No academic departments. No academic requirements*. No faculty rank**. No grades.
The Evergreen State College is often noted for what it isn't, perhaps most famously by the "Four Nos" first articulated almost 50 years ago by founding president Charlie McCann. Before Evergreen opened its doors, direction for the new college was as much about what it shouldn't be as what it should. State Senator Gordon Sandison said the Legislature did not want "just another four year college" bound by rigid structures of tradition, and Governor Dan Evans expressed the need to "unshackle our educational thinking from traditional patterns" to create a "flexible and sophisticated educational instrument" (Clabaugh 1970).
Knowing what we aren't helps define us, but it doesn't tell the bigger story of what we are. The documents listed below are some of the college's primary texts and key secondary sources, arranged by decade. Some examine the college from a broad perspective. Others focus more tightly on particular elements of Evergreen's history, organization, and educational approach. We hope these materials shed light on how Evergreen became the college it did and how it continues to define and redefine itself.
If you don't see something that you think should be here, send your suggestion by email to rar@evergreen.edu. To learn more about Evergreen's history, visit the Archives in Library 0426.
Many thanks to John McLain for originating this bibliography.
* Except for the Academic Statement (2011).
** Except for effective tenure (dating to mid-1980s or mid-1990s). And adjuncts.
Horace Mann. Horace Mann on the Crisis in Education. Louis Filler, ed. Yellow Springs, Ohio: Antioch Press. 1965. [in library]
Alexander Meiklejohn. The Experimental College. New York: Arno Press. 1971 (c1932). [in library]
Alexander Meiklejohn. Education between Two Worlds. New York, Harper & Brothers. 1942
Alexander Meiklejohn. The Liberal College. New York: Arno Press. 1969.
Joseph Tussman. Experiment at Berkeley. London: Oxford. 1969. [in library]
Martin Duberman. Black Mountain: An Exploration in Community. New York: Dutton. 1972. [in library]
Dean E. Clabaugh. Planning for The Evergreen State College: History and Progress. 15 June 1970.
Charles J. McCann. Institutional Goals and Statement of Purpose. No date.
Class of '72 (autobiographical photobook of early faculty). No date.
David Marr and S. R. "Rudy" Martin. The M 'n M Manifesto: My Snowman's Burning Down. 9 March 1972.
Edward J. Kormondy. A Brief History: 1967-1973. No date.
Northwest Association of Secondary and Higher Schools. Accreditation Report of the Evaluation Committee (aka Evaluation Committee Report: The Evergreen State College). 1 May 1974.
Non-white Programs DTF. Non-White Disappearing Task Force Report and Memos (aka Report and Recommendations). 6 June 1974.
Quinault II Task Force. Quinault II: A Curriculum Addressed to the Human Condition. 13 May 1975.
David Marr and S. R. "Rudy" Martin. M & M II: The Current Crisis. 24 November 1975.
Sid White. On Authority and Authoritativeness. No date.
Katharine M. Bullitt, et al. The Evergreen State College: Report of the Citizens Evaluation Group to the Board of Trustees. 1 September 1976.
Rita Sevcik. The Evergreen State College--Planning Milestones and Early Years: 1967-1977. No date.
Stephen C. Ehrmann. Final Report: Vol. I: Introduction, Evolution of Goals and Strategies, Project Reports and Vol. II: Evaluation of Evergreen. 31 August 1977. [A consultant's report supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation]
Accreditation Progress Report. 1977.
William Chance and Denis J. Curry. The Evergreen Study: Report and Recommendations on The Evergreen State College. A Report in Response to Substitute Senate Bill 3109. Washington Council for Postsecondary Education. February 1979.
Northwest Association of Secondary and Higher Schools. Accreditation of the Evaluation Committee (aka Evaluation Committee Report: The Evergreen State College). 26 October 1979.
Barbara Leigh Smith and Jean T. MacGregor. What Is Collaborative Learning? An abbreviation of an article of the same name that appeared in Anne Goodsell, Michelle Maher, Vincent Tinto, Barbara Leigh Smith and Jean MacGregor. Collaborative Learning: A Sourcebook for Higher Education. University Park, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press. 1992.
Peter Tommerup. Teaching and Learning at Evergreen: An Ethnographic Study. 1992.
Donald L. Finkel and William Ray Arney. Educating for Freedom. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rugters University Press. 1995. [in library]
Student Voices of '71: A 25th Anniversary Retrospective. First edition. 1996.
Long-Range Curriculum DTF Final Report. 1996.
Reaccreditation Self-Study. 1998.
Concluding Analysis and Future Issues (Evergreen's Twelve Critical Tensions). Abstracted from Reaccreditation Self-Study. 1998.
William Cronon. "Only Connect...": The Goals of a Liberal Education. American Scholar 67:4. 1998.
Northwest Commission on Schools and Colleges, Commission on Colleges. Accreditation Report of the Evaluation Committee (aka Final Reaccreditation Report). 1998.
Accreditation reports. 2010 and following.
Academic Statement and Mentoring Initiative. 2011.
Susan Fiksdal. A Guide to Teaching Effective Seminars. New York: Routledge. 2014. [in library]
Washington State Council of Presidents. A Plan for Public Higher Education in Washington: A Report. 1964.
Arthur D. Little, Inc. A Policy Plan for Community College Education in State of Washington. 1966.
Nelson Associates. Planning for Higher Education Needs in the State of Washington. 1966.
Frederic T. Giles. Initial Planning and Cost Considerations for a New State College--State of Washington. 10 January 1967.
Garrett Heyns, president of Southwestern Washington State College Committee. Statement to joint public hearing of Senate and House Committees on Higher Education, Washington Legislature. 15 February 1967.
House Bill 596--1967 authorizing legislation.
The Making of the College: 1964-67. No date.
Washington State Temporary Council on Public Higher Education. A Report on Higher Education in Washington. 1969.
Dean E. Clabaugh. The Evergreen State College Developmental Aspects Prior to Appointment of the President. 25 November 1969.
Richard Jones. Experiment at Evergreen. Rochester, Vermont: Schenkman. 1981. [in library]
Byron Youtz. The Evergreen State College: An Experiment Maturing. 1981.
Mervyn L. Cadwallader. Experiment at San Jose. Conference on Alternative Higher Education. 1981.
William Henry Stevens. The Philosophical and Political Origins of The Evergreen State College. Ph.D. dissertation. University of Washington. 1983. [in library]
Leo Daugherty. The Teaching of Writing at Evergreen: A Collection of Strategies. 1984.
Richard M. Jones and Barbara Leigh Smith. Against the Current: Reform and Experimentation in Higher Education. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Schenkman. 1984. [in library]
Patrick Hill. The Rationale for Learning Communities. Speech delivered at the Inaugural Conference on Learning Communities of the Washington Center for Improving the Quality of Undergraduate Education. 22 October 1985.
Final Report of the Environment Committee for Strategic Planning. 5-6 March 1986
Final Report of the Strategic Planning Council. 7 August 1986.
Final Report of the Values and Aspirations Committee for Strategic Planning. 1986.
Booth Gardner. The Governor's Letter: The Washington Center: A Key to Higher Education Progress. Washington Center News 2:1. 1987.
What We Believe: The Five Foci of Learning. ca. 1988.
Constancy and Change: A Self-Study Report. (Reaccreditation Self-Study). 1989.
Northwest Commission on Schools and Colleges, Commission on Colleges. Accreditation Report of the Evaluation Committee (aka Reaccreditation Report). 1989.
Donald L. Finkel. Teaching with Your Mouth Shut. Portsmouth, New Hampshire. 2000. [in library]
Barbara Leigh Smith and John McCann. Reinventing Ourselves: Interdisciplinary Education, Collaborative Learning, and Experimentation in Higher Education. Boston: Anker. 2001. [in library]
Six Expectations of an Evergreen Graduate. 2001.
John McCann. General Education at Evergreen. 2002.
Gillies Malnarich and Emily Decker Lardner. Designing Integrated Learning for Students: A Heuristic for Teaching, Assessment and Curricular Design. Occasional paper. Washington Center for Improving the Quality of Undergraduate Education. 2003.
Interim Accreditation Self-Study. 2003.
Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. Interim Accreditation Report. 2003.
NSSE Institute for Effective Educational Practice. Documenting Effective Educational Practice Final Report: The Evergreen State College. 2003.
Teaching Practices at Evergreen. 2003.
Barbara Leigh Smith, Jean MacGregor, Roberta S. Matthews, and Faith Gablenick. Learning Communities: Reforming Undergraduate Education. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. 2004. [in library]
Narrative Evaluation Study Group. Narrative Evaluation Guide. 2004.
2005 Transcript Review Assessment Workshop. Preliminary Report. 2005.
The Real Faculty Handbook, revised. 2006.
Sam Schrager. The Liberal Arts at Evergreen. 2006.
Report to the President by the Diversity DTF. 2006.
Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Architects LLP. The Evergreen State College Master Plan. 2008.
Reaccreditation Self-Study. 2008.
Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. Final Reaccreditation Report. 2008.
United Faculty of Evergreen Collective Bargaining Agreement. 2008. (First CBA between UFE and the college).