The Evergreen State College Faculty and Staff Oral History Project

The Evergreen State College is a public liberal arts college and experimental institution of higher education that was founded in 1967. Evergreen is located in Olympia, Washington, situated in the heart of the Pacific Northwest, and boasts the largest campus in the state with over 600-acres of second growth forests and undisturbed shoreline on the Salish Sea. Evergreen came about as one of many alternative college programs that exploded on the academic scene in the mid 20th century, but one of the only that has stood the test of time. With over fifty years in operation the college grew from humble roots, as it began its first quarter with no doors to open. The Evergreen State College officially opened in the fall of 1971, before it finished its first buildings, yet by 1974 Evergreen was regionally accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU) and has continued to be since, with their most recent affirmation taking place in 2019.

In 1970, eighteen founding faculty members were hired in preparation for the school’s opening, but the first notions hinting at the building of a college in Western Washington State trace back to 1964 when the then Council of Presidents of Washington State Baccalaureate Institutions reported the need for a new college in the region. It was not until a year after, that they set their sights on Thurston County and the Olympia area. The college was officially named Evergreen on January 24, 1968, with Charles McCann becoming the first College President. McCann served as president until 1977 when the position was taken up by former Washington State Governor, Daniel J. Evans. Evans continued as President for over 5 years, until returning to politics in 1983. A year before, in 1982, The Evergreen Tacoma campus was formally established by civil rights activist and educator, Dr. Maxine Mimms, an endeavor that began nearly a decade prior in 1972. Faculty-led projects continued to proliferate with further expansions and outreach being established in the following years, including projects such as the Labor Center, started by Dan Leahy in 1985.

Throughout the 1990s, Evergreen operated as a hub for many waves of music and art, gaining notoriety for student involvement in the Grunge and Riot Grrrl scenes that were famously coming out of the Pacific Northwest at the time, with performances taking place on campus and several key players becoming Evergreen alumni. Evergreen’s focus on community and experimentation has undoubtedly helped to foster a penchant for uniqueness, expression, and overall critical thinking, both faculty and staff have built upon this ethos as they create and facilitate outreach programs, networks, and coalitions. The late 1990s and early 2000s saw several programs of note come into existence, including the creation of the Olympia Movement for Justice and Peace (OMJP) surrounding the first Gulf War in 1991, as well as one of the first Inside-Out prison education programs in the country, the Gateways for Incarcerated Youth program founded by Dr. Carol Minugh in 1996.

In 2003, Evergreen gained international attention when a student member of the OMJP was struck down by Israeli military forces when participating in an action in occupied Gaza, prompting a world outcry yet to be seen even as ongoing loss of Palestinian lives was incurring. Seen as a hub for change, throughout the aughts Evergreen continued to grow in size and endeavors, reaching its peak enrollment around 2010. Only a decade later, those numbers would fall to nearly half of such. By 2017, further challenges arose for Evergreen after regional events shed light on state violence and problems of equity, revealing ethical issues within the institution that led to student protests, where inaccurate media coverage resulted in conservative groups targeting the institution with threats of violence. In early 2020 a national emergency was declared when the world halted due to a global pandemic. With the occurrence of the novel COVID-19 virus Evergreen saw its lowest enrollments in the 2020 and 2021 academic years but has since reached a more stable footing with 2023-24 representing their largest enrollment increase in forty years.