Life of the Mind in Santa Fe

[Nick Thompson]

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 winter’s 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 exclusively—of 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 ([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

[Owen Densmore]

Dave West is working this nowadays.  He may have some good ideas on  
how to proceed, and has considerable knowledge with the NM/CSF realm.

I'm 1000% behind this, great idea!

     -- Owen


On Feb 13, 2009, at 2:57 PM, Nicholas Thompson wrote:

> 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 winter’s 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  
> exclusively—of 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  
> (nthompson
> @clarku
> .edu)============================================================
> 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 Frost]

On Feb 13, 2009, at 2:57 PM, Nicholas Thompson wrote:
>
>   I see a simple website, a distribution list, and perhaps a wiki.    
> The goal is to “Be There when They Need Us!”

Though I imagine there are folks at the sfComplex and Redfish more  
skilled than I at providing the above, I'd be happy to set up a  
Mailman email list either on an existing server or a new one if  
there's a need for that.  I currently administer a few Mailman lists  
on three different servers and could set-up a list in a few minutes.  
I'll also volunteer to assist in compiling, installing, and  
configuring MediaWiki or any other piece of wiki or web software for  
this project on your preferred server of choice.  Should local server  
hardware co-location be needed I can also query a few colleagues as to  
the possibility thereof at one of two local server rooms, were that  
desirable.

-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

[Prof David West]

Nick,

This is, of course, a great idea.

Some specific ideas to consider:

1) If anyone knows anyone in the legislature that might introduce a
friendly amendment to the CSF takeover bill that would allow any
non-profit with an educational mission (e.g. the Complex) to submit a
proposal, in addition to any state university - we might be able to
engineer some kind of "sfxAcademy at the College of Santa Fe" entity.

2) Some significant narrowing of focus for any kind of college would be
of great benefit - one of the things that led to CSF's demise was trying
to be too many things to too many (very small) audiences; leading to
massive overhead with nominal student body.  Being an "Arts School" is
the current mainstream thinking for CSF, but that would not be at all
attractive to the intelligentsia you are thinking of.

3) I would be most interested in a College that followed the St. John's
organizational model - basically a single curriculum with lots of
seminar, project, experiential learning, etc.  The single curriculum we
could offer would be a blend of math, science, systems (general and
complex), and software - a working title could be "Generative Systems
Design."  We would offer only one Masters Degree and one Doctorate in
this area (with ability for individuals to express special interests).
The school would operate on a continual basis (5.5 days a week - 9-9
M-F, 9-1 S), with new students entering at any time.  The entire program
would be self-paced.  Obviously I have a lot of detailed ideas about
what the school should look like.  The basic point is to offer something
that is uniquely SF, unique within the field of education (ala St.
John's), and that addresses the real void (not the Arts) left by the
demise of CSF.

davew

On Fri, 13 Feb 2009 19:02:38 -0700, "Owen Densmore"
<[hidden email]> said:

> Dave West is working this nowadays.  He may have some good ideas on  
> how to proceed, and has considerable knowledge with the NM/CSF realm.
>
> I'm 1000% behind this, great idea!
>
>      -- Owen
>
>
> On Feb 13, 2009, at 2:57 PM, Nicholas Thompson wrote:
>
> > 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 winter’s 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  
> > exclusively—of 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  
> > (nthompson
> > @clarku
> > .edu)============================================================
> > 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

============================================================
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]

Dear Nicholas Frost,
 
thanks. These are wonderful suggestions.
 
When (if) I get ... say ... a dozen people, I will get in touch.
 
Can you think of any people not on the FRIAM list I should contact?
 
Nick

Nicholas S. Thompson
Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Ethology,
Clark University ([hidden email])

> [Original Message]
> From: Nick Frost <[hidden email]>
> To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <[hidden email]>
> Date: 2/14/2009 5:40:28 AM
> Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Life of the Mind in Santa Fe
>
> On Feb 13, 2009, at 2:57 PM, Nicholas Thompson wrote:
> >
> >   I see a simple website, a distribution list, and perhaps a wiki.    
> > The goal is to “Be There when They Need Us!”
>
> Though I imagine there are folks at the sfComplex and Redfish more  
> skilled than I at providing the above, I'd be happy to set up a  
> Mailman email list either on an existing server or a new one if  
> there's a need for that.  I currently administer a few Mailman lists  
> on three different servers and could set-up a list in a few minutes.  
> I'll also volunteer to assist in compiling, installing, and  
> configuring MediaWiki or any other piece of wiki or web software for  
> this project on your preferred server of choice.  Should local server  
> hardware co-location be needed I can also query a few colleagues as to  
> the possibility thereof at one of two local server rooms, were that  
> desirable.
>
> -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

============================================================
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 Feb 14, 2009, at 9:26 PM, Nicholas Thompson wrote:

> Dear Nicholas Frost,
>
> thanks. These are wonderful suggestions.
>
> When (if) I get ... say ... a dozen people, I will get in touch.
>
> Can you think of any people not on the FRIAM list I should contact?

Hi Nick;

Think we met again at lunch last week, I'm the guy from El Dorado.

Well, it depends on what your goals area and the people you desire to  
involve in achieving them. With respect to the portion of your  
initiative/idea for involving people who have worked in colleges and  
universities, not having such experience I'll leave that bit to  
others.  But, concerning your stated goal of creating "a simple  
website, a distribution list, and perhaps a wiki."  one question is  
"are you looking for all volunteers to assist with this, or will this  
be a paid project?".

The NMLUG and NMGLUG mailing lists have many subscribers (the list  
roster is not available to subscribers, so I don't know how many  
recipients there are), a variety (amateurs and professionals) with  
good skills for building websites, distribution lists, and wikis.  So,  
those might be places to seek assistance for those tasks, but there  
also might be people at the sfComplex and/or Redfish who could do all  
that too (I don't know)?  If you wrote-up what you were looking for,  
I'd be happy to post it to NMLUG and/or NMGLUG on your behalf, or you  
could join those lists and do so yourself were you interested in  
handling that directly yourself. It might be easier to make a post to  
those lists for you when you have it ready.

https://nmglug.org/mailman/listinfo/nmglug

< the nmlug mailing list web interface appears down, though the list  
functions>

If you are looking for volunteers, one idea that comes to mind is to  
post to Craigslist http://santafe.craigslist.org/vol/

Another idea would be to put up some sort of notice at the SFPL  
(Public Library) and/or other bulletin boards in town.  I will  
actually be going to the main SFPL branch Monday to meet with a  
Librarian friend (and former colleague from the SFI) of mine for some  
consulting, I can ask her about posting a volunteer notice if you  
like? There's also the NMIPA http://www.nmipa.org/ and other local  
interest groups like that, and I would think posts to those groups  
might yield some responses.

With respect to commercial web firms, here are a few but I can't speak  
to their willingness to donate site design for a College of Santa Fe  
advocacy group, but I think it couldn't hurt to ask;

> MeridianSix
> www.meridiansix.com
> 1234 Calle de Comercio
> Santa Fe, NM 87507
> 505 501 1081 phone
> 505 471 6532 fax
>
> Pearson Kramer
> www.pearsonkramer.com
> 1348 Pacheco Street, Suite 201, Santa Fe, NM 87505
> 505-988-5055
>
> Xynergy (Jennifer Martin)
> www.xynergy.com
> 535 Cerrillos Road
> Suite A2
> Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501
> 505.820.9357

I don't know if that helps or not?

-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