EXPANSION PROGRAM SET AT GODDARD

By Neil Davis - Free Press Staff Writer

PLAINFIELD -- Six months ago it was a tossup whether Goddard College would be around today.

Now, the administration is planning to more than double the student body in the next three years, expand faculty and invent programs.

Under the plan, at least a third of the college's $3.2 million in outstanding debts would be paid, leaving only government building loans to be retired. Goddard would accrue a $200,000 operating budget surplus.

President Jack Lindquist and business manager Frederick Randlet are scheduled to unveil the rosy portrait at a trustees' meeting Saturday.

The administration is predicting the 115 student college will have 250 students by 1985.

"That number is in the neighborhood of what I would consider ideal," Lindquist said. "As (founder and former president) Tim Pitkin has said, the college shouldn't be any bigger than a size where you can know everybody.

"If we can get to a size that really would allow us to experiment while yet keeping a close community, I think that would be the best of both worlds," he said.

Another reason why the administration would like to see the student body hover at the 250 level is that Goddard's financial woes were attributable in part to inefficient management after rapid growth in the 1960s was reversed.

"We grew too big at once and that was a mistake," Randlet said. "Goddard is not going to make the same one again. It's going to stay the small experimental college it belongs."

Under the plan, the core faculty would grow from seven members to about 20, Randlet said.

Also scheduled to expand is an adjunct faculty, whose members are not part of the full-time teaching staff but who are called upon to teach and advise students in specific subject areas as needed.

The college's budget is expected to climb from this year's $1.8 million to more than $3.1 million by 1985, Randlet said.

"These are not pie-in-the-sky figures," he said. "In drawing up our forecasts we've tried to be extremely conservative, I think will do even better than we say we will."

The college is counting on a $40,000 operating budget surplus this year and wants to pay off several hundred thousands of dollars worth of debts, depending largely on Goddard's success in selling real estate.

"Six months ago, when things looked pretty gloomy for Goddard and we were taking some pretty strong steps to try to balance the budget, I suspect a lot of people thought we couldn't do it," Lindquist said. "Well, here we are doing it."

He said Goddard might be "writing the book" on how to save a financially plummeting small liberal arts college.

Randlet, who is teaching accounting to some students, said he would like Goddard to develop a graduate school of business, an idea unthinkable when the college was a haven for radicals-in-training.

"Not everybody wants to or needs to go to Harvard," he said. "If your ambition is to be president of a major corporation, that's one thing, but if you want to operate a health center or something like that, you might prefer to get your business training at a place like this."

Lindquist said the administration is preparing a proposal to offer "progressive business education" leading to a general bachelor of arts degree or master of arts degree with a business specialization.

"We probably can't offer anything like an MBA (master of business administration) right away because once you get into specialized degrees you have to satisfy specialized accreditation associations," the president said.

"We've got enough fights right now without taking them on."

A higher portion of the students than ever before may lean to the right in their political thinking, Lindquist speculated.

"It (student body) may be a little more diverse in social and political opinions," he said. "We're not against conservatives. We're for thinking, and there are some thinking conservatives in the world."

On a contractual basis for October are 15 state troopers taking advance basic training from three instructors.

Having the uniforms and armed policemen on campus sparked a wave of protest among students and faculty, who pointed to a no-guns policy initiated in the 1960s.

The confrontation resulted in concessions on both sides, Lindquist said.

The troopers voluntarily disarmed before mingling with students at the cafeteria, and students and faculty agreed to reaffirm the no-guns policy but with an exception for uniformed police, he said.

"They've started to get to know each other as people, and the stereotypes are starting to break down," the president said.

Goddard saved itself from bankruptcy partly by selling four programs to Norwich University, a Northfield military college which also owns Vermont College in Montpelier.

Among the programs were undergraduate and graduate courses that required little or no campus residency.

Goddard has begun to offer low-residency programs again, a move which has raised eyebrows at Norwich.

Lindquist said he believes the Norwich-Vermont College objections have been answered to everyone's satisfaction.

The Plainfield college has 25 enrolled in low residency programs but intends to expand that to 100 in the next three years.

"They (Norwich administration) see we haven't pirated tremendous quantities (of students) away from them," Randlet said.

"Goddard is certainly no threat to Norwich," he said. "They were just a little nervous, that's all."

Another source of some friction has been the disappointment of some students at the prospect of receiving a Vermont College degree rather than a Goddard one.

"They were somewhat upset, and that is fairly understandable," Lindquist said.

In response, the Plainfield college has agreed to stretch its policy of awarding degrees to students who completed the bulk of their studies before their programs were moved.