10/8/1972, Burlington Free Press

GODDARD PLAGUED BY ADMINISTRATIVE CONFUSION

By Frederick Stetson

There's a saying in Plainfield that the function of Goddard College is "to institutionalize contradiction."

Benjamin Collins, Goddard's director of administration, has his own version: "This place is an administrative nightmare," he said the other day.

Collins is a reasonably experienced administrator. He was secretary of civil and military affairs during the administration of Governor Philip Hoff.

His boss at Goddard, President Gerald S. Witherspoon, was Hoff's tax commissioner.

Since 1969, Collins and Witherspoon have been the key administrative figures at Goddard. However, easy as it is for an outsider to malign their efforts, the fact remains that no one becomes a member of the Goddard community - during intermittent visits.

The outsider really can't gauge the pulse of the college, he doesn't interact with the college and he can always leave, while those there, at least temporarily, can't.

In that regard, there was a staggering statistic reported in "Change" magazine last winter. Referring to Goddard, the educational magazine said: "Only two out of 10 graduate, and people transfer in from other colleges as if they were on bus schedules."

So, it might also be said, there aren't many students around to give the college a shot of collective criticism from within.

The college assumes to operate on a community-based concept, whereby students, faculty and staff participate in mass group meetings and decide all manner of questions relating to the college's policies.

This might work if attendance at these meetings was in any way representative of the college - but seldom do more than a dozen of the college's faculty attend, and the meetings usually draw less than one-third of Goddard's roughly 1,500 students.

Seldom are minutes taken during these meetings; motions, proposals and resolutions are often not stated in writing. So record of actions taken involves a heavy reliance upon the memories of Goddard's administrators.

How Goddard continues to function under these circumstances is a source of amazement to some people: Robert Belenky, a respected member of the college's adult degree program faculty, says he's tried to write it down, but can't.

In the case of the Third World Studies Program, the college has permitted the "administrative nightmare" to undermine its very progressive program for blacks and other minorities.

Ahead of all other liberal arts colleges in Vermont, Goddard created a Third World Studies Program with faculty, curriculum and facilities particularly suited to the needs of blacks and other minorities.

Initially, the program was "coordinated." But, with the arrival of Calvin Hicks in 1970, the program became "directed," by Hicks, at his request.

Small Vermont college communities have not been noticeably receptive to black students, or their faculty.

And with the emergence of an especially strong sense of black identity, many white and black administrators have come to regard black-white separatism, with all of its seemingly regressive features, as an acceptable intermediary condition.

Sketchy information about Mound Bayou suggests it would be ideally suited for the type of program Hicks is proposing.

The community is said to be one of the country's few all-black municipalities, and there is a combination of public and private working opportunities that might make for an ideal working-learning black experience.

What is disturbing, however, is the manner in which this proposed transfer has been initiated.

For example, without ever providing a written proposal on the move to the central Goddard administration or trustees, Hicks wrote to Goddard black students, telling them he has "secured" faculty for the Mississippi program, and that the program "will be in Mound Bayou."

These statements were made in August, a few weeks after the trustees specifically took the position that "any firm commitment" to the Mississippi move be postponed until meetings of the board Friday and today.

"His rhetoric was ahead of his facts", Collins later said, commenting upon Hicks' statements to the Third World students.

At Goddard, there have been other instances of rhetoric getting ahead of facts. When Thomas Yahkub, a Goddard Third World faculty member, was not rehired, he protested the decision, attempting to lay part of the blame upon a unilateral, unaccountable action by Hicks.

But several black students rose before the community meeting, defending Hicks, and then said they had the final decision on the hiring and firing of Third World faculty members.

"It has been stated clearly that the students have the ultimate power in that program," said Steve Adeyenka, an articulate and obviously sincere black student.

Witherspoon, Collins and Hicks never questioned the student's obvious overstatement. Only Witherspoon, as the college's chief executive officer, has the final authority to hire and fire any faculty.

But when asked to comment upon the student's assertion later, Witherspoon made the incredible initial statement that "nobody seemed to challenge" the view when it was expressed.

He added whether or not students' recommendations are followed "is another matter."

Witherspoon has also given belated attention to directives from the Civil Rights office of the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare.

On March 7, 1972, the office approved the college's compliance with the Civil Right's Act of 1964.

But in a Sept. 7, 1972, letter, the office told Witherspoon the approval was made "without a complete understanding of your definition of the term 'qualified'."

The letter said Witherspoon's use of the term "qualified" to exclude some students from certain black studies courses was "impermissible."

Witherspoon was required by John G. Bynoe, regional civil rights director, to issue statements saying that all Goddard courses "are available without regard to race, color or national origin."

What this incident point up - as does the abortive move to Mississippi and the uncorrected student assertion - is that there is sometimes no administrative control of Goddard policies.

Left behind are a string of casualties - namely an undetermined number of confused and disilllusioned students.