City University of Santa Fe

[Nick Thompson]

All,

 

I again attended the meeting of the goverenor's task force to suggest what to do about the impending demise of the college of Santa Fe.  The accoustics in the room were terrible and so my report will be more brief.  Also, there seemed to be an attentive reporter from the New Mexican there, so I imagine there will be something fairly informative in tomorrow's papers. 

 

Briefly, something seems to be taking shape for higher education in Santa Fe.   Economic analyses seem to suggest that the impact of having (or losing) the college upon the city of Santa Fe is of the order of HUNDREDS of millions of dollars. (sic!) In other words, the City cannot afford not to save or replace the college.  The outlines are as follows:

 

(1) City of Santa Fe takes ownership of most of the campus through a bond issue.  The rest is obtained by state or other enterprises having to do with education. 

 

(2) Laureate College  leases 3/4 of the campus and takes change of the College of Santa Fe.  On this scenario, the college is up and going in the fall.  Laureate is a for profit enterprise that boasts 500,000 students world wide.   It can sustain substantial losses for a few years and is apparently willing to do so, but believes that it can make a profit running an art school here, if it can lease the property from the city at market rates. 

 

(3) Something else educational will happen with the rest of the college and the rest of the land. 

 

I still think, even within this frame work, there is a place for a framework that embraces all the educational and quasi educational institution in the city as The City University of Santa Fe.    Laureate U. seems possibly a benign force under the present circumstances, but we dont want them wagging the Santa Fe Educational Dog.  And I still think it is important to pull together the people in Santa Fe who feel they benefit from having institutuions of higher learning in the city. 

 

I just cant think how.

 

There is another meeting of the task force from ten to noon THIS wednesday,  probably it's last meeting. 

 

Nick

 

 

Nicholas S. Thompson

Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Ethology,

Clark University ([hidden email])

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

 

 

 

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Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
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[Merle Lefkoff]

Nicholas Thompson wrote:

>
> All,
>  
> I again attended the meeting of the goverenor's task force to suggest
> what to do about the impending demise of the college of Santa Fe.  The
> accoustics in the room were terrible and so my report will be more
> brief.  Also, there seemed to be an attentive reporter from the New
> Mexican there, so I imagine there will be something fairly informative
> in tomorrow's papers.
>  
> Briefly, something seems to be taking shape for higher education in
> Santa Fe.   Economic analyses seem to suggest that the impact of
> having (or losing) the college upon the city of Santa Fe is of the
> order of HUNDREDS of millions of dollars. (/sic!)/ In other words, the
> City cannot afford not to save or replace the college.  The outlines
> are as follows:
>  
> (1) City of Santa Fe takes ownership of most of the campus through a
> bond issue.  The rest is obtained by state or other enterprises having
> to do with education.
>  
> (2) Laureate College  leases 3/4 of the campus and takes change of the
> College of Santa Fe.  On this scenario, the college is up and going in
> the fall.  Laureate is a for profit enterprise that boasts 500,000
> students world wide.   It can sustain substantial losses for a few
> years and is apparently willing to do so, but believes that it can
> make a profit running an art school here, if it can lease the property
> from the city at market rates.
>  
> (3) Something else educational will happen with the rest of the
> college and the rest of the land.
>  
> I still think, even within this frame work, there is a place for a
> framework that embraces all the educational and quasi educational
> institution in the city as The City University of Santa Fe.    
> Laureate U. seems possibly a benign force under the present
> circumstances, but we dont want them wagging the Santa Fe Educational
> Dog.  And I still think it is important to pull together the people in
> Santa Fe who feel they benefit from having institutuions of higher
> learning in the city.
>  
> I just cant think how.
>  
> There is another meeting of the task force from ten to noon THIS
> wednesday,  probably it's last meeting.

Nick,

Why can't you think how?  I thought you were an applied complexity
scientist.  I can think of a lot of "hows."  Maybe I'll go to the
meeting Wednesday before I leave town again.

Merle

>  
> Nick
>  
>  
> Nicholas S. Thompson
> Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Ethology,
> Clark University ([hidden email] <mailto:[hidden email]>)
> http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ 
> <http://home.earthlink.net/%7Enickthompson/naturaldesigns/>
>  
>  
>  
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> ============================================================
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
> lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org

[Owen Densmore]

Laureate, to me, seems a bit spooky.  They want to build an Art  
School, which fills a gap in their currently available offerings world  
wide.  They can have folks visit Santa Fe for their Arts studies,  
using other Laureate facilities for the rest of their degree.

So that leaves in the cold anyone wanting to study other fields,  
certainly in the sciences.  So it leaves Santa Fe still being "quaint"  
and "arty".  Oh my.

My prediction is that this will ultimately enhance the Community  
College, mainly by beefing up the Highlands Santa Fe Center:
   http://www.nmhu.edu/statewidecenters/santafe/
(Note UNM dropped its local center.)

My preference would be Highlands taking over CSF but that would  
require state funding .. an unlikely event.

I really hope Dave West's idea of the Academy at the Complex works out.

     -- Owen


On Apr 24, 2009, at 6:16 PM, Nicholas Thompson wrote:

> All,
>
> I again attended the meeting of the goverenor's task force to  
> suggest what to do about the impending demise of the college of  
> Santa Fe.  The accoustics in the room were terrible and so my report  
> will be more brief.  Also, there seemed to be an attentive reporter  
> from the New Mexican there, so I imagine there will be something  
> fairly informative in tomorrow's papers.
>
> Briefly, something seems to be taking shape for higher education in  
> Santa Fe.   Economic analyses seem to suggest that the impact of  
> having (or losing) the college upon the city of Santa Fe is of the  
> order of HUNDREDS of millions of dollars. (sic!) In other words, the  
> City cannot afford not to save or replace the college.  The outlines  
> are as follows:
>
> (1) City of Santa Fe takes ownership of most of the campus through a  
> bond issue.  The rest is obtained by state or other enterprises  
> having to do with education.
>
> (2) Laureate College  leases 3/4 of the campus and takes change of  
> the College of Santa Fe.  On this scenario, the college is up and  
> going in the fall.  Laureate is a for profit enterprise that boasts  
> 500,000 students world wide.   It can sustain substantial losses for  
> a few years and is apparently willing to do so, but believes that it  
> can make a profit running an art school here, if it can lease the  
> property from the city at market rates.
>
> (3) Something else educational will happen with the rest of the  
> college and the rest of the land.
>
> I still think, even within this frame work, there is a place for a  
> framework that embraces all the educational and quasi educational  
> institution in the city as The City University of Santa Fe.    
> Laureate U. seems possibly a benign force under the present  
> circumstances, but we dont want them wagging the Santa Fe  
> Educational Dog.  And I still think it is important to pull together  
> the people in Santa Fe who feel they benefit from having  
> institutuions of higher learning in the city.
>
> I just cant think how.
>
> There is another meeting of the task force from ten to noon THIS  
> wednesday,  probably it's last meeting.
>
> Nick
>
>
> Nicholas S. Thompson
> Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Ethology,
> Clark University ([hidden email])
> http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/============================================================
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
> lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org

[Owen Densmore]

On Apr 24, 2009, at 8:17 PM, Merle Lefkoff wrote:
> Nick,
>
> Why can't you think how?  I thought you were an applied complexity  
> scientist.  I can think of a lot of "hows."  Maybe I'll go to the  
> meeting Wednesday before I leave town again.
>
> Merle

Well, knowing how quirky Santa Fe is, I'm not sure how you could pull  
off a real university here.  SF is a 3rd world city, and hopes to  
remain that way.

So I really *do* hope you look in at the meeting and think of  
something.  It'd be great.

The simple fact of the matter is that The Government looks only at  
politics, not need.  400 years of Acrimonious Bickering had defined  
Santa Fe and is going to be hard to change.

CCSF is certainly the main focus for education here, especially with  
affordable, local first 2 years and a great deal on the last 2 years  
of a Bachelors at UNM.

     -- Owen

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org

[Nick Frost]

On Apr 24, 2009, at 6:16 PM, Nicholas Thompson wrote:

>   And I still think it is important to pull together the people in  
> Santa Fe who feel they benefit from having institutuions of higher  
> learning in the city.
>
> I just cant think how.
>
> There is another meeting of the task force from ten to noon THIS  
> wednesday,  probably it's last meeting.

Hi Nick;

My personal bias on the "how" to pull people together is to start with  
a group communications mechanism and get some advertising around it  
(radio....Mary Charlotte@ksfr, article in New Mexican, etc.)  While  
Facebook is a social networking site, The American Association for the  
Advancement of Science has a Facebook group http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2379175624
with nearly 3,000 members and such sites can be used as effective  
communications methods for groups.  The Ning site is another example,  
you could create a Ning site "Higher Learning in Santa Fe" for free,  
as with Facebook so it would cost nothing other than time.  An example  
of such a Ning site would be;

http://cooperative.ning.com/

Have a good weekend.

-Nick
----------------------------------------
Nicholas S. Frost
7 Avenida Vista Grande #325
Santa Fe, NM  87508
[hidden email]
----------------------------------------


============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org

[Nick Thompson]

Owen,

The local people that I have talked to seem to be quite enthusiastic about
Laureate.  I agree it is nervous making, but they are quite confident that
they will be left to build an arts school as they see fit.  I know.  That's
what the people who are being bought out always think.  But there it is.

You are correct that what is likely to go by the wayside in this
arrangement is all the OTHER opportunities that SF offers ... technology,
government, anthro, ecology, etc.  This is what we need to be prepared to
fight for.  

The problem with the community college is that it doesnt really have a
FACULTY, right?  Call me old fashioned, but it seems to me that an
educational experience is two things beyond courses: a faculty and a
campus.  Harvard faculty were pretty much a bust; but my peers were amazing
and I made friends who shaped my life, there.  A parking lot and a lecture
hall just does not constitute an education for me.  

One thought is that if Laureate is going ahead with an art schoool,
somebody else might go ahead with a technology school  These would be two
institutions with in the general framework of the City University of Santa
Fe.    City University of Santa Fe would give the Complex space and
inreturn the complex would provide internship, etc., experiences .  That
would mean letting go of Agua Fria, but it also might provide long term
financial security.  In some ways, this seems to make sense in the same way
that the art school makes sense -- i.e., Dave West has never doubted that
he could find STUDENTS, right?

Is it time for some representative of the Complex to be having a chat with
Laureatte?  And with the Art School people.  If Laureate is going to let
them run it, then now would be the time to see if something could be
clabbored together, even for the fall, in the technology line.  We  might
even have a program for JP?


Nick



.  









Nicholas S. Thompson
Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Ethology,
Clark University ([hidden email])
http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/




> [Original Message]
> From: Owen Densmore <[hidden email]>
> To: <[hidden email]>; The Friday Morning Applied Complexity
Coffee Group <[hidden email]>

> Date: 4/25/2009 10:48:51 AM
> Subject: Re: [FRIAM] City University of Santa Fe
>
> Laureate, to me, seems a bit spooky.  They want to build an Art  
> School, which fills a gap in their currently available offerings world  
> wide.  They can have folks visit Santa Fe for their Arts studies,  
> using other Laureate facilities for the rest of their degree.
>
> So that leaves in the cold anyone wanting to study other fields,  
> certainly in the sciences.  So it leaves Santa Fe still being "quaint"  
> and "arty".  Oh my.
>
> My prediction is that this will ultimately enhance the Community  
> College, mainly by beefing up the Highlands Santa Fe Center:
>    http://www.nmhu.edu/statewidecenters/santafe/
> (Note UNM dropped its local center.)
>
> My preference would be Highlands taking over CSF but that would  
> require state funding .. an unlikely event.
>
> I really hope Dave West's idea of the Academy at the Complex works out.
>
>      -- Owen
>
>
> On Apr 24, 2009, at 6:16 PM, Nicholas Thompson wrote:
>
> > All,
> >
> > I again attended the meeting of the goverenor's task force to  
> > suggest what to do about the impending demise of the college of  
> > Santa Fe.  The accoustics in the room were terrible and so my report  
> > will be more brief.  Also, there seemed to be an attentive reporter  
> > from the New Mexican there, so I imagine there will be something  
> > fairly informative in tomorrow's papers.
> >
> > Briefly, something seems to be taking shape for higher education in  
> > Santa Fe.   Economic analyses seem to suggest that the impact of  
> > having (or losing) the college upon the city of Santa Fe is of the  
> > order of HUNDREDS of millions of dollars. (sic!) In other words, the  
> > City cannot afford not to save or replace the college.  The outlines  
> > are as follows:
> >
> > (1) City of Santa Fe takes ownership of most of the campus through a  
> > bond issue.  The rest is obtained by state or other enterprises  
> > having to do with education.
> >
> > (2) Laureate College  leases 3/4 of the campus and takes change of  
> > the College of Santa Fe.  On this scenario, the college is up and  
> > going in the fall.  Laureate is a for profit enterprise that boasts  
> > 500,000 students world wide.   It can sustain substantial losses for  
> > a few years and is apparently willing to do so, but believes that it  
> > can make a profit running an art school here, if it can lease the  
> > property from the city at market rates.
> >
> > (3) Something else educational will happen with the rest of the  
> > college and the rest of the land.
> >
> > I still think, even within this frame work, there is a place for a  
> > framework that embraces all the educational and quasi educational  
> > institution in the city as The City University of Santa Fe.    
> > Laureate U. seems possibly a benign force under the present  
> > circumstances, but we dont want them wagging the Santa Fe  
> > Educational Dog.  And I still think it is important to pull together  
> > the people in Santa Fe who feel they benefit from having  
> > institutuions of higher learning in the city.
> >
> > I just cant think how.
> >
> > There is another meeting of the task force from ten to noon THIS  
> > wednesday,  probably it's last meeting.
> >
> > Nick
> >
> >
> > Nicholas S. Thompson
> > Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Ethology,
> > Clark University ([hidden email])
> >

http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/=====================
=======================================
> > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
> > lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org



============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org

[Nick Thompson]

These are great suggestions.  Facebook is something i have assiduously
avoided, but now perhaps it's time.

Nick

Nicholas S. Thompson
Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Ethology,
Clark University ([hidden email])
http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/




> [Original Message]
> From: Nick Frost <[hidden email]>
> To: <[hidden email]>; The Friday Morning Applied Complexity
Coffee Group <[hidden email]>

> Date: 4/25/2009 11:09:55 AM
> Subject: Re: [FRIAM] City University of Santa Fe
>
> On Apr 24, 2009, at 6:16 PM, Nicholas Thompson wrote:
>
> >   And I still think it is important to pull together the people in  
> > Santa Fe who feel they benefit from having institutuions of higher  
> > learning in the city.
> >
> > I just cant think how.
> >
> > There is another meeting of the task force from ten to noon THIS  
> > wednesday,  probably it's last meeting.
>
> Hi Nick;
>
> My personal bias on the "how" to pull people together is to start with  
> a group communications mechanism and get some advertising around it  
> (radio....Mary Charlotte@ksfr, article in New Mexican, etc.)  While  
> Facebook is a social networking site, The American Association for the  
> Advancement of Science has a Facebook group

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2379175624

> with nearly 3,000 members and such sites can be used as effective  
> communications methods for groups.  The Ning site is another example,  
> you could create a Ning site "Higher Learning in Santa Fe" for free,  
> as with Facebook so it would cost nothing other than time.  An example  
> of such a Ning site would be;
>
> http://cooperative.ning.com/
>
> Have a good weekend.
>
> -Nick
> ----------------------------------------
> Nicholas S. Frost
> 7 Avenida Vista Grande #325
> Santa Fe, NM  87508
> [hidden email]
> ----------------------------------------

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org