Creativity has been a dominant feature of Robert Force’s work throughout his life. In nominating Force for the 2004 President’s Employee Excellence Award, Clifford Moore, WSU associate director of Extended University Services, described him as “the single most creative colleague with whom I have ever worked.”
Force is the North Olympic Peninsula Learning Center Coordinator. He is located in Port Hadlock, eight miles south of Port Townsend. The mission of the WSU Learning Centers is to increase access to higher education for place- and time-bound students. So Force tries to involve area students in the WSU Distance Degree Program or help them research other university offerings.
Combining the “high tech” delivery of distance education programs with the “high touch” approach of on-site staff, Force uses his creativity to find the best fit for each student. “It’s part of my job to help students figure out what’s best for them: the best social fit, an economic fit, a distance fit, a location fit and, of course, a program fit,” he said.
One of the outreach challenges for Force is to change people’s thinking about higher education. In Jefferson and Clallam counties there are many people from families who have never been to college. “We are showing them that anyone can go to college and that it is affordable,” Force said.
He helps people distinguish between grants and loans and enables them to look at education as a viable family investment “based on the return over a lifetime of a professional with a college degree as opposed to just a high school degree.”Force believes passionately in the power of education, referring to it as “citizen enfranchisement.”
“The power of education is not about jobs, it’s about knowing how to be involved in changing the world around you. It’s about knowing how to acquire the tools that allow you over a lifetime to continue to be a learner,” Force said.
Personal counseling of students is a large part of his job. “People come through and they’re kind of bent and broken on some level,” he said. “You’re piecing together their lives and you end up being a counselor, friend, advocate and cheerleader.”
Nominator Moore recalled a visit by Provost Robert Bates to the North Olympic Learning Center last summer, where he met with some WSU Distance Degree Program students. The comments of one student were striking: “She talked of the abusive relationship she had endured for many years and quite literally credited Robert with saving her life” by helping her achieve independence through pursuing an education.
Force’s path to teaching was a winding one. He dropped out of Western Washington University in the 1960s to express his creativity as a dulcimer-playing folk musician. He released four records, toured the United States, performed on Radio Free Europe and was even a cultural attaché to Iceland with his folk music.
“We did the Easter bluegrass special in Iceland of 1971,” he quips.
He gave up touring to spend more time with his family. He had always been attracted to teaching and got a job as an aide at a high school teaching at-risk students. “I found I was kind of a natural in that position.”
So Force went back to school — actually seven schools simultaneously — where he began with 25 credits and “powered” through a four-year degree in 18 months with a 4.0 grade point average.
Says Force: “I see education as a great liberator; so what keeps me coming to work and excited about what I do is to be here for somebody who has decided to take a step toward changing his or her life.”
