The Unmaking of a College references the title of The Making of a College, a 1966 book by Franklin Patterson that proved not only influential in higher education in the 1960s but laid the groundwork for an experimental DIY curriculum in the newly created Hampshire College, which opened in Massachusetts in 1970, and can count documentarian Ken Burns (who appears onscreen here) among VIP alumni.
But by 2018 the ultra-progressive liberal-arts school—in its early years, actually more costly to attend than Harvard—fell on hard times. Students were blindsided by an announcement that Hampshire was teetering on the edge of closure and might not accept 2019 incoming freshmen. What happened next is chronicled by filmmaker Amy Goldstein—a Hampshire graduate herself, and naturally sympathetic to the unhappy students, who in Hampshire/American campus fashion, staged a grassroots student strike and "Hamp Rise Up" sit-in protest (lasting 75 days, a record in the annals of US college protests) that led to the resignation and replacement of its new president, Dr. Miriam Nelson.
Nelson, the putative villain, is accused by the multi-racial, multi-gender students of a lack of transparency and accountability during the crisis. She responds with an angry retort about their "privilege" and ingratitude. Unsurprisingly, Nelson declined to be interviewed here. Belatedly offering her defense is another Hampshire graduate, John Buckley (of the same conservative-politics dynasty of William F. Buckley), who, involved in backroom PR, gives an account of the impossible dilemmas Nelson faced trying to secretly form a supportive partnership with a nasty-sounding University of Massachusetts.
Somewhat lost in the finger-pointing (and ultimate upbeat portrait of student activists triumphant in taking power) is a broader picture of socioeconomic forces that laid Hampshire College low and threaten other small-scale independent colleges and universities. Declining enrollment, rising costs, and plummeting alumni donations comprise a spiral confronting many in academia.
One wishes emphasis here was just as much on lessons applicable to other institutions as on gossipy drama of who dropped the ball and who stepped up in Hampshire's near-death experience/recovery. Still, some of the truths here are very self-evident.
A worthy extra is a commentary track with filmmaker Goldstein (who collaborated with the Hampshire students to make their own video record simultaneously). A recommended title for any educational-oriented collections in public or academic libraries, with perhaps extra grades for New England-oriented collections where Hampshire is a local landmark.