The College That Students Helped Plan

Abstract

Building a college from scratch is among an educators most cherished dreams. Few ever get the chance, and those who do often find the morning-after reality rarely matches their earlier visions. The State University of New York's new and experimental College at Old Westbury is an example of a college that is just being built, and its planning has aroused interest nationwide. Three questions dominate Old Westbury: 1) Can a truly experimental college flourish within a giant state university system? 2) What stamp of character will be imprinted on Old Westbury by a president - Harris Wofford - who is not a seasoned educator, but is a lawyer, a political activist (arrested with Dick Gregory at Chicago), and a JFK New Frontiersman? 3) Is genuine student participation in institutional planning practical and viable? Old Westbury, now in its first year with eighty-five students, was shaped by Wofford and a small staff, several outside academics - and some twenty- five students from such campuses as Goddard, San Francisco State and Antioch. What really happened depends on whether you were Ralph Keyes (one of the student planners), or Jacqueline Grennan (one of the consultants), or Wofford. Their reports, and those of other planners, follow.