Three cheers for Evergreen for taking the protest demands seriously and saying “Yeah, ok, that sounds fine.” So everybody went home.
Other commenters are correct that Evergreen is quite a “hippy” and “alternative” college, but I believe the core reason this happened is Rachel Corrie.
Evergreen school administrators may have been more amenable to students’ demands because of Rachel Corrie, who was a 23-year-old Evergreen student when she was crushed by an Israeli military bulldozer while she and others sought to protect a Palestinian home from being demolished in the Gaza border town of Rafah
TESC has always been a pretty radical place, but you’re not wrong that there’s a bit of a legacy with Palestine there. (Source: am alumnus.)
Though the college more recently had a problem on campus with protesting that involved a professor being effectively chased off campus and the administration managing to both use the police and not use the police wrong.
They previously handled radical protests pretty well, but had lost their step after some key administrators retired. Seems they’ve found their way again.
Here I am assuming that all the colleges played the delay-and-forget game.
Cheers for evergreen.
If crunchy granola was a college, it would be Evergreen. So that’s why.
What’s wrong with crunchy granola?
I’m just glad some one did the right thing. Because it’s the right thing.
Most that negotiate will just play the long game and expect the urgency to go away. I’m not sure that it will- but history says it should.
It wasn’t a criticism, it was a description. Evergreen is basically what happens when hippies find a way to give people a good college education.
I have a friend who went there.
Edit: Wikipedia should elucidate:
Evergreen is unique[46] in that undergraduate students select one 16-credit program for the entire quarter rather than multiple courses. Full-time programs will encompass a quarter’s worth of work in everything related to that program concentration, by up to three professors. There are no majors; students have the freedom to choose what program to enroll in each quarter for the entire duration of their undergraduate education, and are not required to follow a specific set of programs. Evergreen is on the “quarter” system, with programs lasting one, two, or three quarters. Three-quarter programs are generally September through June.
At the end of the program, the professor writes a one-page report (“Evaluation”) about the student’s activity in the class rather than awarding a letter grade, and has an end-of-program evaluation conference with each student. The professor also determines how many credits should be awarded to the student, and students can lose credit.
That honestly seems like a pretty decent way to do college and better than my alma mater of Indiana University.
It does sound like an amazing way to do college. it also sounds like the kind of college I could actually enjoy going to.
It sure worked out for my friend. She’s had a series of well-paying federal government jobs because of it.
Also, Matt Groening went there, so that’s quite the endorsement.
I was called granola once because I’m pretty hippie. I wear these rope sandals everywhere (they’re so damn comfortable) and I dress in the most comfortable clothes I can find.
. . . I can respect that. (though, I need more arch support than what usually is found in rope sandals…)
I mean I was a little confused on whether I should be upset or not, but then they explained it and I was like “okay”
That is Evergreen’s thing. Very progressive liberal arts college. I have a friend who went there.
What where the demands?
Great read. Really did a great job explaining the whole current situation and history of college protests.
