Princely vision: Hampshire College's Greg Prince weighs in on the hauteur of higher ed, the survival of liberal arts education, and keeping an educational experiment alive in the current economic climate - Interview

University Business, Jan, 2004 by Katherine Grayson

Do you think that the use--or the overuse--of consultants in higher ed has homogenized it?

I never thought of that, but it's an interesting theory. But it isn't that I don't use consultants; we've used other consultants in lots of places. Sometimes you absolutely have to have a consultant, because you just don't have the knowledge. We had a consultant for our campaign because it reassured people. But I teased them about it; I said what they do is act as consultants for 50 institutions from which they gather data and then resell the data to the other 40, so they're just circulating the data which is useful. But they gave us some really good benchmarks about what we need as a staff--and yes, they ore homogenizing campaigns.

How are you getting the Hampshire message across externally?

We're trying lots of things. We're doing a documentary on a group of now A students. We're filming them for four years, I hope. We've done two years and are moving into the third. We hired two young filmmakers. Recently, I showed 30 minutes that these two young people cut, and the pain and the concerns. I just looked at it and said, this is true stuff. Whatever else we feel about it, this is us, folks, and if we don't like it, we'd better think about it. But it's real powerful and honest and will prove to be very positive. It's about what are we doing with these students.

Then there are the admission brochures, but we have to be engaged, and we have to be seen. And we have to take stands and show up where we're not expected, and find opportunities to do that. It's substantive public relations. The day I was picked to be president, I got a phone call: Would Hampshire partner with the International Association of Chiefs of Police to run an urban conference? They didn't think anybody was listening to the problems of American cities and because Hampshire was the last institution in the country anybody would think would work with the police, that's where they wanted to do it. I said yes. They said, "You haven't even asked anybody's permission." I said, "I'm sure they'll be horrified that we're doing anything with the police." But first, it's an opportunity to be visible; second, it's the last place you'd expect this. I go where we're not expected to be, and I really don't mind being a rowboat towed behind the Queen Mary because if anybody sees that image, they'll never forget it. I don't have to be the biggest person involved. I just have to be unexpected. And so I was on the board of the International Association of Chiefs of Police Foundation for three years, and I would go to the national meeting, and there would be 2,000 police chiefs from around the country, and one college president. Now that's much better than going to the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities where there are hundreds of presidents, and nobody will notice Hampshire. But believe me, everybody knew that Hampshire was at that meeting for three years, and they appreciated it because no one else from higher education felt they were important enough to show up and get involved. We look for opportunities like that. When the National Service Corps idea came through, I went apoplectic because higher education would not back it. Here was Clinton, committed to education and wanting to create the National Service Corps, and higher education would not take a stand. And so I called up [Senator] Kennedy and I said we would match dollar for dollar anything the National Service Corps gave to a Service Corps member, if they came to Hampshire College. It wasn't rocket science. Kennedy's staff told me about all the problems that I was going to run into, just to make sure that I knew what I was getting into; they warned me of the things that higher ed was doing out there. Then they helped us get it into the Washington Post.