"Evergreen State" redirects here. For the state with that nickname (in which this college is located), see
Washington.
The Evergreen State College is an accredited public liberal arts college and is a member of the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges that is located in Olympia, Washington, USA. Founded in 1967, Evergreen was formed to be an experimental and non-traditional college. Faculty issue narrative evaluations of students' work rather than grades, and Evergreen organizes most studies into largely interdisciplinary classes that generally constitute a full-time course load. The current Evergreen President is Thomas L. (Les) Purce and its Board Chair is Christopher Hedrick.
Evergreen offers a Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Arts and Bachelor of Science, Master of Environmental Studies, Master of Public Administration, Master of Education, and Master in Teaching. As of 2009, there are 4,696 students, 4,364 of whom are undergraduates, taught by 243 faculty members.[1] The Evergreen State College has a large influence on the culture and economy of the growing city of Olympia.
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 (16 km) 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 stepping down to join the faculty 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 completed the 170,000-square-foot (16,000 m2) Seminar II building, and a significant remodel of the Daniel J. Evans Library is now complete. Work is set to begin on a remodel of the College Activity Building (CAB). The current president is Thomas L. Purce.
In 1999, convicted killer Mumia Abu-Jamal was invited to deliver the keynote address for the graduating class at the college. The event was protested heavily.
The campus contains a large tract of undeveloped land along the Puget Sound waterfront, much of it being second growth evergreen forest, which is of use to the students and faculty of the campus as a research and natural area. The entire campus comprises about 408 hectares (1008 acres), much of it forested land. This total includes 11 hectares (27 acres) of southern Puget Sound tidelands.[2] In addition to the main campus, there is also an organic farm as well as an urban campus located in Tacoma, Washington.
360° panorama on the campus of The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. This panorama features the Daniel J. Evans Library and the clock tower set in a brick courtyard lined with trees.
In 2008 the college became one of about 30 college and universities in the country to create a gender neutral option in its campus housing. This space is a designated safe space for LGBT students and allies and can also be used by married heterosexual couples.[citation needed]
Rankings
The Evergreen State College has garnered many academic acollades. According to U.S. News & World Report's 2009-2010 college rankings, Evergreen is ranked #1 in the West for Undergraduate Teaching at Masters Universities.[3] Evergreen is also among the top colleges in the nation for offering the best first-year experiences to freshmen, which entails building into the curriculum first-year seminars or other programs that bring small groups of students together with faculty and staff on a regular basis.[4] In late 2006, Evergreen's level of academic challenge among freshmen and seniors 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 Pew Charitable Trusts.[5] Author and former New York Times education editor Loren Pope cites Evergreen as one of two public colleges in the United States in his book Colleges That Change Lives. In addition, The Princeton Review lists Evergreen as one of the Best Western Colleges for 2009-2010.[6]
Notable people
Notable student groups
The Seminar II building, completed in 2004
Riot To Follow Productions (Student theater group)
See also
References
External links
Coordinates: 47°04′23″N 122°58′34″W / 47.072964°N 122.976151°W / 47.072964; -122.976151
