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With 'philanthropic loan' Hampshire College no longer in bank debt, will 'deliberately' think about sale

Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts.
creative commons
Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts.

NEPM reported this story August 27, 2026

The president of Hampshire College, Jennifer Chrisler, has confirmed that the school, which is scheduled to close at the end of the year, received a philanthropic loan that paid off its entire bank debt and other expenses, totaling $25.9 million, as the Boston Business Journal first reported.

Earlier this summer, Hampshire College said it had reached an agreement with a generous partner who would loan the school an unspecified amount of money to teach through the fall term. The school would still permanently close after that, as announced earlier this year.

In an email this week, Chrisler said the funds came from Artocarpus Partners, an LLC lead by Jesse Jones, an alum of one of the Five Colleges consortium.

The LLC was created at the end of July, according to the Boston Business Journal.

Hampshire is still preparing to sell its buildings and 800 acre campus. Chrisler said the loan will allow the school to approach the sale of the campus "more deliberately, rather than making decisions simply to meet an immediate financial deadline."

Jill Kaufman has been a reporter and host at NEPM since 2005. Before that she spent 10 years at WBUR in Boston, producing The Connection with Christopher Lydon, and reporting and hosting. Jill was also a host of NHPR's daily talk show The Exchange and an editor at PRX's The World.
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