Alumni Blues: Phish Alma Mater Goddard College To Close Its Doors This Year

Goddard College students and alumni woke up this morning with those walking blues after the progressive education institution in Plainfield, VT known among music fans as the alma mater of three-quarters of Phish announced in a press release that it will close its doors for good following 2024’s spring semester.

The school, which has offered “80 years of progressive education” to students, cited “decades long declining enrollment” as the precipitating factor in its closing. As representatives for Goddard College explained in a press release circulated on Tuesday, “Goddard College’s Board of Trustees announced that despite decades of dedicated efforts to sustain the institution, they have ultimately arrived at the heart-wrenching decision to close the College’s doors. Facing financial insolvency, the Board of Trustees voted unanimously to close at the end of the current semester, citing a significant and persistent decline in enrollment since the 1970s as the determining factor that made the decision unavoidable.”

Goddard has fostered “creativity, critical thinking, and social consciousness” via “a radical approach to learning” since its founding as a college in 1938, although its predecessor institutions date back to 1863. Over the course of its eight-decade run, various other institutions across the country have adopted its educational advances including “student work programs, adult education, student portfolios, and individualized learning.”

“For decades,” the press release explains, “Boards and Administrations have worked to find ways to put Goddard College on a sustainable economic path. Despite trying many different approaches including partnerships, Goddard College could not beat the trends of inflationary pressures, demographic shifts and changing educational preferences. The closure of Goddard College mirrors a trend seen in numerous higher education institutions across Vermont and the nation, all grappling with similar challenges. Goddard College is currently serving only 220 students, down from over 1,900 in the early 1970s.”

“The closure of Goddard College is a significant loss for students in search of an alternative, progressive higher education,” said Mark Jones, Chair of the Goddard College Board of Trustees. “The decision to close Goddard College was not made easily or quickly. With declining enrollment and financial insolvency looming, the Board was left with no other option. Our hearts are broken.”

Despite the closure, the school has entered into a partnership with Prescott College. With this partnership, the announcement explains, “Goddard students will have the opportunity to continue Goddard’s legacy of progressive education and experimental pedagogy and complete their degrees at the same tuition rate. A Goddard College Scholarship Fund will be established to assist current students in transitioning to Prescott College and potentially other partner institutions to be announced in the coming months.”

“We are committed to ensuring that Goddard students continue to have access to a high-quality education and thrive academically,” said Dr. Barbara Morris, President of Prescott College. “Prescott College shares Goddard’s commitment to progressive education, and we are honored to welcome Goddard students into our community.”

The institution will also do its best to find landing spots for its faculty and staff. “The Goddard College Administration will be working closely with Dr. Morris to find opportunities for Goddard faculty to be employed by Prescott College. Cabot Creamery has been a partner of Goddard College for years and Goddard staff will have the opportunity to explore job openings at Cabot. Cabot will host a job fair specifically for Goddard staff in the months to come.”

Goddard College figures prominently in the origin story of the jam band Phish, one of Vermont’s most famous exports. While the group—initially comprised of Trey Anastasio, Jon Fishman, Mike Gordon, and Jeff Holdsworth—formed at the nearby University of Vermont in 1983, Goddard soon came into the picture when the band was booked to play a 1985 spring concert by a current Goddard student—a keyboard player named Page McConnell. Page started sitting in with the band soon after and eventually joined Phish as a full-time member later that year. Holdsworth left the band in 1986, locking in the Anastasio-Fishman-Gordon-McConnell Phish lineup that has lasted through the present day.

Even in the 1980s, Goddard was doing its best to fight dwindling enrollment. As such, it offered current students $50 for each new student they could recruit to come to the school. Page made a quick $100 in mid-’86 when he enticed Anastasio and Fishman to transfer to Goddard while Gordon remained at UVM. McConnell went on to complete his Goddard senior study, “The Art of Improvisation,” in 1987, while Fishman delivered his thesis, “A Self-Teaching Guide to Drumming Written in Retrospect,” in 1990.

Trey’s Goddard senior study, “The Man Who Stepped Into Yesterday,” was completed in 1988. Both the songs included on that project and the fantasy world they introduced, “Gamehendge,” have become foundational elements in the decades-long Phish canon. On New Year’s Eve 2023, Phish staged Trey’s thesis at New York’s iconic Madison Square Garden with help from various actors, dancers, and elaborate production elements.

As we say goodbye to Goddard College, watch Trey Anastasio’s speech from his Goddard College graduation ceremony and view a 2010 performance of Phish’s ode to its college days, “Alumni Blues”, during which Trey shouts Goddard out by name. Read the full press release about the imminent closing of Goddard College here.

Trey Anastasio Goddard College Graduation Speech – 8/28/88

Phish – “Alumni Blues” > “Letter to Jimmy Page” > “Alumni Blues” – 10/26/10
[Video: notmkdevo]