AMHERST, MA (WGGB/WSHM) -- Hampshire College will sell its campus and land to pay back $25 million in debt to creditors, according to a letter sent by college President Jennifer Chrisler this week.

The letter outlined the school’s plan after announcing it would be closing at the end of the year. The campus and its land will be sold to pay back lenders that kept the college open until now.

Ada Aylesworth, a Hampshire College sophomore, is one of hundreds of students now looking to transfer. “It’s kind of bittersweet there right now. I mean, the community is kind of coming together, trying to get like a, you know, like a nice closing for it all,” Aylesworth explained.

The campus that students are leaving will be sold off. “Yeah, I mean, it’s certainly a sad situation. I mean, there’s a lot of memories in that building, you know, just not in these buildings, not just for me. I mean, like it’s a big part of like, you know, the culture around here,” Aylesworth added.

Chrisler recognized the connection that students made to certain areas of the campus. “Hampshire’s closing cannot undo the fact that the people who worked, studied, and lived here over the decades transformed a bucolic tract of farmland into an experimenting and transformative education community,” she said in the letter.

Mary Jaffee, an Amherst resident, said she hopes the existing campus buildings will be repurposed for education for a larger school like UMass. If not, she said she would like to see the area used for giving the town more residences. “I’d love to hear that it was going to stay true to the original ideals of Hampshire College…educational and values and all,” Jaffee noted. “And I also think it’s a lot of land and that it ought to be used for some affordable housing that Amherst needs badly and would be really a great spot for it.”

The letter stated that the details of which buildings and land were being eyed for sale, or who would be their partners, would not be public.

While some undergrad students can finish their degree over the summer, most of the 700 Hampshire College students are still looking to transfer.