Dear All,
Since my first days in Santa Fe more than five years ago, I have met many
people who hanker to have a university here and have the skill, the talent, and
the experience to contribute to such an enterprise. Yet, the reality is that
we are near to losing our name sake college, the College of Santa Fe. Thursday
night at the School of Advanced Research Darwin Lecture at the Lensic, I was
wondering why a small city that can fill an auditorium for a lecture on Darwin
on a cold winters night cannot sustain its name-sake college. Is it because
there is no group that explicitly represents the many people with interests in
higher education who have been drawn to Santa Fe? As the Governor and the
Legislature decide what, if anything, to do with the CSF campus, the presence
of such an interest group might tip the balance in favor of continuing and even
expanding the College of Santa Fe as a center of creativity, scholarship, and
technical innovation.
I am writing to ask if there any members of FRIAM willing to help me put
together such a group. So that it can provide a little academic clout, I see
its membership as composed centrally--but not exclusivelyof people who have
worked in colleges and universities. It would offer
? a source of reliable information to its members on the status of
negotiations concerning the future of the CSF campus.
? access to national and international personal networks that would assist in
recruiting students and faculty to whatever institution comes to SF to replace
CSF.
? wealth of experience upon which that institution can draw as it develops
programs and seeks grants and funding from the federal government and
foundations to support these program. .
? experienced teachers with advanced degrees who might volunteer to help the
institution through its rocky first year.
? a focus of social and political energy to maintain SF as the sort of place
where a couple of hundred people will come out for a lecture on Darwin on a
cold February night.
Once this organization is established, I see it largely functioning passively:
i.e., as a locus of information exchange and as an academic resource base.
In the initial stages, it might be useful and interesting to get the members
together to share information and establish a conversation, but I see no need
for fund raising, lobbying, or program development or more than an occasional
meeting. I see a simple website, a distribution list, and perhaps a wiki.
The goal is to Be There when They Need Us!
Let me have your ideas. If you need coffee to lubricate your thought
processes, I will buy. What I need most at this point is the names of others
who might share these concerns and want to explore what we might do about them.
All the best,
Nick Thompson
Nicholas S. Thompson
Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Ethology,
Clark University ([email protected])
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