I saw Jane Sanders on tv this morning and I had a bit of an epiphany.

[Koinos]

65. And here's another piece by Andrew Dinkelaker.

"The Demise of a Pioneer in Progressive Colleges: How Corporate Structure Undermined Democratic Governance at Goddard"

http://quadrant4.org/goddard1a.html

It became clear, when the principle actors of the Goddard hierarchy - the President and the Board of Trustees - decided to take matters into their own hands and unilaterally determine the fate of the college, the Goddard community would have no recourse. As long as no structural means to hold the President and the Board accountable were left to the community, its only option would be to try to protect the progressive institution through public protests, union activities, hunger strikes, petitions, resignations, and potential job actions.

The protests, which received national coverage and garnered support from such prominent figures as Howard Zinn, Grace Paley, Noam Chomsky, Pete Seeger, and David Dellinger, eventually succeeded in ousting Goddard’s 7th President, Richard E. Greene, and reinstating the majority of the staff that were fired on June 6th, 1996.

This victory had a price, however. Jane O'Meara Sanders, wife and chief of staff for Vermont's Independent Congressman Bernie Sanders, and president of the Board at the time, was perhaps Greene's strongest ally. She vehemently supported Greene over faculty and community votes of no-confidence, downplayed the numerous community protests, publically approved of Greene's action plan, which called for the firing of 16 staff, and continued later to defend these indefensible actions. Sanders parlayed her powerful voluntary position as Board President during Greene's tenure into a high-paying position that was newly created at the June 1996 Board meeting - the position of college Provost. A Board committee, under the leadership of Sanders, was to work with the President to outline the job duties and begin an internal search process to fill the position. After the sudden resignation of Greene, at a special Board meeting in August of 1996, Sanders offered her own name for the job, and the Board approved - although the committee had not yet fully defined the role, nor devised a process for selecting candidates. Furthmore, it was now the expectation that the Provost would take over all of the responsibilities of the President until a replacement could be found via a national search (more on 'Provost'). Declining at first to apply for the job of President of the college, Sanders later changed her mind. Even though Sanders did become a finalist, and as Provost was, in effect, the incumbent - and had one leg up on the other candidates as a result of having had the opportunity to meet all of the prospective candidates in her role as Provost, there was enough pressure from the Goddard community that the search committee did not recommend her for the job.

See also here:

http://quadrant4.org/goddard1b.html

The problem for Sanders, however, in her bid to become the next president of Goddard, was her anti-democratic track record as Chair of the Board. She strongly disagreed with those in the Goddard community who argued for a different governance structure and against strengthening the office of the presidency. Sanders had the habit of acting in an autocratic manner that would have eventually offended the sensibilities of the Goddard community in much the same way as Greene had done.