GODDARD PUTS by Bryan Pfeiffer - Staff Writer
PLAINFIELD - When 70 people gather for a three-day conference on the future of Goddard College, skeptics might dismiss it as one of those big, boring planning meetings: They came, they wrote zillions of ideas on flip charts, they left.
But Robert Mattuck doesn't see it that way -- and that matters. Erudite and admired, Mattuck is one of Goddard's wise elders. For a half century -- from the Great Depression to the end of Ronald Reagan's presidency -- Mattuck was a professor of literature and an advisor to countless students at a college once a cradle of innovative, progressive learning.
During a break in the conference, which ended Saturday and included an array of interested, invited people, Mattuck seemed surprised when a reporter asked him why the conference was so important.
"Why is it important?" he shot back. "Because Goddard is important."
Goddard is, indeed, important, participants agreed, to education in a conservative era and to students and faculty and administrators and others who want to make the world a better place.
In its heyday in the 1960s and the '70s, Goddard was alive with social activism. Long before that it pioneered a model of education that emphasizes student-initiated goals, shared decision making and progressive learning in which students identify problems, plan solutions and evaluate results.
But Goddard, turning 60 next year, sometimes seems to be a liberal arts college whose best years are not yet to come but rather long past, a place struggling to emerge from mid-life with grace and purpose. The unusual conference, which drew participants from as far away as Oregon, recongnized that as trendy as it might seem for such an unconventional place, Goddard needs a renewed vision for the 21st century.
"What this process represents," said college president Barbara Mossberg, "is that Goddard as a whole institution is taking the time to look at itself, to reflect, as a learning organization does, on who it is."
Mossberg said many of Goddard's innovations in education, developed decades ago, have now been adopted by mainstream colleges. Moreover, participants said, the gallop of technology, the growing complexity of economic, cultural and environmental issues as well as globalization and the broadening cultural diversity of communities make it imperative that Goddard adapt so that it can once again be a leader in progressive education.
After three days of intense reflection and discussion, the participants began to conjure up a vision, albeit one lacking specifics.
It included broadening cultural diversity on its Plainfield campus, improving and building new facilities, socially responsible use of technology, a capital funding campaign, increasing participation and accountability in college governance, outreach and collaboration with the local non academic community and, of course, education for social change.
The ideas poured from participants, who were choosen specifically to represent the broader "Goddard community" and various "stakeholders" -- not only students, alumni, faculty, administrators and trustees, but also community residents, cultural leaders, activists and educators from other progressive colleges.
Yet even as participants agreed on new paths for Goddard, some old obstacles emerged. Goddard has churned through six presidents in the last 25 years. Faculty have formed a labor union. And after the disaster of the last president, Richard Greene, who fired and fought with mutinous faculty, embers of discontent still glow among faculty who say the new administration is stalling the union and can be too autocratic for a progressive college founded on collaborative, democratic principles. "Goddard, as a progressive institution, has to serve as a role model" for livable wages and workplace democracy, said Chris Wood, a community activist and Goddard graduate.
Indeed, discussion of the administration's approach to the fledgling union, too painful for one participant to witness, was a source of tension. The group, partly due to objection from a college trustee, was unable to reach consensus on including the union as part of Goddard's future, which many participants viewed as a gaping hole.
And several participants expressed concern that the visions would not be turned into action or reality, that the hope for the future so overwhelmingly and earnestly expressed during the three days would be an opportunity lost. Mossberg called the agreements a "covenant" to be honored as the college enters a strategic planning process.
Even with some doubt that the conference would produce results, all participants said they were moved or invigorated by the process itself and the "collective wisdom" of the Goddard community.
"I'm involved because I see these people as visionaries," said Miranda Culp, an arts and literature student. "And I think that's what Goddard needs right now -- a collective vision."
As the participants gathered into a wide circle to share their final thoughts at the conference's conclusion, a toddler wandered among them, entertaining and serving as a unwitting symbol for the conferees and for Goddard as a whole.
"I think it's appropriate that we have a baby in the circle here, walking between us," said student Alan Baer. "It points to our responsibility to the future."
HEADS TOGETHER
ON ITS FUTURE
