1971-07_Administration_1A35_01_10.pdf

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Part of Memo from Joseph Shoben to Charles McCann on Retreat with the Trustees

extracted text

THE EVERGREEN STATE COLLEGE
August 26, 1970
MEMORANDUM

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To:

President McCann

From:

Joseph Shoben

Subject:

Some reflections on our recent retreat with the Trustees

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Trying to get my thoughts in order as a :: consequence of our recent get-together
with the _Trustees, I'm setting these reactions down for your consideration. In
general, there are three topics to be touched upon: (a) the general purpose
and nature of our informal meetings with- the Trustees, (b) the nature of our
academic program as it was laid out at the meeting in Tacoma, and (c) the
implications of the way in which our 06 Program was discussed last Wednesday
and Thursday for our overall organization.
PURPOSE AND NATURE OF TRUSTEES' RETREATS
On the first score, I find myself just a little confused as to our objectives
in getting together with the Trustees, just as I am a trifle uncertain about
the extent to which these interactions can best be conceived as an open _debating
society. Although my response here may well be a function of having once been
burned, I really don't care what the ground rules are; I should simply prefer
them to·be clearer than they seem to be. My own inclination is to devote these
sessions to informing the Trustees, to indicating the issues which have not yet
been resolved by the staff and to ask for Trustee inputs to further deliberations,
and to receive any questions that the Trustees may have. When those questions
can be answered, they obviously should be; when they bear on matters that have
not yet been decided and are primarily topics about which staff concensus is
important, then they should, in my judgment, be deferred to a subsequent gettogether. On the other hand, I shan't mind-- and would even welcome -- a freefor-all if it is understood that a free-for-all is looked upon as entirely in
order. I hope that you will agree that either some discussion of this matter is
worthwhile, or that you will simply indicate the ways in which you want these
interchanges conducted. As I have indicated before, my own belief is that our
relationship with the Trustees is one that you should control by virtue of the
fact that you are responsible to them and for the kind of support and contribution that the Trustees make to Evergreen.
OUR ACADEMIC PROGRAM ·
Let me turn now to the presentation of our curriculum as it was laid out in the
Tacoma conciave. I find it exciting, possessed of great intellectual appeal and
wonderfully free of the discipline dominance that I have argued against ever
since we first talked together in Buffalo. In many ways, it is the kind of thing
in .which !,socialized as I have been, would thoroughly enjoy participating, either
as a student or as a faculty member. The model is, of course,_ Joe Tussman's; and
as you may well remember, I wrote to you a year ago, before coming to Olympia,
to recommend Tussman's Experiment at Berkeley and to urge that this curricular