CSF Task Force

[Nick Thompson]

Dear Local Friam Members, 

 

I took pleasure in the news that Governor Richardson had created a Task Force to recommend action concerning the College of Santa Fe situation.    Santa Fe should have a general 4-year College.  Without such an institution to attract young people, we risk becoming city of old folks.   In fact, I wish we would reach beyond a 4-year college toward  a City University of Santa Fe which focuses on advanced learning in all the things that the City is good at: art, technology, government, ecology, and anthropology,  music, for starters.  I see the City is the campus and the museums, art galleries, studios, performance spaces, think- tanks, government offices, and technical facilities as its laboratories.

 

But how do we get through the present rough spot?  I observed the Task Force Meeting today.   One puzzling feature of that meeting is that, while many Task Force members acknowledged that there was a lot of untapped academic firepower in the City,  few if any members of our community of academics showed up to represent their interests.   Where those 200-400 people who so faithfully attend the SFI and the SAR Lectures at the James A. Little?!   I think the Task Force is much more likely to do something for Santa Fe if it feels that the huge community of former and active academics that lives here is ready to pitch in. 

 

So, I would like FRIAM members to help me assemble a list of local academics who express an interest in the development of a City four-year (+?) institution that is profoundly Santa Fe-ish and will perhaps be willing to volunteer temporary courses, where needed, and/or to work their own networks of academic connections to recruit students and a permanent faculty.  Please notice that I am specifically NOT asking for money.   I would like to be able to carry a list of 25 such academic volunteers to the next meeting of the Task Force, which is this Friday.  Ultimately, I would like to have a list of 50 – 100. 

 

Here is what I need you to do.  First, if you are -- or ever have been – an academic, and live in or around Santa Fe at least part of the year, and are willing to give some help during a transition from CSF to whatever might follow, please send me an email telling me so and giving me your name, your specialty, your highest degree and from where, your last  academic position, and where.   Here, for instance is what I will say:

 

"Yes I am willing to help out, if I can.  Nicholas S. Thompson,  Psychology and Behavioral Biology, PhD, UC Berkeley 1966,  Professor of Psychology and  Ethology, Departments of Psychology and Biology, Clark University, Worcester MA  until 2007. "

 

Please, PLEASE, do not be fussy about this.  Don't worry if your specialty is relevant.  Don't worry that you might not be able to fulfill your offer. (If you are ever asked to make good on your offer, you can always refuse with honor on the ground your circumstances have changed.)  What is important now  is to express to the Task Force the support of Santa Fe’s community of active and former academics for some sort of action to support higher education in Santa Fe.   The details are not important.  

 

After you have done this (or instead of doing it),  would you please forward this letter to academics of your acquaintance who live in or around the city, or call them, or give me their names or emails so I can call them.   I promise I will be polite and not pushy. 

 

You may reach me as [hidden email] or at a special email address I set up for this purpose [hidden email].  Earthlink has an annoying spam-trap, but I promise to attend quickly to any messages that don't get through. 

 

Soon -- if not tonight, tomorrow morning -- I will write up an FAQ on my experience of today’s meeting of the Task Force, trying to answer  any questions I would have had if I had not gone.  

 

Nick

 

 

Nicholas S. Thompson

Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Ethology,

Clark University ([hidden email])

http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/

 

 

 

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