Release_1973-1974_1974-533.pdf

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Part of News Release (December 13, 1974) BIPOC TESC Students work to secure job opportunities

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NEWS

The Evergreen State College
Olympia, Washington

for immediate release
December 13, 1974

98505

for further information
Judy Annis, 866-6128

They meet twice a month at the Tacoma Community Center on South M Street.

Over the

constant drone of a laboring heating system and the creaking of the old structure, 30 men
and women, mostly non-white, all well over 21, question and cajole their instructors, eager
to clarify any issues or expose any carelessly offered comments.
Representing professional backgrounds in politics, government service, business,
health care and social service agencies, the men and women are all students at The
Evergreen ~tate College.

But most of them never get to campus and they don't intend to.

Taught by Tacoman Maxine Mimms --- a full~-time Evergreen faculty member, former public
school teacher and social case worker

the group was organized to "expand the students'

occupational outlook," she says.
"These students are nearly all working in the real world," she-comments.
at least two years of col~ege and are determined to earn a college degree.

"Most have

But, because

of distance and the demands of their present occupations, they can't travel to Olympia for
their education.
So, Mrs. Mimms explains, "we took Evergreen to them."
It all started two years ago when two Tacoma women, Pat Baines and Mary Harper, visited
Evergreen to find out how they could earn their bachelor's degrees.
with the two women at her home in Tacoma.

Mrs. Mimms began working

Word sp~ead and soon she had a score of students

interested in studying with her on their jobs or at her home, but llgtounccawpus.
Spe spent last summer coordinating a program in Community Organization, working with 23
black Tacomans charged with the task of pinpointing six placements each for Evergreen interns.
"We were working through the Evergreen Office of Cooperative Education to locate
businesses, industries and public and private agencies willing to accept non-white student
interns who could earn academic credit --- and a salary --- while working for them," she
says.

"The program was so successful it hackfired.
-more-

We ended up not only securing all the

2.
internships. we aimed for, but in recruiting additional students."
So, she designed another program for them --- this one called Life Styles and
Occupations --- and created to serve the needs of three dozen non-white, mature students
who wanted to look at alternative life styles and, as Mrs. Mimms says, "not just stick to
occupations that are restricted to non-whites."
The program is "hard core academic," she adds.

"It's strictly a lecture program

with emphasis on wwiting, public speaking and facilitative listening.

It offers those

theories and skills which these students need to further their professional and personal
development."
Mrs. Mimms recruited five other Evergreen instructors to offer their expertise to
the program. On Tuesdays her group works with a journalist/educator on creative writing;
Fridays they listen to lectures which span academic disciplines from public speaKing to
mathematics, earth science to literature; and Wednesdays they polish basic skills, aided
by Mrs. Mimms and members of the Evergreen Learning Services Center staff.
"The structure of the program is definitely not give and take," she says.
organized for students to take from our faculty resources what they need.

"It's

They listen.

After all, you can't ask students to ask questions when they don't have the information
to ask questions with."
But, she adds, just because it's not designed for a lot of student input doesn't
mean it's a quiet class.

Far from it.

Mrs. Mimms says she and her Evergreen colleagues have

found it to be "the liveliest class we've instructed for a long time."
"These students are motivated," she says.
information they can from our faculty members.

"They want to learn, to glean every bit of
Sometimes," she adds with a grin," they

really intimidate our professors with all their questions and comments."
She says the program's been so successful that she's working with the Tacoma Urban
League, examining the possibiiity of designing a future Evergreen off-campus program for
its staff.

In the meantime, she's continuing work on the Alternative Life Styles program,

outlining topics and recruiting faculty for what promises to be a lively Winter and
Spring at the Tacoma Community House.
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