President McCann surprised the students when he announced, at the start of the 1976-77 school year, that he was going to resign halfway through his second 6 year term as President. By coincidence, Gov. Evans, who was not running for a 4th term of office, was going to be looking for work after Jan. 1977. The students wanted to have a say in the hiring process, but when we returned from Christmas break, we discovered the Trustees, all appointed by Dan Evans, had appointed Dan Evans as the new President of TESC. Dr. McCann was given a two-year sabbatical as well. This whole affair really generated a lot of bad press for Evans, McCann, and TESC. The legislators, led by Sen. A.L. "Slim" Rasmussen, investigated the ethics of this transfer of power and as a result came closer than any other time to closing or traditionalizing (like that word? I just made it up) the school. Locals called TESC, "Dan the Man's Retirement Plan."

I'll let the headlines of the era tell the story. Here's the key: ST=Seattle Times, DO=Daily Olympian, TNT=Tacoma News Tribune, BS=Bremerton Sun, SPI=Seattle Post-Intelligencer, VC=Vancouver Columbian, A=Argus, DJA=Daily Journal American.

9/15/76 "Evergreen College President to Resign" ST
9/15/76 "'Nine Years is Enough' : McCann to Quit Evergreen" DO
9/16/76 "Evans Possible Replacement for Evergreen President?" ST
9/17/76 "Will Evans Take Over Evergreen?" DO
10/4/76 "Gov. Evans Has to Find Work Fast to Make Ends Meet" DO
12/8/76 "Evans Family Home-Hunting" DO
12/10/76 "Evans Out-- Or is He?" DO
12/12/76 "Evans Still Thinking About Evergreen" ST
12/15/76 "Dan May Take Job Back East" DO
12/21/76 "Dan Lines Up Job in State" DO
12/23/76 "Evans to Head Evergreen College" TNT
12/23/76 "TESC Presidency-- For Whose Benefit?" DO
12/27/76 "What's Dan Evans Done?" BS
1/2/77 "Cronyism" [letter to ed.] DO
1/5/77 "Highly Qualified for the Job, but --- " [editorial] ST
1/6/77 "Evans May Work, Travel in Europe" ST
1/7/77 "Dan Plans Long Trip" DO
1/8/77 "Rasmussen Seeks probe of Evans' College Position" TNT
1/9/77 "Senators Eye Evans TESC Move" DO
1/10/77 "Convert Evergreen to State Government Use" [letter to ed.] ST
1/11/77 "Is Dan Evans Qualified?" [letter to ed.] DO
1/11/77 "Senators Split on Dan's Job" DO
1/12/77 "Dan Starts Parttime TESC Duties Tomorrow" DO
1/13/77 "Evergreen to Pay Two Presidents Two Years" TNT
1/13/77 "Evergreen's President Leaving for School, Returning in Two Years as Faculty Member" DO
1/14/77 "Furor Arises On Evans' New Job" SPI
1/14/77 "Nest-Feathering at Evergreen" [editorial] ST
1/15/77 "Two Senate Bodies Probe Evans' Job" TNT
1/15/77 "Evans Starts Job With Hope Amid Hassles" TNT
1/16/77 "Rep. Keller Raps TESC's Paying Both McCann, Evans as President" TNT
1/17/77 "Rasmussen Growling About Evans' New Job" ST
1/17/77 "Higher Education Chairman Backs Evans Appointment" DO
1/18/77 "Needles Out for Evans" VC
1/19/77 "McCann Says Paid Leave Arranged Long Time Ago" DO
1/19/77 "Teachers Angry Over 'Pay-Off'" DO
1/20/77 "Evergreen President Defends Sabbatical Terms" ST
1/21/77 "Self-Serving and Cynical" [editorial] A
1/22/77 "Evergreen Trustees Say : Evans McCann Moves 'Honorable'" TNT
1/23/77 "Costly Sabbaticals Should be Probed" [editorial] SPI
1/24/77 "Senator Says Sabbaticals Hit Taxpayers in Pocket" DO
1/27/77 "Evans' Job, McCann's Pay Get Hard Look" DO
1/27/77 "Evans-McCann Storm May Sweep Campuses" TNT
1/27/77 "Evans' Appointment 'Appalling' to GOP" TNT
1/28/77 "'Didn't Want To Go Through Charade of Long Search' : TESC Search Short-Circuited" DO
1/28/77 "Evergreen Trustees Admit : Evans Hired by 'Short-Circuit'" TNT
2/1/77 "Fire Them Both!" [letter to ed.] TNT
2/1/77 "Anger Develops Over News About Dan Evans" [letter to ed.] DO
2/2/77 "Talk of Closing Evergreen is Serious" [editorial] DJA
2/7/77 "Evergreen Studied as UW Branch" TNT
2/8/77 "Donohue Proposes TESC Become UW Grad Branch" DO
2/12/77 "Can Evergreen College Survive the Politicians?" DJA
2/17/77 "Bill to Kill Evergreen College Hits State Senate" DO
2/27/77 "Educator-Senator Says Evergreen Needs Revamp" TNT
4/1/77 "A Matter of Cronyism" [letter to ed.] DO
5/24/77 "Senate Approves Bill to Trim Sabbaticals" DO
6/15/77 "Evans Dodges Politics in First Day on Job" DO
7/13/77 "'It's No Hippie College'-- Evans" SPI

And so the stage was set for the mainstreaming of Evergroove.