The Springfield Amherst Summer Academy (SASA) was started in 1969 as the Amherst Summer Action Programs with girls at Smith College and boys at Amherst College. In 1970 it was called the Springfield Amherst Tutorial Program. The program was consolidated at Amherst College in 1971. In 1973 it was renamed SASA. It was designed for minority students from the Springfield, Mass. area, to provide them with on-campus living experience and daily classes in remedial studies and cultural enhancement.

The program was an "academic-oriented, live-in summer school program for fifty high school students (mostly from Springfield, Massachusetts)." It provided a structure of academic course work, workshops, and physical activities, as well as planned weekend activities. The participants lived "on a college campus for the purpose of satisfying a minimum of two objectives: establishing communication with Brothers and Sisters on the collegiate leadership level and developing a positive attitude towards collegiate/campus life."