When the 1978-79 school year began, TESC was having severe image problems. What had been an exciting and daring experiment in the first half of the 1970s, had, by the Age of Disco, become a relic of the past. Several years of negative headlines had accumulated and solidified into painting the College as a tax-wasting Hippy school, giving President Evans one of the greatest marketing challenges of his career.

Critics of the school had a long list of complaints. The McCann-Evans transfer of power, which nearly resulted in the closure of the College, was still fresh in the minds of legislators. Enrollment was falling. Evergreen cost more per student than the other State institutions of higher learning. The BA in Liberal Arts, the only degree TESC offered at the time, was proving to be a problem for those who spent four years studying nothing but the sciences when they applied to graduate school. The Department of Fisheries announced they could not hire Evergreen grads unless they had a BS. The Veterans Administration had a problem with the structure of the College and refused to pay benefits unless the vets were in a traditional program. That one was going into court. "Dan the Man's Retirement Plan" had evolved into "The Evergrowing State Crisis."

Something had to be done. And it would. But what would be the price for survival?