Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, has announced a $5 million commitment in honor of alumnus Ken Burns (’71) from a donor who wishes to remain anonymous.

The unrestricted operating gift will help fund the Ken Burns Initiative to Transform Higher Education and advance the ongoing implementation of a new curricular model that organizes undergraduate education around the most urgent challenges of our time, instead of the traditional structures of majors and disciplines. A $60 million capital campaign launched in January 2020 in support of the new model has raised more than $33 million to date.

“I’m humbled that such a generous philanthropist chose to make this extraordinary gift to my alma mater in my honor,” said documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, who co-chairs the campaign. “I know Hampshire is transformative because I experienced it firsthand. I saw how the originality of practices implemented at the college reverberated through higher education. Fifty years later, our nation needs fresh thinking in higher education, and Hampshire is poised to deliver on that opportunity.”

(Photo credit: Hampshire College)