It's difficult to conceive where a timeline for EPEC would start. Should it start with God? The Bing Bang? Homo Sapiens? Plato? Jesus? The reformation? With my mother's idealistic notions - from 1969, the year she moved from Chicago to Vermont - of a community-based educational system in the year 2000? My mother giving me my own drawer of kitchen utensils so I could make my own kind of soup, or my father's constant badmouthing of authority figures and status quos of every kind? Even as young boy in elementary school, I knew that the school I was in was not helping me to learn as effectively as it could have been in many areas - but I did not realize I was empowered to change them, or to think in very concrete terms about what school should be like. In short, I had some good ideas about problems, but no encouragement or discovery that I could connect this thought with the action of creating something new. Clearly, then, the way I want to start this timeline is the reminder that people and ideas, linked by event chains, have as their causes and effects more of the same. Also, with the warning that this timeline will be biased towards the thread of my own consciousness and experience - an important thread in EPEC, and probably the only indispensable one, but certainly not the only one.
The first effort at my educational reform while at Hampshire came in my first semester (F92) as a result of being frustrated with the ``more of the same'' authority situation. I suggested to Herb that I wanted to try learning without teachers, with the only people I thought might be interested, friends from high school. He deflated my enthusiasm by suggesting that I could do it at Hampshire. (I only now realize that the reason this was so deflating for me was that I didn't know any other people to do it with at Hampshire, or how to do it at Hampshire.)
My second attempted educational reform at Hampshire was later that year, in spring of 1993. Josh Moses and I developed the idea of a Brainstorm and Idea Board to network students to form their own classes. We wrote an article for the campus newspaper (Document 3), and in the fall put up the board. We neglected to notice, however, that we weren't sure how in the world people would form student-led courses. Probably I would have been able to save two or three years of strange attempts at reform if there had been just one professor, administrator, or knowledgeable older student who had the sense and kindness to reach out to me at that point and help me to start just one of these courses. Using the terms I defined in part II of this division III, this was the point when the educators could have helped me to put my awareness into action.
So, when the Brainstorm and Idea Board didn't meet my expectations, several of us set up a computer-based approach to networking, the Student Information Network (SIN) in fall of 1993 (Documents 4 and 5). That didn't really work, either, though, because it didn't solve the problems that we'd originally had with the board - it had simply been a different approach to networking, which wasn't the real problem. The real problem was we didn't know how to do what we wanted to. Again using the language of part II, we weren't able to integrate thought and action - or, more to the point, we didn't even realize that not being able to integrate thought and action was our real problem!
The next January (1995), I traveled to the Johnston Center. (The trip is described in the AHEN timeline, and selections from my report are in Document 7) After a few months of reflection, I started suggesting that we could start some kind of alternative center within Hampshire. I wasn't really clear what exactly this center would look like, however, and couldn't drum up much support from faculty, administration, or students. I probably could have gotten something off the ground, but I was also planning to be on leave the next year, so didn't devote myself to it fully.
The next fall (1995), I was on leave, but started a student-led education class at Hampshire (Document 15). As described at the end of the Fall 1996 letter To All EPEC Course Participants (Document 45), this course was a fruitful experience for figuring out some of the basics of what our goals were, and how to achieve them (connecting thought and action). I had the faint notion that this group might end up being important to a future Radical Departure, and even gave a talk to the class explaining the history and meaning of my thinking about the Radical Departure (Document 16). Educationally, this course was very much in the style of the EPEC courses I sponsored in the fall of 1996 with important learning taking place, but administratively (in terms of evaluations and official existence) it was a fiasco. I had originally arranged with a faculty member to sponsor the course, and both he and the course members failed to make their expectations clear to one another.
Finally, one evening in mid to late February 1996, I received a phone call from a friend at Hampshire. She told me about a rumor she had heard of another perverse ``maturation'' of the Hampshire academic system, and within a half-hour I was sitting at the computer writing out ``The Radical Departure'' (Document 21).
Before long, I was spending almost half my time at Hampshire, holding meetings with students on what we wanted RD to be, on how to publicize, on how to make it work. I went to many breakfasts with the President. I cooked several dinners to people to the RD meetings. e wrote two other ``RD papers'' (Documents 22 and 23), gave several faculty copies of these papers, and met with some of them about the ideas (without feeling like they had understood a word I had written). I also suggested the idea of a student-led farm course researching and constructing cold frames or greenhouses to Brian Schultz (who was going to be the next Dean of Natural Science), and to Hampshire College Farm Manager David Holm. Both liked the idea.
There was a trustee dinner with students at which several of us from RD presented what we were proposing, and several trustees were impressed - Blair Brown, Chairman of the Board in particular. The next day (I was told), they emphasized to the administration that this was an important program they wanted to see supported, and before I knew it, Aaron Berman (Dean of Advising) was acting mighty friendly. It is still not clear to me whether this is because he saw a glimpse of light or because the Trustees made him feel like he ought to be more open to us - but in our conversations since then, he has become increasingly aware and supportive of the ideas I am talking about, and I feel like this support now definitely is genuine.
At that time, I still conceived of Radical Departure as a more integrated experience - one large group, mostly living together, and eating together at least once a week. I was spending a lot of energy trying to figure out the housing problems - going to COCD about space they supposedly controlled in some donuts, going to several people in the administration, talking with people who offered to have their mods be RD housing in the fall (other people helped some with these tasks, too). I also tried for more than 3 meetings in a row to get on the Community Council agenda, but they wouldn't let me on because they had better things to do than govern - they were talking about how to govern, in the form of the ``new constitution.'' Eventually, the administration did not give us any preferential housing, and neither of the two mods of people we put into the mod lottery got a mod. I worked out an arrangement with the Housing Coordinator so that some space in Dakin was going to be reserved as RD housing, and there was a brief description of the Radical Departure included in the new students' housing description, as well as a space for students to indicate a preference to be housed in the RD space.
After the housing fiasco, I had to reformulate my ideas some. (Originally, Greg had even made us feel like he was going to help make sure we got housing, but by the time it was all said and done, we were without.) I suggested that we make a course catalog and suggest EPEC courses (whatever they might be), and Jacob accepted my suggestion to put together this course catalog.
I also applied for funding from Community Council for the Radical Departure. It was turned down, but there was some accepted for the Alternative Higher Education Network, some of which we ended up using for EPEC in the fall.
Finally, there was a great deal of email energy spent discussing the Radical Departure on our email list.
In May 1996, I proposed to change the name ``Radical Departure'' to ``The Experimental Program in Education and Community.'' This change in name marks several important realizations and decisions on my part. First, I accepted that my goal of shared leadership was not appropriate to our situation. No other members were clear on their goals, and no other members knew how to act to achieve their goals once we had verbalized them. It wasn't as important to them as it was to me, either. In other words, the program would have to be (in my words then) ``The Chris Kawecki Show.'' I was really going to be a leader. Second, I stopped trying to jump from the beginning right to the end (let's have a perfect learning community) and instead accepted that we would have to get there one step at a time. (This transition was not abrupt; I still find parts of the old me hanging around.)
At this time, I wrote up an official budget proposal and sent it in to Hampshire (read the Index Appendices for a little more on this - also, Document 32). A few weeks later, I also sent a proposal to the Lemelson Program (Document 33) to provide some financial assistance for the agriculture course - and was kept hanging for 6 weeks of polite conversations with the Lemelson Program until finally my request for sponsoring that course was turned down.
By virtue of a job I had as a teaching intern in Springfield, I was housed on campus for all of July, I spent quite a few hours weekly talking to administrators of all kinds. Bobbi Stewart (Director of Central Records) and I figured out that EPEC courses could be included in Hampshire records and regulations as ``co-curricular courses.'' Aaron Berman and I managed to get me housing for August. I also worked on the EPEC brochure.
In September, I finished the brochure (Document 35) and made a final version of the course catalog (Document 36) (carefully going through both with several administrators to make friends), wrote a press release (Document 39), contacted the Pathfinder Alternative Program in Amherst (for homeschoolers) and invited them to participate, wrote the Orientation Banquet Speech (Document 44), wrote To All EPEC Course Participants (as well as a short additional sheet of details for course sponsors), and talked to people all over the country through email, in person, or on my phone bill to get them excited about EPEC again.
Now I will tell the story of how I arranged to give a speech at the Orientation Banquet. In mid July, I wrote up a version of the speech a few days before the new Dean of Students (Bob Sanborn) arrived on campus. As soon as he arrived, I arranged to have a meeting with him. At the meeting, I introduced EPEC to him, as well as gave him an introductory lesson on dozens of things I had learned while at Hampshire. I also gave him a copy of my proposed speech. I said, ``Last year there was no student to give a speech at the orientation banquet, and I thought it was a real missed opportunity.'' ``But isn't the program already planned?'' he asked. I assured him that there was still flexibility - little did he know that I was counting on him to be the source of the flexibility! So I kept rewriting the speech, and it got better and better. I gave a copy to Greg Prince at our August 8 meeting, and he skimmed it and said he would see what he could do (I heard, probably don't get your hopes up in other words). I kept at it - gave a copy to Aaron Berman, and one to Bob Garmirian, who was in charge of some of orientation. With a week to go, it was pretty wishy-washy, but then Aaron Berman was given the duty to inform me that Greg and Fran ``already had a program planned.'' ``Already had a program planned?'' I took a copy of the latest version out of my backpack, and instructed Aaron to read it right then. ``Hm... pretty good...I'll see what I can do. I'll show a copy to Fran.'' So - no word with three days to go, and I email Bob Sanborn (who will be introducing speakers at the banquet) and explain that I feel like I have quite a speech made up, and that if he believes it would be worth while, I would be more than happy to give it, but that if he doesn't want me to give it, I will let it go. Two days to go, and I see Bob, and he says ``Chris, you will be giving your speech. I will introduce you.'' Ha! Two nights before the speech, Joe Fargione came by and helped me remove almost of third of it, and then with two hours to go I made the near-last revisions, and with one minute to go finally finished writing the speech. And that is the story. How to become famous in 6 weeks (Document 44).
The next week, we had the introductory EPEC meeting with the curriculum presentation. In attendance were over 150 students, several families from Pathfinder, 4 random people from Amherst (but no one from Applewood, where I had left dozens of brochures and course catalogs - all of which had been picked up by residents), several alumns, and one administrator (Anne Downes). I distributed over 150 copies of the letter To All EPEC Course Participants, which I had been working on during August (Document 45). It was an amazing evening, and the next day I flew to Charleston, South Carolina for three days to see a very special friend and to recoup before the whopping semester.
Early in the semester, the EPEC budget was at last approved. (I got verbal confirmation from Dean of Student Affairs Bob Sanborn, apparently after several conversations with Greg.) $2,500 of work study money, including my own salary, and $2,500 of additional money. The work study was available immediately, but it took until November until the administration had sorted things out enough so that we could use the cash - at which point most of it was already spent, partially on duplications, partially on paying me for August. The arrangement we had worked out was that all students who committed to doing a course, and did it, would be paid $200. All but one of these were work-study, and the one student who was not work-study was paid out of the $2,500. That basically took care of them money - a little spent here on food, $200 for a plane ticket for Kate Reedy to come do an evaluation of EPEC.
Some of the EPEC classes took off (Agriculture, Holistic Health, ``God, Community, Church, Spirituality, and Community Laboratory,'' ``The Dream Girl, Prince Charming, and Other Dreamy Archetypes: A Workshop on Bringing the Unconscious Into Consciousness'' and Drawing come to mind); others were slow to start but were doing very well by the end of the semester (Building the New Society); some completely died, or faded (Hampshire Assessment Squad, ``Not to Know is Not Enough, and To Know is Not Enough,'' Writing). Most met once or twice a week.
For about the first month of school, I was considering the possibility of trying to arrange some kind of work for myself at Hampshire in the spring, especially helping EPEC get onto solid ground. But by midway through the semester, I had decided that it was time for some kind of change, and I began to speak with individuals, to encourage them to consider the idea of participating int the administration of EPEC. I then let EPEC know that I would not be returning in the spring, and gave some initial ideas on how they might proceed to organize (Document 54).
Several students arranged a meeting to arrange a meeting to arrange meetings to administer EPEC. The meeting was held, and about 10 people showed up - not bad. It seemed, though, that most people didn't catch the whole idea that now is always the time to start something. No fault of their own - they just couldn't conceptualize the future. A few of them had some notion that something had to happen, though, in particular, Silke Akerson (who was in two of my courses). It seemed to me that she was having a terrible time dealing with not wanting to be a leader, but seeing that no one else seemed to catch on that plans had to be made and carried out. But the meeting to plan the meetings was planned, and a letter (Document 58) distributed to all EPEC participants inviting them to this meeting.
The basic feeling at the meeting to plan the meetings was that there should be a steering committee, which might or might not count as an official EPEC class. It was decided that this committee would meet weekly, and each week each individual would take responsibility for doing something. The meeting would be to report back on progress and to coordinate efforts. Thus far, it seems to me that the steering committee is doing admirably for so many inexperienced students. The first thing they did, the curriculum-building meeting, had a few ``learning opportunities.'' Someone made an absolutely incredible sign, and many copies were put up - but then they were almost all torn down because it was the last day of the month. It was also planned for too late at night (9pm), on election night. However, I think considering all that, it was a real wonderful event. Greg Prince arrived (we were shocked and flattered); there were about 30 students, and expensive brownies and teas for over 100. They asked me to say something, and I said something about the importance of people and the effectiveness of trusting oneself. The steering committee introduced their plans. Several sponsors and course participants gave short descriptions of their experiences. Ideas for the spring were brainstormed. A half dozen new recruits came, including Brett Lefferts (who then organized the AHEN trip with me). After the meeting, I sent a crayon drawing to everyone who attended the meeting.
Jacob volunteered to do the course catalog again (Document 60). The first mistake they made with that was neglecting to let the campus know that EPEC was holding an informational meeting for potential sponsors (by Jacob) and that EPEC was requesting submissions for the catalog (I decided to do it myself and placed 1000 little announcements in mail boxes). The second mistake was not planning ahead enough, so that they ended up rushing the course catalog to be duplicated at Kinko's, and costing $470 instead of the Hampshire duplications price of less than $200. An expensive mistake, but I suspect it won't be made again. The steering committee also made a budget submission to community council (once again, community council turned it down because EPEC is too academic for them).
There are two final things I am aware of the steering committe doing: trying to get some dedicated EPEC living space in some mods, or at least some meeting space, and holding a celebration feast. I think the living space task will probably run into the dual problems that the steering committee is not entirely clear why they want the living space, and that the various administrators would rather play on their lack of clarity rather than help them out.
The feast turned out to be, as most things, partly well-done and partly pathetic. Another beautiful poster was constructed by someone, and this time went into all campus mailboxes. Several emails went out announcing the feast. But I could already see from the emails that the organizers didn't have it together. When organizing something like this, I would assume that I would have to provide 80% of the food and personally invite 80% of the people. These organizers were desperately requesting everyone else to do as much (or more) of the cooking and inviting as they were. (They still were scared to accept that they could be capable of doing the whole thing themselves, because then they would be responsible.) Then, I returned from a weekend at home to find an email saying the next day's feast had been cancelled - after all the flyers had been distributed to all campus boxes. I ran into one of the feast organizers, who said she was just as perplexed as I was, and we decided to put it back together. So we made some phone calls and sent some emails. In the hourse before the dinner, I called 60 people from the EPEC mailing list to make sure they would come - some of them didn't know it had been cancelled, some didn't know it had been uncancelled, and finally some knew it all and were already either coming or not. After all that, I think each attendee cooked enough for everyone, and we had enough food for a legion of Roman soldiers. But the 20 of us did feast!!!
One of the students who had come to the AHEN conference in January 1996 was Kate Reedy, a student in the Paracollege at St. Olaf's (Northfield, MN). I arranged for her to fly out to spend a week doing an assessment of EPEC, and she did.
With about a week to go, I wrote up a sample evaluation and some guidelines to help course sponsors write evaluations, showed it to Bobbi Stewart in Central Records to make sure it looked good to her, and sent a copy to each of the sponsors (Document 65).