College Profile: Goddard College

Goddard College is a private college located in Plainfield, Vermont, that grants bachelor degrees (BA and BFA) and master degrees (MA and MFA). It uses a self-directed, mentored system of intensive residencies in Plainfield or Port Townsend, Washington. Residencies require the student's attendance every six months for approximately nine days, during which time the student engages in a variety of activities and lectures from the early morning until quite late in the evening. After the residency, students return home and study independently, sending in "packets" to their faculty mentor every three weeks. The content of the "packets" varies with each individual. Goddard College was founded by Royce Stanley "Tim" Pitkin, a progressive educator and follower of John Dewey and other, similar proponents of educational democracy. Pitkin conceived of the college as a place for "plain living and hard thinking." Having narrative transcripts instead of traditional letter grades, as well as learner-designed curricula, Goddard was one of the Union for Experimenting Colleges and Universities, which also included Franconia, Nasson, Antioch, and several other educational institutions. Advocating innovation in higher education is its expressed objective and, in 1963, Goddard introduced the first Adult Degree Program for working adults. This program has been copied around the world and since that date, over twenty million adults have been educated using this innovative, intensive, student-centered model. In 2002, after fifty-four years, the college terminated its traditional age on-site experimental bachelor degree program. Today its more than six hundred adult students attend residencies in either Plainfield or Port Townsend. Only two programs are available at the Port Townsend site: the MFA in Creative Writing and the MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts, which was new to Port Townsend in the fall of 2007. Also new for the fall of 2007 was the first low-residency Bachelor of Fine Arts program in creative writing. Students must transfer to Goddard with a minimum of sixty undergraduate credits to be eligible for the program. Governance of the college always has been communitarian, but Mark Schulman has been its president since 2003. The history of Goddard has been tumultuous, similar to many Free Schools practicing the pedagogical theories of educators such as John Dewey. Although many free schools have ceased to exist, Goddard remains alive, well, and atypical, still promoting education as a process of self-discovery in which the learner is firmly in charge. Accordingly, while Goddard is not for everyone, it has been, and continues to be, a home for creative, persistent, and self-directed students. Goddard also is home to a community radio station that serves central Vermont, broadcasting as, WGDR, 91.1 FM, which is part of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, Goddard College was a mecca for politically-astute, highly-intelligent students.[citation needed] The students at Goddard were among the most active and influential students to organize and speak out in opposition to the Vietnam War.[citation needed]

 

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