5/19/1981, Burlington Free Press

GODDARD GETS EXTENSION ON ACCREDITATION RULING

by NEIL DAVIS
Free Press Staff Writer

PLAINFIELD - Goddard College has been granted more time to try to persuade the New England Association of Schools and Colleges to continue accreditation.

The association had been expected to rule Monday but agreed instead to allow the Goddard administration to offer new evidence, President Victor Loefflath-Ehly said.

If the decision had come on schedule, there was a 50/5O chance the college would have forfeited its accreditation, he said.

"I was concerned the outcome was going to be negative," he said. "As an administrator, you have to take the pessimistic view."

As a result of recent changes in the college's size, structure and financial outlook, however, he is confident the association later this summer will extend Goddard's accreditation, the president said.

"I think the association will react favorably to the drastic measures we've taken recently," Loefflath-Ehly said.

"We've always been pretty much in good graces in terms of actual education, but before we were overextended," he said.

A week ago the college announced it would sell two undergraduate and two graduate programs to Norwich University, which will operate them from its Vermont College campus in Montpelier.

Previously, Goddard had disclosed plans to trim the campus by selling more than 150 acres and at least five buildings.

Next year Goddard is expected to have 100 to 150 students and an estimated 15 faculty members - after sweeping layoffs - and to be a mere shadow of what it was in its 1960s heydey.

Declining enrollment and $1 million in debt had raised the guestion in recent years of whether the college could remain solvent and led to a recommendation by the Commission on Institutions of Higher Education that accreditation be revoked.

The commission is a subdivision of the association, which has placed Goddard on probationary status while the college has been appealing to keep its accreditation.

At the end of June the commission is expected to make another recommendation, based on Goddard's new circumstances, and the associaton's executive committee is expected to make a decision shortly after that.

Loefflath-Ehly said he now believes the college will remain accredited on a probationary status for at least another year.

In any event, students can count on accreditation throughout the summer, he said.

Once it becomes certain Goddard will be accredited next year, the president said, the administration will launch an effort to get that message out to high school seniors.

"We'll have to rely on publicity and news media and letters to guidance counselors because the college can't afford advertising or to send staff members on the road out of state," he said.