FIVE COLLEGE COOPERATION
Amherst is joined with Hampshire, Mount Holyoke and Smith colleges, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst, in a consortium that sponsors a variety of cooperative programs and enterprises. The goal of cooperation among the five colleges is to encourage the broad educational and cultural objectives of its member institutions by promoting and administering long-term forms of cooperation that benefit faculty and staff members and students.
Students are entitled to participate in a course interchange program which allows them to construct up to one half of their program from liberal arts courses at the four other institutions without additional cost. Students may pursue a variety of 14 Five College Certificates, two Five College Majors, benefit from two Five College Departments and fully utilize the libraries of each institution. The present and continuing emphasis of the Five College libraries is on the sharing and enhancement of total resources and services. Campus museums and affiliated independents work together in the Museums10 collaboration.
A monthly calendar of lectures, concerts and other cultural events on all five campuses is available online to the Five College community. Access to classes, libraries, and extracurricular activities is made feasible by a free transportation system connecting all five campuses.
An FM radio station (WFCR 88.5) is supported by all five colleges. It is managed by the University with the advice of a board made up of representatives of the cooperating institutions. The five colleges also cooperate in sponsoring The Massachusetts Review, a quarterly of literature, the arts, and public affairs.
Academic cooperation includes two joint departments, Astronomy and Dance, as well as two Five College majors in Architectural Studies and Film Studies. Certificates are obtainable in African Studies; Asian/Pacific/American Studies; Buddhist Studies; Coastal and Marine Sciences, Culture, Health, and Science; Ethnomusicology; International Relations; Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies; Logic; Middle Eastern Studies; Native American and Indigenous Studies; Queer and Sexuality Studies; Reproductive Health, Rights and Justice; Russian; East European, and Eurasian Studies (REEES); and Sustainability.
There are three Five College Centers: Center for East Asian Studies (CEAS), Five College Center for the Study of World Languages and the Five College Women’s Studies Research Center; as well as collaborative efforts among Five College Department Chairs in the areas of Anthropology, Geology, Physics, Music, and Theater. Other Five College coordinated programs include the following: Community-based Learning, Peace and World Security Studies, Statistics Program, Five College Opera, Early Music Program, Arabic Language Initiative, East Asian Language Program (EALP), History Graduate Program, and the Center for Crossroads in the Study of the Americas (CISA).
Joint faculty appointments make possible the presence of talented professors in highly specialized areas. Five College senior appointments bring to the area distinguished international figures. Additional information on Five College programs, opportunities and resources is available at www.fivecolleges.edu.