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The main focus of my research on Johnston was the role of a self-governing community in education. I wanted to be able to make suggestions for Hampshire's community and education, especially the issues of power within the community. I have found much more than I originally intended, and this paper is therefore more complex than I intended. My main thesis, if I were forced to present this as having one main thesis, would be that the Johnston's educational successes have been dependent on its egalitarianism. That thesis unfolds itself more or less naturally in the paper, quite naturally and with surprisingly little attention paid to it by the author. Should Hampshire investigate methods for bringing about a more egalitarian academic and living environment? My suspicion is yes; and therefore the paper is admittedly loaded (in more than one sence) with suggestions I have for that kind of development.
The first chapter outlines the history of the College and the Center, and it sets the stage for the study of the development and current structure of the academic and residential programs at Johnston. I have included some history in the other chapters as well, especially where that history is relevant to the current structures.
The second chapter goes into the academic side of Johnston, with sections on class and graduation contracts, programs, classes, and cross-cultural studies.
The third chapter is devoted to the politics and community in existence in the living-learning Johnston Center and Complex. It draws on issues of faculty management (hiring and firing), and some other early issues and meta-issues in the governance of the college. Additionally, it provides some reporting on contemporary issues within the community.
The fourth chapter deals with the self-evaluative and innovative aspects of Johnston. It presents the extensive studies that were an essential part of Johnston's development and points out that innovation and self-evaluation have been far less prevalent since the end of the 70s.
There is a conclusion with three main purposes: first, to sum up and reintegreate the parts of Johnston, and to talk about Johnston's story for itself and that story's importance to higher education in the United States; second, to provide some remarks about the impact of Johnston on the University of Redlands; third, to relate Johnston's experience to the Hampshire experience, providing more concrete details about what Hampshire and Johnston can learn from one another. For a reader concerned with Hampshire College, this is the most important chapter.
Finally, there is an afterward, which disucusses issues of broader conclusions that can be drawn from a comparison between Hampshire and Johnston. Admittedly, I am somewhat unable to provide a revolutionary point of view on this matter.
I have two main conlusions that I would like to share with Hampshire. First, as I explain in the third part of the conclusion, Hampshire must consider a more egalitarian attitude. To that end, I suggest following up on a suggestion of Charles Longsworth, creating a ``radical departure'' branch of the college -- a subset of the college devoted to exploring new methods to counter current problems. I also encourage the remainder of the college to pursue more egalitarian forms within their more-traditionally-Hampshire setting, such as optional class contracts, student empowerment (via Houses choosing their own interns and intern duties, for example), faculty-student discussions on potential courses, and more serious course and teacher evaluations (midsemester or end-of-semester).
Second, I am convinced that the alternative colleges in this country must become more self-evaluative, and that they should do this in partnership with one another. The insight I have from doing a study of another alternative school has been invaluable. Some Johnston students suggest the same:
After 15 years of isolationism, it is time to re-engage with the national movement. This means not only beginning a dialogue on campus but extending it beyond Redlands as well. By communication with other colleges, organizations and participants in alternative education we can share ideas in regard to out successes, challenges, and ambitions. And in the process we will come to better understand what makes Johnston unique.[7]
To this end, I suggest faculty and student exchanges, January-term or semester-long. I suggest Hampshire make a commitment to self-evaluation and the idea of a federation of alternative colleges. I suggest a possible conference on the future of the alternative colleges. Such a conference might focus, for example, on the different places the alternative colleges are in relation to what Goodwin Watson suspected would be their main problems in his unpublished 1960s paper ``Some Notes on Experimental Colleges in America'': 1) faculty overload 2) students attitude, negatively carrying over from bad high-school experiences 3) outgroup hostility 4) tenacity of academic disciplines 5) financial problems 6) the blindness of idealism 7) an eventual regression so that the cluster college program looks very much like the average program of the average college or university.
This paper provides an example of the kind of discovery a commitment to self-evaluation would facilitate. I hope it is only the beginning.