In the spring of 2004, a student group calling itself the Re-Radicalization of Hampshire College emerged with a manifesto
called
The Re-Making of a College, critiquing what they see as a betrayal of Hampshire's founding ideas in alternative
education and student-centered learning. On May 3, the group staged a demonstration which
packed the hall outside the President's office during an administrative meeting. Response from the community has been amicable,
but none of the manifesto's major demands has yet been fulfilled.The Re-Radicalization movement is responding in part to a new "First-Year Plan" entailing changes to the structure of the
first year of study in the curriculum. Beginning in the Fall of 2002, the requirements for
passing Division I were changed so that first-year students would no longer be required to complete independent projects (see
Curriculum above). Though presently a major source of contention, this change is rapidly fading from memory as most of the
students who entered into the old plan have graduated or are in their final year.