Hampshire College

Hampshire is/was officially “clothing optional.” To this
day, residences informally designate themselves “clothing
optional,” and streakers sometimes shock campus visitors,
but there is no campus–wide policy.

A UMass alumnus created Scooby Doo and based each of
the main characters on one of the Five Colleges, Hampshire
College being represented by Shaggy.

The circular Greenwich buildings (the “donuts”) were part of
a military practice exercise.

Merrill and Dakin blueprints were based on those for an
insane asylum and prison respectively. Some speculate that
the horseshoe design of Merrill (bathrooms split the rooms)
refect the designer's wish to have “patients” be unable to
look across the hall at each other. Others attribute Dakin's
unusual architecture (the halls are all linked by common
bathrooms) to a possible prison layout.

If you ring the Div Free Bell (by the entrance of the library)
before you complete your Div III, you will be doomed to fail.
Most chalk this one up to myth, but so far no one has done
a documented study.

Acclaimed documentary filmmaker Ken Burns graduated
from Hampshire College: Yes, Burns is an alumnus, but
Hampshire's official policy is to recognize any person who
attended the College for two semesters to be alumni.
Burns' name is nowhere to be found in the Hampshire Div III
archives.