Goddard College was a Private college college with three locations in the United States: Plainfield, Vermont; Port Townsend, Washington; and Seattle.
For many years, Goddard College provided a mix of residential, low-residency, and distance-learning programs. Its intensive low-residency model was first developed for its MFA in Creative Writing Program in 1963.
In April 2024, Goddard announced that the college would close at the end of the spring semester, due to financial issues and a decline in enrollment.
History
Goddard College began in 1863 in Barre, Vermont, northeast of Middlebury as the
Green Mountain Central Institute. In 1870, it was renamed
Goddard Seminary in honor of (1811–1868) and his wife Mary (1816–1889).
Goddard was a prominent merchant in
Boston, and was one of the school's earliest and most generous benefactors.
Founded by Universalists, Goddard Seminary was originally a four-year preparatory high school, primarily affiliated with Tufts University in Greater Boston. For many years the seminary prospered. Many public high schools opening in the 20th century made many of the private New England academies obsolete. Attempting to save it, the trustees added a Junior college to the seminary in 1935, with a seminary graduate, Royce S. "Tim" Pitkin, as president.
In 1936, under his leadership, the seminary concluded that for Goddard to survive, an entirely new institution would need to be created. Many educators and laymen agreed with him. Pitkin was supported by Stanley C. Wilson, former governor of Vermont and chairman of the Goddard Seminary Board of Trustees; Senators George Aiken and Ralph Flanders; and Dorothy Canfield Fisher.
The new Goddard was an experimental and progressive college. For its first 21 years of operation, Goddard was unaccredited and small, but it built a reputation as one of the most innovative colleges in the country.
In 1959 Goddard College was accredited. One of the founding principles of Goddard was to provide educational opportunities for adults.
Based on its use of narrative transcripts instead of traditional letter grades, as well as learner-designed curricula, Goddard was among the founding members of the Union for Experimenting Colleges and Universities.
In 2002, after 54 years, the college terminated its residential undergraduate degree program and became an exclusively low-residency college. In 2005, the college expanded to the West Coast and established a residency site in Port Townsend, Washington. In July 2011 Goddard began to offer their non-licensure education program in Seattle.
Goddard was placed on probation in 2018 by the New England Commission of Higher Education (NECHE) because of a perceived "lack stability of executive leadership" and concerns about the college's financial resources.[ Goddard accreditation statement Retrieved 15 February 2015]
Goddard College closed at the end of the spring semester in 2024, due to a precipitious decline in enrollment from 1,900 in the 1970s to less than 250 in 2024.
Campuses
Main campus, Greatwood: Plainfield, Vermont
The campus in Plainfield was founded in 1938 on the grounds of a late 19th-century model farm: The Greatwood Farm & Estate consisted of shingle-style buildings and gardens designed by Arthur Shurcliff. The Village of Learning, consisted of eleven dormitory buildings, was built adjacent to the ensemble of renovated farm buildings in 1963 to accommodate an increasing student population. The Pratt Center & Library, designed to be at the heart of a larger campus, was constructed in 1968. No other significant new construction were added after 1968.
On March 7, 1996, the Greatwood campus was recognized for its historic and architectural significance by its inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places.[ ]
Fort Worden State Park, Port Townsend, Washington campus
A U.S. Army post from 1902 to 1953,
[Fort Worden] much of the fort was renovated and adapted as a year-round, multi-use facility dedicated to lifelong learning. It housed several organizations which comprise
Fort Worden. The fort was on a bluff overlooking the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Admiralty Inlet near Port Townsend, Washington.
Columbia City, Seattle campus
The MA in Education program, originally held in the Plainfield-based low-residency program, expanded in 2011 into Columbia City, a neighborhood in southeastern Seattle.
The program trained students in bilingual preschool education. Students focused on areas such as intercultural studies, dual language, early childhood, cultural arts, and community education, and created their plan of studies for each semester. The program was designed to serve students who could not leave their families and communities for the residency.
Academics
Each Goddard student designed their own curriculum in accordance with their program's degree criteria. In addition to fulfilling academic criteria in the subjects of the arts, the
humanities, mathematics, natural sciences and social sciences, undergraduate students needed to demonstrate critical thinking and writing, understanding of social and ecological contexts, positive self-development, and thoughtful action within their learning processes.
The college used a student self-directed, mentored system in which faculty issue narrative evaluations of student's progress instead of grades. The intensive low-residency model required that students come to campus every six months for approximately eight days. During this period, students engaged in a variety of activities and lectures from early morning until late in the evening, and created detailed study plans. During the semester, students studied independently, sending in "packets" to their faculty mentors every few weeks.
When low-residency education began at Goddard, packets were made up of paper documents sent via the mail. Since advances in the internet and related technology, in the 21st century most packets were sent electronically. They contained artwork, audio files, photography, video and web pages, in addition to writing. The schedule and format of these packets differed from program to program, and content varied with each student-faculty correspondence. The focus was generally on research, writing, and reflection related to each student's individualized study plan.
At regular intervals students compiled their work into "learning portfolios" to submit as part of a Progress Review before a cross-program board of faculty. The board ensured that all students' work was in compliance with the college's degree criteria. Undergraduates had to complete a yearlong Senior Study, accompanied by final graduating presentations of work, before being awarded a degree.
Facilities
Eliot D. Pratt Center and Library
The Eliot D. Pratt Center and Library in Plainfield, Vermont, served the entire Goddard College community. It was also open to the public. Its holdings contained over 70,000 physical items. The building also housed several administrative offices, an Archives room with artifacts from the 1800s to present, an Art Gallery, and WGDR (91.1 FM), a college/community radio station serving Central Vermont since 1973.
Goddard College Community Radio (WGDR and WGDH)
Until 2021, Goddard was home to Goddard College Community Radio, a pair of community-based, non-commercial, listener-supported educational radio stations.
WGDR, 91.1 FM, is licensed to Plainfield. Its sister station,
WGDH, 91.7 FM, is licensed to Hardwick, Vermont east of Burlington. Goddard College Community Radio was the largest non-commercial community radio station in Vermont. It was the only non-commercial station in the state other than the statewide
Vermont Public network, which received funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. On May 10, 2021, Goddard donated the licenses for WGDR and sister station WGDH to the Central Vermont Community Radio Corporation.
Haybarn Theatre
The building was a barn built in 1868 by the Martin Family and one of the largest barns in Central Vermont. The Haybarn was originally used to store hay, grain, and livestock. In 1938, when Goddard College purchased Greatwood Farm, they began the process of adapting the farm buildings into academic and student spaces. The Haybarn was renovated to provide a space for the performing arts.
For almost 75 years the Haybarn Theatre was a place where the local community and the college came together to enjoy and appreciate the arts. The Haybarn hosted educational conferences, student and community performances, and the Goddard College Concert Series. Prior to gaining widespread fame, Phish played multiple concerts there in 1986 and 1987.
Notable events
Alternative Media Conference
In June 1970 Goddard hosted the Alternative Media Conference; it attracted more than 1,600 radio DJs and others involved in independent media from all over the United States.
Featured presenters included
Yippie founder
Jerry Rubin;
spiritual leader
Ram Dass;
and Larry Yurdin
in addition to
Danny Fields,
Bob Fass, and
Paul Krassner from
The Realist, a magazine.
A music roster of up-and-coming bands was curated by Atlantic Records and included Dr. John and the J. Geils Band.
A second Alternative Media Conference was held on campus in 2013 to commemorate the college's 150th anniversary.
2014 undergraduate commencement
In 2014, the graduating class of the college's undergraduate program selected convicted murderer and Goddard
Mumia Abu-Jamal to be the commencement speaker.
Abu-Jamal, who had attended Goddard as an undergraduate in the 1970s, completed his Goddard degree from prison via mail while serving a sentence for the 1982 murder of
Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner.
[Boyer, Dave. "Cop-killing ex-Black Panther to give college commencement address", The Washington Times, September 30, 2014. Accessed October 1, 2014.
] Faulkner's widow criticized the selection of Abu-Jamal as a speaker,
as did U.S. Senator
Pat Toomey, the Vermont Troopers Association, the Vermont Police Chiefs Association, the Fraternal Order of Police, and the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections.
The college's interim president, Bob Kenny, supported the right of students to pick a commencement speaker of their choice.
[Kolber, Samantha. "Mumia Abu-Jamal to Give Commencement Speech at Goddard College" , September 29, 2014. Accessed October 5, 2014.] On October 5, the school released Abu-Jamal's pre-recorded commencement speech.
[Chang, David. "College Releases Mumia Abu-Jamal's Commencement Speech, Philadelphia Police Protest", WCAU, October 5, 2014.]
Notable people associated with the college
Alumni
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Alan Briskin – organizational consultant
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Ann Gillespie – actor (Beverly Hills, 90210)
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Anna Lee Walters — author
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Archie Shepp – saxophonist
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Blakeley White-McGuire – Principal dancer of Martha Graham Dance Company
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Bradford Graves – sculptor, musician, professor (fine arts, sculpture)
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Cara Hoffman – novelist
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Caroline Finkelstein – poet
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Charlie Bondhus – poet
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Chris Spirou — politician
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Christine Palm — member of the Connecticut House of Representatives
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Christopher Dell - historian, author, literary critic, and employee at the Library of Congress
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Conrad Herwig – jazz trombonist
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Daniel Boyarin – professor of Jewish Studies
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David Gallaher – graphic novelist
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David Helvarg – journalist and environmental activist
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David Mamet – writer, director, Pulitzer prize winner in drama ( Glengarry Glen Ross)
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Deborah Tall — poet
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Donald Kofi Tucker – politician
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Ed Allen – American short story writer
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Elaine Terranova – poet
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Ellen Bryant Voigt – MacArthur Genius, former State Poet of Vermont
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Ellen Ratner — White House correspondent
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Ellis Avery – novelist and poet
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Esther Wertheimer – sculptor
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Evalyn Bates – progressive educator, developed the first low-residency American adult degree program
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Frances Olsen – professor of law at UCLA
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Geraldine Clinton Little – poet
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Helen Landgarten – art therapy pioneer
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Howard Ashman – actor, playwright ( Little Shop of Horrors), lyricist ( The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast)
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J. Ward Carver – Vermont Attorney General, 1925–1931
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Jacqueline Berger — poet
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James Gahagan – abstract artist
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Jane O'Meara Sanders – former president of Burlington College, wife of Senator Bernie Sanders
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Jane Shore – poet
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Jared Carter – poet
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Jared Pappas-Kelley – curator, writer, and artist
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Jay Craven – Vermont film director, screenwriter, and professor
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Jeff McCracken — film and television actor, director, writer, and producer
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Jennifer McMahon — novelist
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Jerri Allyn — performance artist
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John Kasiewicz – guitarist
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Jon Fishman – rock band member (Phish)
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Jonathan Katz – comedian, writer, actor, producer (Dr. Katz)
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Judith Arcana — writer
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Karen Essex — author, journalist, screenwriter
[
]
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Kenneth R. Timmerman – correspondent, author, activist
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Kiara Brinkman — author
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Kris Neely – artist and educator
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Larry Feign – cartoonist (The World of Lily Wong)
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Laura McCullough – poet and writer
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Linda McCarriston – poet and professor
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Linnea Johnson – poet
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Lisa Brooks – historian of New England's Native American history
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Lucia Capacchione — Art therapy
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Madeline Stone — songwriter
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Mark Doty – poet, National Book Award winner, 2008
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Martin Hyatt — author
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Mary Johnson – author and director of A Room of Her Own Foundation
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Mary Karr – author
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Matthew Quick – American author of young adult and fiction novels
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Mayme Agnew Clayton – librarian, and the founder of the Western States Black Research and Education Center
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Michael Lent – visual artist and curator
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Miriam Hopkins — film and television actor
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Monica Mayer – Mexican artist
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Mumia Abu Jamal – journalist, former Black Panther Party member, convict, author
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Neil Landau – (former faculty) screenwriter, playwright, television producer
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Norman Dubie – poet
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Oliver Foot – British actor, philanthropist, charity worker
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Page McConnell – rock band member (Phish)
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Pamela Stewart – poet
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Paul Zaloom – puppeteer, host of television show Beakman's World
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Peter Hannan – artist, writer, producer ( CatDog)
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Philip Zuchman – American painter
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Piers Anthony – English American author
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Robert Louthan — poet
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Robert M. Fisher – abstract artist
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Ronnie Burrage — jazz percussionist
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Roo Borson —poet
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Russell Potter – Arctic historian, author
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Stephen C. Smith – economist, professor, author
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Sue Owen — poet
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Susan Tichy — poet
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Susie Ibarra – contemporary composer and percussionist
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Suzi Wizowaty – author and politician
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Taina Asili — musician
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Tim Costello (1945–2009), labor and anti-globalization advocate and author
[Greenhouse, Steve. "Tim Costello, Trucker-Author Who Fought Globalization, Dies at 64", The New York Times, December 26, 2009. Accessed December 28, 2009.]
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Tobias Schneebaum – artist, anthropologist, AIDS activist
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Tom Griffin – playwright of The Boys Next Door
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Tommie Smith – athlete, activist, educator, gold medal winner at the 1968 Summer Olympics who set seven individual world records
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Tony Curtis (Welsh poet) (born 1946) – Welsh poet and author
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Trey Anastasio – guitarist, singer, songwriter, member of the band Phish
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Walter F. Scott – (Goddard Seminary) Vermont State Treasurer
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Walter Klenhard — film director, writer and actor
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Walter Mosley – author
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Wayne Karlin – author
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William H. Macy – actor
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William L. White – addiction studies
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William Wildman Campbell — United States House of Representatives
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Yadira Guevara-Prip — stage and television actor.
File:Trey Anastasio 2002.jpg|Trey Anastasio, musician, composer
File:Evalyn Bates-1938.tif|Evalyn Bates, educator, Goddard College co-founder
File:Miriam Hopkins.jpg|Miriam Hopkins, actress
File:Jonathan Katz 1.jpg|Jonathan Katz, comedian
File:WilliamHMacyHWoFMar2012.jpg|William H. Macy, actor
File:Portrait of David Mamet in the WNYC studios on February 12 2007.jpg|David Mamet, playwright
File:Walter Mosley by David Shankbone.jpg|Walter Mosley, novelist
File:Archie Shepp022.JPG|Archie Shepp, musician
File:Tommie Smith 1968.jpg|Tommie Smith, athlete
File:Paul zaloom a 20041101.jpg|Paul Zaloom, actor
Faculty, staff and administration
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Arisa White – faculty advisor in the BFA Creative Writing Program
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Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg – American writer and third Kansas Poet Laureate who founded Goddard's Transformative Language Arts program
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David Mamet – American playwright, essayist, screenwriter, and film director
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Donald Hall — poet and literary critic
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Ellen Bryant Voigt — helped found Goddard's first low-residency program before starting a similar program at Warren Wilson College
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Ernie Stires — composer
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Frank Conroy — author
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Geoffrey Wolff — author
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Hameed Sharif “Herukhuti” Williams – African-American sociologist, cultural studies scholar, sex educator, playwright/poet, and award-winning author
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Heather McHugh — poet
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James Gahagan — sculptor, chairman of Goddard's art department from 1971 to 1979
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Jane O'Meara Sanders – served one year as interim president of Goddard
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John Irving — author
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John Froines – one of the Chicago Seven, taught chemistry in the early 1970s
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Lisel Mueller – poet
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Louise Gluck — Nobel Laureate, poet, winner of the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize for Poetry
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Marilyn Salzman Webb — activist and journalist who founded Goddard's women's studies program
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Marvin Bell — first Poet Laureate of the State of Iowa
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Michael Ryan — poet
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Murray Bookchin (1921–2006) – American anarchist author, orator, and philosopher
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Peter Schumann and his Bread and Puppet Theater were the theatre-in-residence at Goddard College from 1970 to 1974
-
Raymond Carver — author
-
Richard Ford — author
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Richard Grossinger — author, publisher - taught interdisciplinary studies (including alchemy, Melville, Classical Greek, Jungian psychology, and ethnoastronomy), 1972-1977
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Robert Hass — poet
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Stephen Dobyns — poet and novelist
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Thomas Yamamoto – art instructor
-
Tobias Wolff — author
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Walter Butts – American poet and the Poet Laureate of New Hampshire.
See also
-
List of colleges and universities in the United States
External links
-
Last archive version of Goddard's official website.
