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The Evergreen State College is an accredited public baccalaureate arts and sciences college, founded in 1967 in the state capital, Olympia, Washington. Begun as an experimental and non-traditional college, its academic offerings have become generally more traditional over time, but faculty still issue narrative evaluations of students' work rather than grades, and Evergreen still organizes most studies into largely interdisciplinary classes titled "Coordinated Studies Programs," which generally constitute a full-time course load. In late 2005, Evergreen's level of academic challenge was marked in the top ten percent of all baccalaureate colleges in the nation by the National Survey of Student Engagement, a study by Indiana University and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. In years past, Evergreen consistently ranked highly in the U.S. News & World Report college rankings. However, Evergreen is currently ranked a tier 4 school *.

Evergreen offers the degrees of Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Arts and Sciences, Bachelor of Science in Liberal Arts and Sciences, Master of Environmental Studies, Master of Public Administration, and Master in Teaching. As of 2005 it had approximately 4,500 students taught by over 224 faculty members. Evergreen's campus is the largest of any Washington state baccalaureate institution at approximately 1,000 acres (4 km²). The campus is located five miles northwest of Olympia on the Cooper Point Peninsula and has 3,000 feet (910 m) of water frontage on Puget Sound's Eld Inlet.

The Evergreen State College has a large influence on the culture and economy of the growing city of Olympia. In 2003, the city was named as one of the 40 best college towns in the nation by Outside magazine *.

Identity and athletics

Evergreen's motto, Omnia Extares, is both a latinization of the sixties catchphrase "let it all hang out," and a reference to the school mascot, the geoduck. School colors are green and white. The Geoduck Fight Song is the college's official fight song. It was written in 1971 by Malcolm Stilson, a staff librarian at the college from 1970 into the 1980's. He was well known at the college for writing satirical musicals about Evergreen and Olympia (such as "Das Kapital Mall") which were performed by faculty and staff members. In proper performances of the fight song, arm motions accompany the third and fourth lines of each verse. The lyrics are as follows:
Go, geoducks, go!
Through the sand and the mud let's go!
Siphon high, squirt it out, swivel all about.
Let it all hang out!

Go, geoducks, go!
Stick your neck out when the tide is low!
Siphon high, squirt it out, swivel all about.
Let it all hang out!

The basketball and soccer programs are noted for recent national rankings in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics.

History

In 1964, a report was issued by the Council of Presidents of Washington state baccalaureate institutions, stating that another college was needed in the state to balance the geographical distribution of the existing state institutions. This report spurred the 1965 Washington legislature to create the Temporary Advisory Council on Public Higher Education to study the need and possible location for a new state college.

In 1965-66, the Temporary Advisory Council on Public Higher Education (assisted by Nelson Associates of New York) concluded "at the earliest possible time a new college should be authorized," to be located at a suburban site in Thurston County within a radius of approximately 10 miles from Olympia.

Evergreen's enabling legislation - HB 596 (Chapter 47, Laws of 1967) - stated that the campus should be no smaller than 600 acres (2.4 km²), making it then the largest campus in the state as well as the first public four-year college created in Washington in the 20th century.

On January 24, 1968, The Evergreen State College was selected from 31 choices as the name of the new institution. On November 1, 1968, Charles J. McCann assumed the first presidency of the college. McCann and the founding faculty held the first day of classes October 4, 1971 with 1178 students. McCann served from 1968 until his retirement June 6, 1977 when former Governor Daniel J. Evans, who signed the legislation creating Evergreen, assumed the presidency. Evans left the president's office abruptly in 1983 when he was appointed to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy created by the death of Senator Henry M. Jackson. The largest building on campus is named in honor of Evans, the Daniel J. Evans Library Building. The entrance to the campus bears McCann's name, the Charles J. McCann plaza. In 2004, the college added on a new Seminar II building. The current president is Thomas L. Purce.

Notable Evergreen State College students and alumni

Student groups

  • Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER)
  • Asian Solidarity In Action (ASIA)
  • Bike Shop
  • Body and Brain
  • Capoeira Angola
  • Carnival
  • CD Project
  • Center for Environmental and Natural Skills Education (CENSE)
  • Chemistry Club
  • Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES)
  • Coalition Against Sexual Violence
  • College Republicans
  • Common Bread
  • Community Gardens
  • Cooper Point Journal Newspaper
  • Development of Ecological Projects for the Evergreen Organic Farm (DEAP)
  • Disabled Student Alliance
  • Environmental Resource Center (ERC)
  • Evergreen Animal Rights Network (EARN)
  • Evergreen Electronic Music Collective
  • Evergreen Infoshoppe
  • Evergreen Irish Resurgence Experiment (EIRE)
  • Evergreen Political Information Center (EPIC)
  • Evergreen Queer Alliance (EQA)
  • Evergreen Spontaneity Club
  • Evergreen Students for Christ
  • Expressive Arts Alliance
  • Expressive Arts Student Activities League (EASAL)
  • Gaming Guild
  • Giant Robot Appreciation Society (GRAS)
  • Greener Futures
  • Greeners for Student Government
  • Healing Arts Collective
  • Jewish Cultural Center
  • Juggling Club
  • LARP Strategy and Dragons
  • Masters of Environmental Studies Graduate Student Association
  • Masters in Public Administration
  • Masters in Teaching
  • MEChA
  • Media Influenced Entertainment
  • Mindscreen Film Group
  • Musician's Club
  • Native Student Alliance (NSA)
  • Newly Emerging Recognizers of the Dimensional Sciences (NERDS)
  • Order of Sustainable Energy
  • Organizing for Evergreen Student Union
  • Prison Action Committee (PAC)
  • Progressive Planners Network
  • Percussion Club
  • Radical Catholics for Justice and Peace
  • Services & Activities (S&A) Board
  • S&A Productions
  • Set Tha' Pace
  • Shaolin Temple Cultural Arts Club
  • Slightly West Literary Magazine
  • Student Video Gamers Alliance
  • Students Against Hunger and Homelessness
  • Students at Evergreen for Ecological Design (SEED)
  • Students Educating Students About the Middle East (SESAME)
  • Students Organizing for Food Autonomy (SOFA)
  • Synergy
  • The EverGleaners
  • The Russian Greeners: Russian Club
  • Umoja
  • VOX
  • Women of Color Coalition
  • Womens' Resource Center
  • Writer's Guild
  • Yoga Club

See also

References

External links

Universities and colleges in Washington

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "The Evergreen State College".

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