[FRIAM] Life of the Mind in Santa Fe

[Nicholas 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 (nthompson at clarku.edu)
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