Off Campus Newsletter - Page 3

with her husband, congressman Bernie Sanders), Francis Moore Lappe and Paul DuBois (nationally known advocates for participatory democracy) to sit down with Goddard workers outside of the board meetings to hear out and resolve these issues.

On-campus students continue to meet in order to plan actions that will have a positive impact on the health and governance of the college.

PETER BURNS' LETTER OF RESIGNATION

Date: 4/10/96
To: Richard Greene

It is with deep regret that I submit my resignation.

I came to Goddard in July of 1992 and quickly found a home within this special community.
My belief in Goddard's mission is unfailing, my appreciation for the students who take charge of their learning is strong, and as I leave, my life will honestly miss the richness of d iversity, creativity, and friendship that I have experienced daily at Goddard. So why do I leave? I am leaving because of the working conditions created by your management style.
It was no small decision to come to Goddard. I left a position, moved my three children away from friends into new schools, Sharon gave up a good job, and we embarked on a journey because I was looking to make a long commitment to something that I could believe in. My colleagues thought I was nuts, "why should you go to a small liberal arts college with no endowment?", they asked. I believed then, that Goddard was a place where honesty, integrity, collaboration, and free thought would be cherished. I believed that the college had tremendous potential with a mission that challenged the status quo of traditional education, pioneered an eclectic spirit, provided a forum for true learning, and valued democratic principles. I have grown tremendously through me association with students, faculty, and staff. My belief in Goddard's mission is unfailing, my appreciation for the students who take charge of their learning is strong, and as I leave, my life will honestly miss the richness of diversity, creativity, and friendship that I have experienced daily at Goddard.

So why do I leave? I am leaving because of the working conditions created by your management style. You constantly use intimidation and fear as a means to stomp out any thought that runs counter to your own. You have publicly chastised colleagues, misrepresented facts, and have a propensity to bend the truth. At present, you are taking the college down, what I consider, an extremely dangerous path by choosing to spend more funds than the current budget can balance. Your use of "we" when you mean "I" is simply unacceptable to me. I have bitten my tongue too many times when you have presented one of your decisions to the public as that of the "administration" which I am part. I must respect my own inner integrity and I must go. I expect to fulfill my contract obligations and leave the college on June 30, 1996. For the benefit of both of us I suggest that I do not participate in CEC or management group from this day forward.

I would like to make it clear that I am not leaving due to the recent visitation of Miller & Cook [a consultant group for increasing enrollment at universities]. However, the manner by which these folks have been introduced to the College, the lack of advanced consultation and collaboration provides simply another example of your management style.

I would have appreciated it if you had first asked the admissions and financial aid offices what we would have needed as far as resources to get 50-75 more campus students. You never asked, nor ever mentioned that it was a goal of yours to get 50-75 more campus students this Fall until after Miller & Cook arrived. Considering our track record in admissions it would have been nice if you respected the experience and talent within those offices and offered us first the extra $100,000 plus unlimited financial aid that you will hand over to Miller & Cook. Before Miller & Cook arrived we had agreed on targets for the Fall, those targets had been approved by the Board of Trustees, and the budget was being built based upon those figures. To now inject that the Miller & Cook methods, next year's budget must be hit with an additional $100,000 in marketing expenditures and probably $300,000 in additional financial aid expenditures. That will add to the cuts in personnel that seem inevitable based upon a flat growth revenue forecast.

Two months ago at the Board meeting I did not hear any gloom and doom cries of an emergency. I did not hear anyone saying that Goddard absolutely need 50-75 more campus students for this Fall. I fail to understand

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