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The Center was moved from its remaining dormitory (one of its dormitories had already been taken over by the University) to Bekins Hall, a smaller dorm across campus. The first Director of the Johnston Center, chosen by the University Board of Trustees, was a recent hire by Johnston, and was chosen not because she had the best understanding of the Johnston ideas, but because she was willing to do the job.
The History points out that the continued existence of the Johnston Center after the 1979 reorganization was quite a surprise to many Johnsonites. Yet at the same time it claims that continued existence is in reality not paradoxical at all: ``Once Johnston faculty contracts were securely under University control and the faculty `massacre' carried out, the University did an about-face and made real efforts to preserve all the other trappings of the Johnston system: narrative evaluations, graduation contracts, even a good measure of living autonomy. The reason quickly became clear: what the University administration wanted was complete administrative and fiscal as opposed to academic control.''
With the faculty's new departmental roles in the University, their commitment to Johnston was pushed very far. Fewer and fewer faculty had social contact with the students (a practice which had always been looked down upon by the University anyway, and which would inevitably wane as the founding faculty grew older) and time to dedicate to an innovative Johnston. Socially and academically, the Center became increasingly integrated with the University. Johnston Director Owada thinks the main differences between the Johnston of the early eighties and the mid nineties are the willingness of the Johnston students to engage in University courses and the willingness of the University Professors to engage at least partially in Johnston. Just over 70 of the 120 University faculty wrote narrative evaluations in the Fall of 1994.
Currently, Johnston, like Hampshire, is a home to more women than men. At Johnston, according to two different sources, the ratio is either 4:1, or 3:2. Each year there are between thirty and forty new Freshman, as well as somewhere between one and two dozen transfers from the University. Owada complained to me that he thinks Johnston's retention is too high. He feels like a lot of students really should not be in school at certain parts of their lives. ``We only lose 5 or 6 in a good year,'' he joked. The Johnston College days, he says, had much higher and healthier turnover.[20]