community Engaged Learning
CELEBRATORY ADDRESS: Jennifer Chrisler, President. A recurring theme of the talks was balancing the joy people felt at the students’ accomplishments with the reality that this would be the last spring college commencement at Hampshire. She saw the class as “people who care deeply about the world” and who are “willing to engage with it honestly, even when it is difficult.”
STUDENT MODERATOR: Tenzin Jobe 22F
STAFF TOAST: Mike Purcell, Campus Safety and Wellbeing Assistant. This, like most speeches, was quite entertaining. He led everyone in a chorus of Jim Croce’s “I Got a Name.”
FACULTY TOAST: Noah Romero, Assistant Professor of Native American
and Indigenous Studies
STUDENT ADDRESS: Samara Ternoir 22F. My daughter was pleased and surprised to be name-checked (at 1:24.00) for her Div III project by Samara, whom she did not know well.
KEYNOTE SPEAKER: J Finley 00F, Associate Professor of Africana Studies,
Pomona College, Claremont, California. A very good address. She noted that Hampshire was “in [her] bones,” remarking that she figured to deliver a standard commencement speech and then wound up being “the voiceover in a Ken Burns documentary.” Burns is one of the college’s most famous alumni.
ALUMNI TOAST: Harrison Blum 01F
CONFERRAL OF DEGREES: Jennifer Chrisler, President and Gary Hawkins, Vice President of Academic Affairs & Dean of Faculty
CLOSING OF THE CEREMONY
Afterwards
The daughter had a bunch of people to see after she graduated, including folks her mother and I met in April. Finally, we went out to eat at a Central American restaurant we have been to a few times.
Then to get her stuff, starting with her art supplies from the art building; we had to contact campus security because the structure was locked. Then to her dwelling to load two cars, my daughter’s and my wife’s, to the gills.
Carol drove Leslie back to Albany via the Massachusetts Turnpike (I-90). Meanwhile, my daughter took the backroads, including US Route 20, in part because she had her bicycle on a trailer hitch.
At some point in rural Massachusetts, we saw an accident far ahead of us. A woman who was directing traffic sent us on a detour that took us a couple of miles on a gravel road, then onto a narrow dirt road where a pickup truck went off the road to let us get by, then back onto a rough but paved surface.
By the time we got home, Carol had taken Leslie to her hotel. We didn’t unload until the following afternoon,m with the exception of the bicycle.
Assume a lot of maudlin parental pride shared here. I’m not sure how much nostalgia she would feel if her college wasn’t closing in December 2026. As it is, she seems to be experiencing a bit of what I of…IDK. It’s not premature nostalgia because, even as she achieves her goal, there won’t be a Hampshire College to come back to in 20, 10, 5, or even 1 year.