[G]oddard College has eliminated seven full-time and five part-time positions and plans more cutbacks in January, part of cost-cutting measures prompted by low enrollment.
The liberal arts college, which offers a low-residency program, had 409 students enrolled this autumn, said Michelle Barber, the school’s interim director of marketing. It had 804 in 2010.
The November layoffs don’t presage closure of the struggling school, Barber said. Goddard will continue to offer its 15 degree programs, including a B.A. and M.A. in education that are offered through a Seattle program, and two MFAs offered through a Goddard program in Port Townsend, Washington.
Instead, they’re a response to pressure from the New England Commission of Higher Education, which has given the private college two years to stabilize its financial position and its leadership. Otherwise, Goddard will lose its accreditation.
A new president, Bernard Bull, started at Goddard in early November. Neither Barber nor Bull would say how many positions will be removed in coming weeks. But a former staff member said that about 30 positions were expected to be lost between November and the end of January. That number is in line with plans the college announced in October after it met with accreditors.
Bull said the layoffs are part of a long-term plan to keep Goddard’s expenses in line with its tuition. He said the college is also going to step up its marketing to prospective students, and he’s planning to spend at least half of his time fundraising from alumni and friends of the college in Boston, Maine, Washington state, Los Angeles, the Bay Area, Arizona and Texas.
Goddard was founded in 1938 in Plainfield to provide an interactive, self-directed education that could help build civil, democratic societies. The experimental college has some famous and supportive graduates, but it has also weathered budget shortfalls that threatened its very existence before.
“I’ve seen them pull out of another crisis so severe that they laid off all but five staff members in 1980, 1981,” said Goddard graduate Judy Sargent, who runs a bed & breakfast in Marshfield.
“They pulled themselves back up until they were functioning again well in the second half of the ‘80s,” said Sargent, who graduated with a master’s degree in feminist anthropology in 1981. “Having pulled off a miracle there, I’m hoping they can pull off another miracle.”
She noted Goddard has less property this time around; where it once had three properties that served as campuses, it now only has its main campus, known as the Pitkin Campus, off U.S. 2 in Plainfield.
“They have less land and less programs they can sell off,” Sargent said.
Bull said the restructuring was planned before he started work in November. He took the job despite knowing about Goddard’s struggles.
“To tell the truth, that was a part of what led me to accept the offer,” Bull said. “I am an incredibly big fan of Goddard’s vision for progressive education. Learner voice and agency is something that is needed in higher education, so I explored it because of my passion for progressive education.”
He plans to move his family, including two teenage children, from Wisconsin at the end of this school year, he said.
“I want to be part of helping navigate this immediate challenge so we can create a strong future for the college and its mission,” he said.
The college plays an important cultural and economic role in the local community. Sargent, who is on the board of the college radio station, WGDR, said students, families and faculty often stay at her B&B.
“I am one of the many little businesses in the neighborhood that partly depend on Goddard,” Sargent said. “The same holds for the restaurants around here.”
Goddard also offers cultural activities such as plays and speakers.
“It’s very important to the community around here that they pull through,” she said.