<p>On a lark, on our way down I-5 back to Oregon, we stopped at Evergreen. It is a school in the forest, no doubt about it. But, my question is: Why did they have to go with the DMV architecture style. Admission was like waiting in line at the DMV or any government office. The gray concrete building were a shock to find in the forest. D1 liked the academic structure, D2 wanted to get the heck out of there. But, ultimately D1 was turned off by the fact that only 25% of the school lives on campus. She really wants an intimate, campus community.</p>
<p>Also, having lived in Eugene for 11 years I know where the old hippies live. I now know where their kids go to school. I think that it is a requirement that all male students wear a knit hat!</p>
<p>As a taxpayer in Washington I have always thought Evergreen ought to be closed. Its organizational/academic structure is available as a college within the larger Western Washington University. The resources could be used to enhance other educational needs in Washington. D2 had the right response. My d had that response as well when she visited and my d is very liberal. Evergreen was just over the top with its nonsense. Throw in the boring architecture and all is lost.</p>
<p>I have to say that I know many very creative intelligent people who graduated from Evergreen( former head of OSHA and Lockes chief of staff now executive director of the Washington State investment board for one)- I have the impression that Evergreen is very different than the much smaller program that is at Western.
THe architecture is very industrial- but had it been better designed ( more expensive) there would be complaints about that as well.
I don't normally tout US News- but they rank Evergreen quite well.</p>
<p>The technical director (whom I adore) at my theatre went to Evergreen and she still talks about it fondly. She did make it very clear that there were only certain people who fit in well there, but she couldn't have seen herself anywhere else. She isn't overly liberal and is certainly not a hippie, but she is different. I never saw the school, so I can't speak for it, but I have heard rave reviews from a few people who really felt like they fit there.</p>
<p>My d. spent a year (we are homeschoolers, and don't try to figure out what grade it was) at Evergreen, doing an integrated course of study in ethnobotany/cultural anthropology that would have been absolutely unavailable anywhere else. She worked on the Skokomish Reservation on a botanical medicine demonstration, and the work varied from digging in the earth, to learning about pharmacological and neuro-biological pathways to web development. The students ranged in age from 15 (she) to over 40. The work was highly intensive, and required at least 8 hours a week of field work.</p>
<p>If there's any school that should be closed, it is UW. Five million for an athletic coach, and no-interest loans, while class sizes get ridiculous and enrollment is being cut doesn't seem healthy to me. It's just gotten too big and unwieldy, and no administrator in recent memory has been able to keep it under control. Or maybe split it into five, and give UW-Tacoma and UW-Bothell the resources they really need.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Last week, University of Washington President Mark Emmert and his family moved into their new home after it had undergone $540,000 in renovations that included carving a new master suite out of two bedrooms and two bathrooms.</p>
<p>To help pay for the work on the president's mansion, the university's Board of Regents tapped $370,000 from the Walker-Ames Fund, an endowment created for "scientific and educational purposes," according to the bequest. The rest of the tab was paid out of the university's building-renewal fund.</p>
<p>Maud Walker Ames and Edwin Ames set up the Walker-Ames Fund in a 1931 bequest and left the Hill-Crest house in Washington Park to the university for the president's residence.</p>
<p>The endowment gave the UW Board of Regents "large and wide discretion in the use of the income" in the agreement but also suggested ways to spend the money: professorships in science, art, technology and education; lectureships; visiting professorships....
<p>My D is a sophomore at Evergreen and has a love/hate relationship with the school. She has an unusual high school background-- wilderness programs, EG boarding schools -- and Evergreen appealed to her. She is more mature than the average college student because of her experiences. She likes having older, non-traditional students as classmates. Her best friend is a 29-year-old mother of two. She has discovered her career passion, law enforcement, and Evergreen has been accommodating in letting her design programs to pursue this.</p>
<p>The evergreen forests do interfere with cell phone reception.</p>