YEARBOOK Report on 2011–2012 AMHERST | HAMPSHIRE | MOUNT HOLYOKE | SMITH | UMASS AMHERST www.fivecolleges.edu | 1 FIVE COLLEGE CONSORTIUM TIMELINE 1910 1914 Committee on University Extension of the Connecticut Valley Colleges is established 1922 1920 to offer extension courses in Committee on University the Pioneer Valley. Extension sponsors the country’s first courses taught over radio. 1958 1951 The New College Plan: 1950 Four College Library coopera- A Proposal for a Major tion begins with the creation 1957 Departure in Higher Education 1959 of the Hampshire Inter-Library 1956 First coordinator of Four College recommends the establishment First joint department, Loan Center (HILC), a shared, First joint appointment, in affairs, Sidney R. Packard, of a fifth, experimental college astronomy, is established. circulating serials collection. statistics is created. begins term. in the Pioneer Valley. There are now two departments. 1966 1965 1960 Four Colleges, Incorporated Four Colleges, Incorporated is becomes Five Colleges, created. The campuses assist 1960 Incorporated after Hampshire with planning and fund-raising WFCR (Four College Radio) College joins. for a new college. 1979 begins broadcasting. Consortium provides subsidies to Pioneer Valley Transit Authority (PVTA) for free transportation for students and campus employees on 1973 1978–79 Five College bus routes. 1970 Student cross registration Five College Dance 1970 without additional fee or Department is established; Neill Endowment of $1million Hampshire College admits inter-campus reimbursement operated previously as Five is established by private donor its first students. is approved. College Council on Dance. to support visiting scholars. 1989 1985 1980 Center for the Study of World First joint certificate (minor), Languages, focusing on less international relations, 1980 commonly studied languages, is established. There are now Five College office moves to is founded. 15 certificate programs. 97 Spring Street, Amherst, a house owned by Amherst College near its campus. 1999 1990 Five College Library Depository 1990 1993 is created in Amherst College – National Endowment for the Five College Women’s Studies owned bunker in the Mount Humanities and matching Research Center is launched. Holyoke Range. funds create $1 million endowment for joint faculty appointments and faculty development. 2007 53-mile, high-speed fiber optic 2000 network linking the campuses 2005 to one another and to high- First joint major, film speed Internet providers in studies, is established. Springfield is completed. There are now two majors. 2011 2010 The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation provides a $1.5 million endowment to fund academic support positions. 2 | Five College Yearbook 2011–2012 THEME OF THE YEAR: SUSTAINABILITY COMMUNITY AcADEMIC CONNECTIONS COLLABORATIONS STUDENT ADMINISTRATIVE LIFE COLLABORATIONS CONTENTS Reflections on the Year. 3 What Is Five Colleges?. 4 Theme of the Year: Sustainability . .5 Academic Collaborations . .7 Administrative Collaborations. .18 Student Life. 23 Community Connections . 24 Governance/Administration. Inside back cover Financial information can be viewed in the online version of the Yearbook at www.fivecolleges.edu/consortium/publications. www.fivecolleges.edu | 1 2 | Five College Yearbook 2011–2012 REFLECTIONS ON THE YEAR By contrast, there are also times when we simply need to set up an experiment and see what it has to show us, as was the case with improving the bus systems for student use. A common reason given by students for not taking courses at other campuses has been the travel time required to attend such courses. We decided to reduce travel times in 2011–2012 by tweaking bus schedules and adding buses to see if such moves could improve bus rider- ship and cross registration. The experiments paid off, with ridership increasing 5 percent and cross-registration numbers increasing nearly 4 percent over the previous year. But experiments are also successful when they show us what won’t work. Hundreds of Five College students each year work on academically related projects in Holyoke, but the lack of convenient public transportation has been an obstacle and other transportation options have been expensive. Last fall we supported PVTA in launching new bus runs linking UMass, Amherst, Hampshire and Mount Holyoke with downtown Holyoke, and UMass and Smith with downtown Holyoke with others. Unfortunately, neither attracted the ridership necessary to maintain the routes, but because of the experiment we were able to design alternatives for 2013–2014. As described later in this yearbook, intiatives that link the liberal arts with professional education and that bring digital tools and digital resources to the L EFT ive Colleges’ 2011–12 year ended with a significant event for humanities have generated tremendous interest from students and faculty photo higher-education consortia around the country. In June we host- members. What we learn from these Andrew W. Mellon Foundation–funded : K : ed the Association for Consortium Leadership’s second Summer programs will inform our broader, long-term efforts. EVIN Institute in Consortium Leadership, at which 40 attendees and Although not an experiment, a new experience for the consortium in K ennedy leaders from 21 consortia met for three and a half days in work- 2011–2012 was hosting an American Council on Education (ACE) fellow. shops exploring strategic planning, communications, leadership and financial Over the course of the year Rosemary Feal, the executive director of the Mod- ; A ; F bove strategies. Perhaps the most important aspect of the Leadership Institute is its ern Language Association of America, worked with our campus presidents, : : existence: it means higher education recognizes the value of consortia enough deans, business officers and me, learning our methods of collaboration and NANCY that an association of them — with 68 institutional members — exists, and offering valuable insights from her own perspective. P ALMIERI that it has created an institute to foster future leaders. And finally, a note about this publication. As we investigate the best way The year was an important one for Five Colleges as well. On the academic to communicate the work of our member campuses, sometimes the traditional front, we ushered in our 14th and 15th certificate programs — in sustain- trumps the state-of-the-art. After four years of publishing our annual report ability studies and in queer and sexuality studies — and our second major, in online, we’ve decided to return it to print (as well as PDF) and rechristen it as a architectural studies. Launching the programs and major was the culmination yearbook, giving it a broader perspective than it had as an annual report, with of years of work by faculty members and administrators to determine student more information about our many programs, an article reviewing many of the needs and develop the best means for addressing them. year’s efforts and a piece describing the Five College consortium. I hope this updated format and the information it presents offer you a better understand- ing of the role the consortium plays in helping our campuses carry out their missions. For even greater depth and breadth of information, visit our website, www.fivecolleges.edu. We look forward to continuing carrying out the mission of our almost- 50-year-old consortium: “to sustain and enrich the excellence of our institu- tions — Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke and Smith colleges and the University of Massachusetts Amherst — through academic and administra- tive collaboration. The consortium facilitates intellectual communities and broad curricular and cocurricular offerings, affording learning, research, performance and social opportunities that complement the distinctive quali- ties of each institution.” Neal Abraham Executive Director and Five College Professor of Physics www.fivecolleges.edu | 3 WHAT IS FIVE COLLEGES? FIVE COLLEGES, INCORPORATED REPRESENTS MANY THINGS TO MANY PEOPLE. THE COST — AND VALUE — To some, it means being able to take a free bus to a class on another campus. For others, it represents getting the fund- OF COLLABORATION ing they need to pursue research with colleagues at other schools. For yet others, it means having access to some 9 million library volumes they can search and order online. Each campus contributes about Students, faculty members and administrators have many potential points of contact with the consortium; any $1 million to consortium operations dozen people represent a dozen perspectives on what the consortium is and does. One way to begin to understand its and shared costs, and together workings is to think of its efforts as falling into two categories: helping campuses share resources that may be unique to they provide $1.4 million to support one institution and helping campuses pool resources to accomplish something that none could do alone. the home-campus portions of the The thinking behind sharing resources is straightforward: whenever possible, make available to people from the nearly 40 joint faculty appointments other four campuses that which you provide to people on your own campus. Thus, students at any one institution may shared by various institutions. The enroll in courses on other campuses, borrow books from other libraries and eat in other dining commons. Although the consortium has an endowment resources being shared belong to the home institutions, the consortium ensures that such sharing happens smoothly by of