Education: Turmoil at Bennington

When she was appointed president of avant-garde Bennington College three years ago, Gail Parker seemed a natural for the job. She was a refreshing 29, a feminist and a literature professor at Harvard. What was more, her husband Tom, 30, an assistant to a Harvard dean, would come along as Bennington's vice president. Last week the glow was gone from Bennington. President Parker was the object of a campus revolt and the center of a fight for control of the college. The faculty had taken an overwhelming vote of no confidence in her performance and decided to boycott her office, and the students had turned against her, too.

Last March Parker and the trustees announced they had created a ten-member committee to study the future of the college. Almost everybody agreed this was a good idea. But when the committee's report came out last month, it aroused furious opposition. The committee suggested the elimination of twelve of the 73 full-time faculty positions and nine assistantships; an increase in student costs (which at $6,280 for tuition, room and board, are already the highest in the nation), and a requirement that Bennington's 600 students major in two entirely different fields. The report also attacked the sacrosanct institution of faculty tenure; it proposed setting up an elaborate system (involving three separate contracts) to review a faculty member's performance three times in 13 years, with "a clearly expressed expectation that at most one-quarter of those who reach this third review will be retained." In other words, it would ensure a faster turnover of faculty.

Faculty members promptly complained because only three members of the "futures committee" were from the teaching staff and charged that no other faculty members or students had been consulted in preparing the report. Most of the fire was directed at Parker and seemed to go beyond the controversial proposals. Said dissident Trustee Ross Zucker (Bennington '74): "People have learned not to like her. She was young. She was a woman. Bennington did not look deeper than that. It should have. She's an elitist." Literature Teacher Camille Paglia accused Parker of "disgusting manipulation. She has created a feeling of queasiness that was never here before." Furthermore, some complained that she was remote and aloof from faculty and students.

Last week the trustees reaffirmed their support of Parker but then took a diplomatic step back, promising they would meet with students, faculty and alumnae to discuss the report. For her part, Parker is standing firm. Says she: "Bennington has to define its goals. This is something that the college has done before, but the pressures are greater now. That heats up the situation." Despite the turmoil, Parker remains optimistic.

"This is not a sign of disaster," she says, "but one of real health."