The one-to-one structure of our project, which turned out to be perhaps the most powerful element of all, was arrived at by a very pragmatic route. In 1975, we had an invitation to apply to the Danforth Foundation for a $20,000 minigrant for faculty development, and the planning group, made up entirely of full-time regular faculty members, decided that there was no useful way to spend any amount of money if it involved more meetings. This reflected in part a disenchantment with meetings and conferences and in part the heavy time demands on those who taught in Evergreen's full-time, interdisciplinary teamtaught programs. We came up with a plan whereby one faculty member each quarter would be freed from teaching to be a "Danforth visitor" and spend each week visiting a faculty member who had volunteered to be visited. Three visitors were supported by Danforth funds in that first year. In most subsequent years, the college has supported another visitor for one quarter of the year (along with the three Danforth visitors). The program has received endorsements from the faculty, the administration, and the faculty union. Each year, more people volunteer than can be accommodated.
By asking for volunteers, we got some very strong teachers to request to be visited, so there was never any sense that the program was remedial. It was also crucial to the design that the visitor should be New Dirations for T m h i n g a n d h i n g , 4,1980