Community Government
AT GODDARD COLLEGE

March, 1940 -- The Goddard Bulletin -- Plainfield, Vermont

Following the New England tradition of town meeting in which all the citizens participate in the management of their local affairs, Goddard College has adopted a plan of government by a weekly community meeting. In this gathering each member of the college community has an equal voice and vote in all matters affecting life on the campus.

When the college opened in September, 1938, the arriving students were faced with no other rules than certain administrative regulations regarding the payment of bills and the observation of fire precautions, and certain faculty policies concerning in a general way the nature of the learning procedures. They were not given a manual of rules governing their academic or social conduct.

However, the community meeting has legislated into being a small body of community standards and regulations, as it has felt the need for them. Early in the first year the meeting adopted a constitution, outlining the democratic structure of the community and providing for the executive and judicial branches of its government. It also set up general standards touching such things as attendance at community meeting, quiet periods in the residences, entertaining, attendance at classes, and participation in the program of manual work whereby students and resident faculty assist in running the kitchen, dining room, and library, and maintaining the buildings and grounds. In addition, through the year, it met and dealt with a host of emergencies and situations requiring instant decisions.

New students arriving in the fall of 1939 entered a community which had erected a structure of government and adopted standards of conduct, any or all of which can at any time be amended or repealed by vote of the community meeting.

The jurisdiction of the community meeting extends to virtually all college concerns. Payment of tuition remains, of course, a private matter between individual students and the administration.

Payment of the faculty and staff is similarly a private arrangement. However, such initially administrative rulings as those regarding assignment of dormitory rooms and use of common rooms are subject to review and alternative recommendation by the meeting.

Elected annually by the meeting is a community council whose function is to administer community rulings and enforce rules and standards. This is the executive body of the government. The president of the College is an ex officio member of it; the other members may be recalled at any time if the majority of the community disapproves of their action.

From its own membership the community council elects a small judicial committee to which it refers offenses against the community.

Also annually elected by the meeting from self-nominated candidates are the following committees: a recreation committee to plan and carry out functions of a social and athletic naturedances, teas, hikes, ski carnivals, and so on; a work program committee to plan and supervise the manual work; and an educational policies committee. The duties of the latter are to consider and discuss the College's educational policies, chiefly from the viewpoint of the students; to confer with the president of the College concerning the educational effectiveness of members of the faculty; and to plan and administer a program of lectures, forums, concerts and discussions during the course of the college year.

There are no regulations governing the composition of the community council or any of the committees-they may consist of students, members of the faculty or staff members, in any ratio.

Worked out in accordance with Goddard's educational beliefs about the student's responsibility for choosing, conducting and evaluating his own study program, academic life at Goddard is similarly democratic. Students inform the faculty as to what

fields of study they desire to work in. Where interests are the same, students and instructor form a group and decide together in what direction they will proceed. Where an interest is wholly individual, the student and instructor lay out a program together.

Having shared in planning his own academic program and in determining the rules and standards which govern his living, the student feels direct responsibility both to make progress in his fields of study, and to uphold and improve the government under which he lives. Goddard believes that the way to build civic responsibility and thoughtfulness, and to insure the acceptance of democratic duties, is to give students the opportunity to live and participate in a democracy.

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The Goddard Bulletin is issued four times a year, January, March, May and August, by Goddard College, Plainfield, Vermont. Entered as second class matter April 19, 1939, at the Post Office at Plainfield, Vermont, under the act of August 24, 1912.