Bennington Troubles

Gail T. Parker '64, the embattled president of Bennington College, released to the college's faculty late Wednesday a transcript of her remarks to a Tuesday meeting of the Bennington board of trustees.

Parker's presentation to the trustees included the request that they not allow their position on a recently released report on Bennington's future to be swayed by faculty "antagonism" against her.

Parker said yesterday that she made the remarks available to the faculty in order to clarify her position in the deepening controversy surrounding her presidency, which came to a head last week when both the faculty and the students of Bennington voted "no confidence" in the Parker administration.

"Basically, what I told them [the trustees] is that if they had to choose between defending the substance [of the report] and defending a person, the should defend substance," Parker said.

It was the "irresponsible" handling of the drafting and release of the futures report which prompted last week's votes, a faculty spokesman said Monday.

Parker said she hopes the release of the transcript of her remarks will help pave the way toward a reopening of discussion between her and the faculty. But she added that "it's now the trustees' turn to respond to the faculty."