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 Fes 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 [email protected] or at a special email address I set up
for this purpose [email protected]. 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 todays 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 ([email protected])
http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/
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