• from active strategic planning and continuous quality improvement to a current absence of any elements of long range planning. In spite of initial attention to visioning and strategic planning, there has been no systematic work on long range planning for the College in the last year.
• The president's "management style" has become infamous. His reliance on secrecy, intimidation, manipulation, distortions, misrepresentations, and disrespectful and hurtful treatment of colleagues is well known throughout the College, and is especially well described in the resignation letters of three highly regarded individuals at the College: the past Academic Dean, Dean of Admissions, and Assistant Director of Business.
• The president's actions are, quite frankly, becoming an embarrassment to the College, its workforce, its students and alumni/ae, and its supporters throughout the country. In straight cost-benefit analysis, he should leave. He is just not worth the cost, which runs three times the salary of the highest paid senior faculty and close to ten times that of some staff.
• We strongly believe that faculty, staff and students know how to plan and operate a progressive College like Goddard far better than the current president, and we have articulated many of our ideas in the forthcoming faculty vision statement, Governance Task Force Report, and the report of the Business and Democracy group study.
• We are prepared to work with the Board and the Goddard community to help provide the leadership and support needed to strengthen the management of the College and operate in a fashion truly consistent with its underlying values and philosophy.
• 47 faculty voted, of which 42 voted no confidence (23 core faculty and campus associates and 19 off-campus associates); 4 abstained (3 core and campus associate faculty and 1 off-campus associate), and 1 voted confidence (off-campus associate).

[Larry Kressley is an alum (1973) who resigned from the board last year because he "could no longer support the direction that the president and a majority of the Board was taking the College." He wrote the following letter, which was read at the Goddard Rally (4/25), and is presented here in its entirety.]

John Dewey believed that democracy is an ideal without absolute definition -- one that we are free "to criticize and re-make its political manifestations." He taught us that democracy is a work in progress -- that its process -- that its process is never completed -- and that its best practitioners are those who take risks to sustain and nurture it. Today, you are among democracy's great practitioners as you struggle to keep it alive at Goddard College.

When I resigned from the Goddard Board of Trustees last October -- which was one of the hardest decisions I have ever made -- I said that I could no longer support the direction that the president and a majority of the Board was taking the College. I said then that "I do not have the heart to be an outsider at a place that has shaped my principles and my life more than any other." By joining in support of your struggle I feel like I am an insider at Goddard again.

It is unfortunate that the issues that call you here today are not about advancing the practice of democracy at Goddard, but rather are about saving it from total destruction. It is about ending the fear and intimidation that has reigned in the community over the last year. It is about respecting the rights and dignity of all who work here. It is about adhering to a Governance Document, which was adopted quickly and abandoned by the Trustees because it did not suit the management style of the current president.

And so while I wish I could be here today to stand in solidarity with you and your struggle, please know that I am here in spirit. I believe that your efforts will restore democracy and community at Goddard and will allow all of us who love this college to concentrate again on its real mission of advancing democratic practice here and around the world.