Ken Burns Is Pushing to Save Hampshire College

Ken Burns doesn’t hesitate when asked to name his favorite course at Hampshire College (MA): film and photography. He admired instructors Jerome Liebling and Elaine Mayes so much that he took it again. And again. The noted documentary filmmaker, who enrolled at the unconventional liberal arts college in its second year of operation, said Hampshire was pivotal to his life.  Hampshire is a different kind of school. It gives no letter grades, accepts no admission test scores, offers no predefined majors. Students chart their own paths and are required to conceive and complete ambitious projects before they graduate.