Open Letter to the Board of Trustees and Dan Hocoy

Per case, law established in rulings including, but not limited to: Carr v. St John’s University, Healey v. Larsson, Goodman v. President and Trustees of Bowdoin College, Ross v. Creighton University, Beukas v. Fairleigh, etc., the relationships between students and higher institutes of learning are, in fact, contractual. These contractual obligations include verbal and implied contracts, and the presence of a disclaimer does not, in fact, prevent any institutional document from being contractual. In addition, not only does the responsibility to ensure that contracts are made in good faith fall on the shoulders of the institution, but students are entitled to limited fiduciary care. As students of Goddard College, we have entered into a contractual relationship with the College.

The aforementioned case law also demonstrates that administration and faculty act as official representatives of the College, and any contracts–including verbal–must be honored. During the Spring 2024 residency, students were repeatedly assured that the College was not closing and that students would have full participation, albeit virtually with regard to residency, during the 2024-2025 school year.

At the beginning of the Spring 2024 semester, the College announced that there would be virtual-only residencies for Fall 2024 and Spring 2025 semesters, and then would reassess. The Board’s decision to close the College at the end of the Spring 2024 semester directly violates this implied contract to continue its operations at least through the end of the 2024-2025 school year.

The College encouraged and accepted applications for Pre-G students in its PSY program, even for the Spring 2024 semester. Because the Pre-G semester is a necessary condition–depending on circumstance–for admission into the graduate program, these students were accepted and admitted into the College with the understanding they would begin their full graduate studies in the Fall 2024 semester. The College has failed to uphold their contract with these students, due to the decision of the Board.

The Student Handbook, a written contract between the College and the Students, entitles the Students to a six-week extension for coursework upon the conclusion of the semester. The College’s refusal to grant Students that same six-week extension and insistence that Students could only have a three-week extension upon conclusion of the Spring 2024 semester is in direct violation of its contractual obligations to Students.

These are only a handful of the breaches of contract on the part of the College. It is our hope that these are enough to prompt the Board to redress these failures, without the need to explicitly lay out in detail each and every contract violation.

We demand a timely response from the Board with explicit and clear remedies concerning the upholding of these good faith contracts in which the Students entered with the College, especially given the nature of reliance on the part of the Students.

The Goddard College Mission espouses “We challenge ourselves and each other to embrace uncertainty, experiment, and imagine unexpected outcomes. Recognizing our interconnectedness with others and with the earth, we hold our scholarship and our actions to the highest standards of integrity, authenticity, and compassion (emphasis added).” As a part of that, the Mission continues, “Understanding that access to resources and social and political power are not equally distributed, we offer the means to explore and articulate a wide range of personal and cultural understandings of well-being and justice, and to take action to create a more just world.”

The Goddard College Profile, under Accountability and Assessment, states “Learning is a student-centered process (emphasis added).” In addition, “As the inventor of the intensive-residency adult degree program format in 1963 and a committed practitioner since then, Goddard has spent the last four decades assessing and refining this innovative approach to education. All of our programs embody values and beliefs grounded in the philosophy of John Dewey and other progressive educators: the most effective education occurs when it is shaped around the student’s interests, experiences, and goals and the student is an active participant (emphasis added).”

Regarding the foundation of the College, “Alarmed by the rise of fascism in Europe, Pitkin founded Goddard College in 1938 to unite the liberal values of the Seminary with Dewey’s belief that interactive, self-directed education could help build civil, democratic societies [...] The College continues to grow and change along with its students (emphasis added), who come to Goddard to transform themselves, their communities, and their world.”

The bylaws of Goddard College explicitly name the Board of Trustees as responsible for the “good name, the assets, and the policies of the College [...] for assuring that its decisions and the actions of its surrogates support the mission, vision, and values of the College” (IV.4.1). The Secretary, in specific, “shall ensure that the Board of Trustees is acting in accordance with these Bylaws” (VI.6.4.e). Further, the standard of conduct is laid out in XI.11.1.a.1 and XI.11.1.a.2.i: “The individual shall demonstrate that: (1) the Trustee conducted himself or herself in good faith; and (2) the Trustee reasonably believed: (i) in the case of conduct in his or her official capacity with the College, that his or her conduct was in the College’s best interests (emphasis added).”

In addition, per the Bylaws of the College: “The duties of the Institutional Advancement Committee are to oversee and assist with fund-raising activities, alumni relations, marketing and communications, public relations, and community relations” (V.5.1.4.a) and “The duties of the Campus Planning and Sustainability Committee shall be to oversee and review (1) the development of College planning activities; (2) efforts being made at the College to develop and implement policies and procedures that will contribute to the creation of a sustainable institution” (V.5.1.7.a). The Bylaws clarify that, “If a committee is inactive or unpopulated, the executive committee will take up the responsibilities of said committee” (V.5.1.a).

There have been no “fund-raising activities” nor have there been “efforts made at the College to develop and implement policies and procedures that will contribute to the creation of a sustainable institution.” Declaring that the College has no choice other than to close, when the College has not followed its own Bylaws or taken actual action, including with regard to “alumni relations”, is unacceptable. The Board has failed to live up to their responsibilities to the College as clearly evidenced in the Bylaws of the College.

President Hocoy’s letter on the official College website states, “Goddard College is precisely the higher education our world needs, now more than ever. [...] Goddard College is truly exceptional in its history, mission, and impact; it has phenomenal potential and has a critical role to play (all emphasis added) in the American higher education landscape.” Closing the College at the end of the Spring 2024 semester is in direct opposition to this phenomenal potential and critical role.

Per the College Mission, the College is held to the “highest standards of integrity, authenticity, and compassion.” The actions of the Board of Trustees and President Hocoy have shown little regard for the good name of the College. The Board and the President have not conducted themselves in the best interests of the College. The Secretary (who is not explicitly identified on the College website) has failed to ensure that the Board is acting in accordance with the Bylaws of the College. The Board and the President have blatantly acted and decided in ways directly opposed to “the mission, vision, and values of the College.”  Neither the Board of Trustees nor President Hocoy have demonstrated any standards of integrity, authenticity, or compassion.

In addition, for someone who is supposed to be the academic leader of the College, President Hocoy has not demonstrated willingness to act in a manner befitting those responsibilities. President Hocoy has not even communicated directly with the Students of the College regarding this decision to close the College. The only statements shared by President Hocoy have been published in news media. This lack of action and avoidance of responsibility to his job, coupled with the votes of “No Confidence” taken by both the Goddard Alumni Association and the Goddard College Student Council, demonstrate both President Hocoy’s inability to act as President of Goddard College and the failure of the Board of Trustees to ensure that the College is well-led and supported.

The Goddard College Board of Trustees and President Hocoy have both failed the College with respect to its Mission, its Principles, its Students, its Faculty, its Staff, and its Bylaws. This is unacceptable, and accountability for the actions and choices made by the Board of Trustees and President Hocoy is demanded. 

Written By Mara Osowiecki, PSY & Counseling Graduate Student, May 2024
Shared with Student Council May 2024