PORT TOWNSEND — Goddard College unveiled its four-year undergraduate program here Tuesday in a move touted as changing the academic complexion of the community.
“This is the fulfillment of the potential I saw when I first arrived here,” said Port Townsend Mayor David King.
“One of the first impressions I had when I got here in 1978 was that it was like a college town — but where was the college?
“We had the campuses and the coffee shops, and we certainly had the attitude, but we didn’t have a college.”
Goddard President Barbara Vacarr said later that she had “heard that said a lot about Port Townsend.
“But you can’t say that anymore.”
It was a group effort, former state House Majority Leader Lynn Kessler told the more than 100 people who attended the celebration in the JFK building at Fort Worden State Park.
“Having a facility like this, and to have the community embrace it, is an example of the most incredible partnership, and helps us to look at how the world has changed, how to be a part of those changes and how to make them meaningful,” said the Hoquiam Democrat, who stepped down in 2010 after spending 18 years representing the 24th District, which includes the North Olympic Peninsula.
The celebration marked the beginning of an academic program that started Friday, offering four-year degrees in health arts and sciences; sustainability; and individualized studies.
Goddard, which has its main campus is in Plainfield, Vt., but also has a campus in Seattle, had earlier offered only master’s degree classes in Port Townsend.
Goddard has a partnership with Peninsula College, which operates a branch on the Fort Worden campus, and encourages students to take basic classes at Peninsula College because of the expense and because basic college classes teach the same material.
Peninsula College offers a four-year degree program in applied management, but the physical classes are conducted in Port Angeles.
Both colleges operate out of an older building at Fort Worden and plan to move into a new location, the now-empty Building 202, once it is renovated and turned into an academic building.
That is expected to be finished in 2014.
Goddard’s program follows a residency program process, with students coming to campus for eight weeks at a time twice a year for four years, with the intervening time used to complete class assignments.
Campus director Erin Fristad said 23 students are now enrolled in the degree program from all over the country, including five from Port Townsend.
She said the school offers all the classes needed for a full degree but also will accept up to 75 transfer credits.
“We work in a partnership with Peninsula College and other community colleges,” Fristad said.
Kessler, who was an active supporter of Fort Worden during her years in the state Legislature, said her sponsorship of the bill that subsidized the construction of Fort Worden Commons was not all her own work.
“When I represented this district, Port Townsend stood out in so many ways,” she said.
“They had the intensity and vision for the future,” she added.
“You can give me credit, but the people in this community deserve the credit because they did all the hard work in convincing legislators to support this.”
Kessler called Port Townsend’s efforts on behalf of the commons “relentless.”
“I’m getting up there,” said Kessler, 71.
“But I’ve never lost my desire to learn. There is an opportunity every day to have a teachable moment.”
Said Port Townsend School of Woodworking Director Tim Lawson: “Port Townsend is a community with a lot of hidden depth.
“Fort Worden is building a platform that is allowing us to share that richness.”
Vacarr said Goddard’s success is attributable to several partnerships with community members and organizations,
“Given the current crisis in education, Goddard brings a perspective that is needed now more than ever,” she said.
“We hear it all the time: that our educational system is broken, that we are more concerned with teaching than learning and that we are more concerned with teaching for the tests rather than encouraging inquiry.”
Vacarr said Goddard’s learning-centered model has the potential to reverse these disadvantages.
“We forget that the main goal of education in a democracy is to nurture the development of thoughtful, compassionate, active and engaged citizens,” she said.
For more information, phone 360-344-4100 or visit www.goddard.edu.
Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
