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The Five Colleges comprises four liberal arts colleges and one university in the Connecticut River Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts, belonging to a consortium called Five Colleges, Incorporated, which was established in 1965. They are geographically close to one another and are linked by buses which run between the campuses.^[1]

The five colleges operate both as independent entities as well as mutually dependent institutions. The Five College Radio Astronomy Observatory was founded in 1969 by the Five College Astronomy Department. Together, the Five Colleges operate WFCR, "Five College Radio", an NPR affiliate operating at 88.5 MHz in the FM band. They also participate in an interlibrary loan program, allowing students, staff, and faculty to take advantage of all five campuses' collections.

In addition, students at each of these schools often take classes at the other colleges ("cross-registration" is permitted and often encouraged). Student groups and organizations often draw participants from all five campuses and several academic programs (for example, astronomy, dance, some foreign languages, and women's studies^[2]) are run by the Five Colleges.

A popular urban legend among Five College students holds that the characters on the Saturday morning cartoon Scooby-Doo represent the five colleges. The legend has Daphne representing Mount Holyoke and Velma as Smith College, with Fred representing Amherst College, Shaggy as Hampshire College, and Scooby as UMass Amherst. Hanna-Barbera Productions, CBS executive Fred Silverman, and some of the show's writers have said that this story is false,^[3] and that the show was actually based on the radio program I Love a Mystery and the TV sitcom The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. A similar, more succinct version of the urban legend, pertains to the five Claremont Colleges in Southern California.

• Five Colleges, Inc.