by Loren Pope
Published July 2006
Visit the Colleges That Change Lives site

Read the New York Times article A Fighter for Colleges That Have Everything but Status that profiles Loren Pope.

When Eckerd College was only thirty-five years old, I wrote that it was one of country's most attractive academic bargains and a hot growth stock. Ten years later, it is outstanding. It seems to have about twice as many buildings on the 270-acre campus. All in native flora, except for big shade trees, it is a verdant thumb on the coastline of Boca Ciega, with the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in the distance.

The new buildings include a multimillion-dollar state-of-the-art library twice the size of the old one, and it boasts a coffee bar and reading lounge. There are new air-conditioned residential clusters on the waterfront, a new visual and performing arts center, new classrooms for its 1600 students, and two natural pond areas that are homes to a greater variety of wading birds than on any other campus.

A smart innovation provides a lot of free bikes. A student can pick up a "yellow bike" wherever he finds one, ride it to his destination and leave it for someone else. For socializing, the Triton Pub has a large-screen TV, pool tables, a state-of-the-art sound system, a grill open all day, and a Thursday night music program.

More important, it has won two major academic honors. It has been awarded a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, the scholastic society to which only 8 percent of the country's colleges and universities belong. It is also one of the top fifty colleges in producing future Ph.D.s, the nation's scientists and scholars.

Proof of its allure is its great and growing diversity. Massachusetts, New York, and Illinois are second, third and fourth sources of students after Florida. Indeed, there are so many students from the Northeast that this college in the land of year-round baseball has a lacrosse team. The students come from forty-five other states and sixty-seven countries.

In the field of marine science, Eckerd is in a class by itself by virtue of its magnificent, and unique state-of-the-art marine laboratory. No ivy or any other school has anything to match it. The structure is set back from the water to preserve the shoreline, but a dock with a large underwater tube reaches out into the Gulf of Mexico and sea water circulates through a large tank, where sea animals are in their native habitat so students can observe and work with them as they live. As a faculty member said, "It is a unique way to teach our courses."

Eckerd is too young to show a record of alumni achievement such as percentages in Who's Who, Pulitzer-Prize winners, corporate executives, creators of new enterprises, or major benefactors, but the effects of a good college experience are clear.

My client sample is naturally limited, but in more than thirty-five years in which two or three or more clients a year have gone there, none has ever expressed any dissatisfaction. The college's own survey of graduates over a fifteen-year span offers a more definitive and glowing response. One alumna, now a very successful literary agent, wrote to me fifteen years after graduation: "Going to Eckerd was a delightful experience, one, needless to say, I will never forget, and I feel confident that my education was as good as can be found anywhere in this country... (and I shouldn't put it in the past tense. Eckerd taught me, among other things, that education never stops.) She is married to a Princeton alumnus.

The academic dean, Lloyd Chapin, goes one better; he says Eckerd's students get a better education than at Ivies. Why? "Because students here are involved in their own education; because faculty members work at improving their teaching; they are actively involved in comparing techniques.

"Our Academy of Senior Professionals program in which distinguished retirees provide a different point of view in the freshman Western Heritage or in the senior Judeo-Christian Perspectives classes are unique in the way they work. The retirees live on campus and occasionally act as counselors or career advisers or on personal problems.

"The faculty here are as good as at the Ivies. They not only publish but their personal interest is in teaching. Here there is a sense of community."

He makes the often underappreciated point that the faculty at any good college is every bit as qualified as any Ivy staff; after all, they all got their doctorates at the same elite graduate schools.

"The Eckerd family publishes." He pointed to along row of recent books. "They haven't published as much as the Ivy faculties but they are working on the cutting edges. They are as good as faculty members anywhere, and I staked my own kid's welfare on the belief that they are. My daughter had a better experience here than my older children did at Colgate or Emory. Furthermore, the Eckerd faculty does more for its students than do Ivies' faculties. There is a great deal of involvement; we have faculty retreats on taking each student seriously, and as an individual.

"Elsewhere, faculty members tend to regard their classrooms as their castles, but here we have teachers' forums in which groups of twenty will share teaching techniques and discuss things that will or that won't work. Over half the faculty is involved in these forums. There's a lot going on in this area.

"Our faculty members' tenure depends on teaching. They can't get tenure unless they're good teachers. That's why our students do course evaluations every year. And stiff graders don't suffer. Students regard the profs who set very high standards and grade hard as 'compassionate hard-asses.'

"Also, mentoring (personal and academic advising) is taken seriously here. We try to evaluate it; the students fill out questionnaires at the end of each term evaluating both teachers and mentors. The results tend to be bipolar; both the brickbats and the bouquets are very positive."

Eckerd's freshmen and faculty get a head start on getting acquainted with a multipurpose month-long autumn term before school starts. Freshmen can study any one of a dozen or more topics: Behavioral Bases of Stress, Coastal Oceanography, American Politics, Religion and Public Policy, or Sociology of Sex Roles. The teacher for each group of twenty becomes the academic and personal mentor for each of them for the year, and each group stays together as a Western Heritage class. Autumn term is thus an orientation with no upper class students around and promotes bonding among the freshmen and with their mentors. They also get a course credit, and placement testing is done.

At the end of the year, each freshman chooses a second mentor in his intended major or field of concentration and both stay with him from then on. He thus has a second opinion for general help and for making big decisions, such as if he wants to design his own major.

Eckerd is on a 4-1-4 schedule (January term in the middle of the year), so everyone uses the winter term for a change of pace; a term at another college, international-study tours, a project on campus, or something very different, like studying poverty in Appalachia, pottery in New England, or languages in upstate New York.

The Academy of Senior Professionals - 300 of them - gives freshman and senior classes a unique zip. It is a group of people, some retired, who've had distinguished careers in a broad range of fields and who act as sort of an adjunct faculty. They may act as resource persons in the classroom, counsel students on academic or career matters, or give talks or conduct colloquia. Some live in college housing on campus and some nearby.

The Western Heritage and Judeo-Christian Perspectives classes they help teach are both value-oriented, and the mature viewpoints of retired corporate executives, generals, professors, writers, and others bring a different and usually nonacademic viewpoint to class discussions, besides offering a counterpoint to the authority of the professor. There is mutual respect but the class is a lively one.

In a writing class, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author James Michener critiqued students' efforts and had a reputation for always finding something good to say about every paper, no matter how bad. Michener also left the college $1 million.

Dean Chapin says, "I like these students best, compared to Emory and Colgate. In basic intellectual quality they're as good, and they're more enthusiastic and less cynical. Emory is cold and competitive, with much social ambition and grade grubbing. Here's there's a sense of community and a lot of student involvement.

Prof. John Reynolds, chairman of Marine Sciences, raves: "The students here are superb. Eckerd attracts kids who want to give something back to the community. They are superb human beings who will also contribute.

"What we accomplish: We give them tools. We are blessed with capable, fine teachers who confront values and make linkages across seemingly unrelated disciplines. Our research crosses boundaries, our environmental program is interdisciplinary. We are concerned with ethics and issues; I have to think about how I feel about mammals and articulate that. The autumn-term class involves not only learning about mammals, but also such questions as, do we manage or mismanage them? What are our values in this matter and how do we feel about them?

Eckerd has an honors program providing two years of independent study and research for students of outstanding ability, and for those who might someday be college faculty members a two-year Apprentice Scholar Program, financed by the Ford Foundation, develops the skills and habits of professional scholars.

In this, my third visit to Eckerd, all the students I questioned expressed some form of satisfaction with what the community was doing for them. I was also impressed, as I had been on previous visits, that the minority students seemed particularly integrated into the mix. A dark-skinned senior from Curacao said he felt such a warm sense of family he didn't particularly want to go home, and that the school had broadened his horizons and taught him time management.

More than one student felt that the absence of fraternities and sororities contributed to the sense of community. A literature and religion major, also a senior, said that if it had not been for the mentor program and a caring faculty, when he got into drugs and alcohol in his freshman year, "I wouldn't be here." But now he thinks he'll go to a seminary, work in the Peace Corps, or do some kind of ministry.

They, like others, said Eckerd had challenged their points of view and their value systems and had affected the development of the latter. Two premed seniors said the Western Heritage class had an impact "from day one." One of them added, "Eckerd taught me how to balance my life: I find I can do so much."

These comments are in line with what seniors have been saying for many years in the school's own survey of graduates. More than 90 percent have said their values have been affected, as have their abilities to think critically, to work independently, and to define and solve problems, their enjoyment of learning, their understanding of self, competence as a person, ability to get along with others, and openness to new ideas. Few thought it had affected their religious beliefs, although 70 percent said it had influenced their understanding of the Judeo-Christian tradition.

Ninety-six percent said Eckerd was a good choice and nearly two-thirds even approved of the food, a standard source of complaint on many campuses.

But more immediate is the comparative testimony of a former client who came to me after a year at the University of Pittsburgh, who then chose Bryn Mawr over Eckerd, and after a semester there finished at Eckerd. She had this to say about Bryn Mawr, which is as Ivy as a women's college can get: "I think Bryn Mawr is an excellent school, and it is unique... one fits in very well, or one does not fit in at all. One of the things I could not get used to was the aloofness with which most of the students treated each other. I thought that at a women's college everyone would feel more comfortable and open with each other because we were 'all girls,' but I found just the opposite to be true. It seemed there was a lot of competition and a lot of stress. I also couldn't get used to all the political correctness that was going on.

"My problems with finding out about my French requirement in the beginning of the semester made me feel like I was back in a big university, caught up in red tape... .I was also surprised at how little contact the students had with the professors outside of class, and how formal the relationships between the students and the professors were."

After she'd been at Eckerd for a while, she wrote me: "I love Eckerd. I love my classes. I love the weather, and I've met three girls in my dorm who are the first good friends I've met since high school. I play soccer every Friday, I have a blues show every week on the Eckerd radio station. I'm auditing an extra literature class, and I've signed up to be on the staff of Eckerd's literary magazine. I also took sailing lessons, and I can sign out for a two-person sailboat at any time on the waterfront. The warm, sunny weather down here is wonderful, and all the people are very friendly. I started feeling comfortable right away... and the school is big enough so that new people don't stick out."

Ten years later, Eckerd gets loving, rave evaluations form both students and alums. It also has some dramatic stories of average or less-than-average prospects becoming graduate students, Ph.D.s, and doctors. The adult education program also has its stories of lives being changed. These things could only happen in communities like the ones in this book.

Euphoric is the only word that describes the way students and recent graduates talk about their experiences. Here are some of them:

• The most challenging and rewarding time of my life.
• It gave me an advantage in graduate school. It was the most amazing four years of my life; I was devastated to leave.
• I left a far better human being.
• The profs don't just teach, they motivate; they mold us into better students and better people.
• A dynamic batch of profs, and they all care, and take special steps to see that you get the most out of Eckerd.
• Friendliness permeates the campus, students look out for each other.
• The dean of students was at my side in the hospital at 2 a.m. It made me feel there was always someone there to support me.
• Everyone is supportive, understanding, passionate. After six years, Eckerd continues to change my life.
• I was not prepared for academic rigor, but because of the faculty I succeeded.
• Eckerd taught me more independence and more about myself than I could have dreamed.
• I had amazing relationships with the profs; the sense of community helps students jump in and get involved.
• You can grow anywhere, but here the profs know your name and ask about you and are genuinely interested in the answer. Every prof I had remembered my name all four years and were friends and mentors, and their doors were always open for an afternoon chat.
• Eckerd has ripped me apart, built me up, torn me down, and I continue to emerge as a new person every day, every week. I put myself back together, Eckerd helps.
• I was able to have the most wonderful experience of being able to learn as much as outside the classroom from my professors as I did in the classroom.
• Eckerd was a once-in-a-lifetime experience that has forever changed my life and I am thankful and proud that to have been a part of such a wonderful community.

These and others talked bout how many opportunities they'd had - one played in the Tampa Symphony - how their various foreign-study terms had widened their horizons, how they had discovered themselves, and how they had learned to really think, among other things. One said she wanted to become a teacher to give others the kind of experience she'd had.

A physics professor's favorite success story has made him an opponent of any SAT cutoff score for admission. The hero, now a physician in Maryland, arrived at Eckerd with a total SAT score below 800, and a "very inconsistent high school record," largely because of a "chaotic" family life. But he wanted to be a doctor. His first essay was ten pages, all in one paragraph. But "he never had to be told anything twice, and was a sponge for information." He made an A in Calculus I and graduated as a physics major, got a Ph.D., worked in the field for a couple of years, decided to enter medical school and got his M.D. in 1998.

The professor adds, "Richard Strilka's case shows clearly that SAT scores and even high school records don't always predict a student's potential."

The close teacher-student relations at Eckerd can work wonders. A marine science professor sent Jenna Lodico, a C student in her science courses, on an oceanographic research cruise for a month the summer after her junior year. "She did a wonderful senior thesis for me, on the cutting edge of science. She presented it at the American Geophysical Union conference and so impressed the scientists that several wanted her to go to their graduate schools. By working very closely with her on a one-to-one basis, we at Eckerd College changed her life. After graduation she wrote me a thank-you card, 'I never imagined I'd be going to graduate school.'"

The director of service ministry said, "I've had many, many students say a particular service experience has been deeply meaningful and life-changing for them." A senior, Jill Braly, spent a spring break working for a Florida migrant-workers coalition and in the tomato fields as well. "When I returned to Eckerd," she said, "I knew I would never be the same. My eyes have been opened in a way that textbooks and professors could never have done. I felt an undeniable urge to serve others. I could make a difference. I am sure I will continue to feel a sense of civic responsibility and desire to serve my community."

Another, Jerald Hess, spent several weeks living in a primitive camp in the Myanmar jungle teaching English to refugees from the civil war there. That made him decide to go into international law so he can assist refugees.

An emeritus history professor says Eckerd's program for adults works wonders, especially for married women at a loss as to what to do with their lives. His favorite story is of a woman with two small children, who graduated with high honors, but was rejected by the University of Florida Law School, which averaged in a disastrous junior-college record of fifteen years earlier. They said she "had not demonstrated her ability to do her college work." She applied to the university's graduate program in history, took museum courses, became a power in the art-museum world, has her own consulting business, and teaches two graduate courses in museum studies at the university.

Read quotes and more information on our second appearance in the revised Colleges that Change Lives