GODDARD FACULTY VOTES TODAY TO FIRE WITHERSPOON
By Leo O'Connor
PLAINFIELD - Goddard college faculty members will vote at 1:30 today on a motion to sack embattled Gerald S. Witherspoon, the college president, who is under fire
for his administrative policies at the progressive central Vermont college.
Otis McRae, a faculty member, Thursday revealed the faculty will hold a special
meeting today in the college cafeteria to act on the motion.
Witherspoon's removal, he said, was recommended Tuesday by a member of the
President's Council, the college's governing body, during a regular faculty
meeting.
McRae said the recommendation stemmed from the bleak financial picture at the
college, adding many of the college's money problems "have to do with the priorities
of the president."
Asked what weight a faculty vote to dump Witherspoon would carry with the
college's trustees, McRae replied, "I think it would be decisive in light
of the pressures the president has experienced in recent days."
Witherspoon's latest round of troubles began last Saturday when the trustees
delayed action on his $5 million budget for fiscal 1974. Finance Committee
Chairman Howard Vaness observed the president's budget has discrepencies
and was in need of revision and updating,. He said the committee would present
a "proper budget" at the next meeting of the trustees.
At the same time, Vaness commended two students - Zia Ayral of Philadelphia
and Bruce Boyle of Plainfield, N.J., who presented a report on the college's
finances.
That report, Aryal said Thursday, indicated Goddard's administrative overhead
was about twice the "national norm" for colleges of the same size.
He said the report also showed there was "financial starvation in the instructional
program," adding Goddard "spends much less on education than colleges of
equivalent size."
The "real motivation" behind the college's expansion, he charged, was not
"education but profit."
Aryal said he and several of the trustees were convinced the college's
"cash flow problems" could not be solved under Witherspoon's budget.
"If the budget was not changed, we predicted disaster in 1974," he said.
Other portions of the 240-page report, which have not been submitted to the
trustees, deal with the college's inability to handle "the problems of runaway
bureaucracy," he said.
Aryal described a tuition increase of $350, which will go into effect in September
and raise student costs to $4,950 a year, as "self-defeating." He said the college
has lost more students than it has gained in income.
Commenting on today's vote, he said students at Goddard traditionally "have played a large part in pressuring the faculty to act."
"If today's meeting is successful in the rejection of the president's continuing,
I think the board of trustees would have an emergency meeting," McRae theorized.
"I assume if the president does decide to resign the college will be in a state of crisis," he added.
Sources on the campus said some of Witherspoon's friends have visited him
and "implored him to resign" before today's meeting.
At the opening of the trustee's meeting last Friday, many of the 100 students
and faculty who attended called for the president's resignation.
They questioned his "quality of leadership".
"The mood of the meeting was, "We're waiting for you to resign'," said one student
after the meeting.
Saturday, the trustees overturned a decision by the administration to deny the
reappointment of Prof. Thomas Yahkub to the Third World Studies Program. The
director of the program has recommended that Yahkub not be reappointed for the
1971-72 year.
The trustees agreed to prepare a formal apology to Yahkub for "any injustices"
he suffered, to reimburse him for lost pay and to give him the status of
professor emeritus retroactive to 1969.
McRae battled for Yahkub's reappointment in several confrontations with the
administration.
In March, some 50 students staged a peaceful demonstration on the campus to
protest the administration's financial policies and its lack of consideration
of their role in the decision-making process.
They barricaded sections of the administration building for a time, but
removed the barricades at the request of the college fire department.
Witherspoon, a former Vermont tax commissioner, succeeded Royce S. Pitkin as
head of the college in 1969.
He could not be reached for comment Thursday night.