College of Santa Fe
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| College of Santa Fe | |
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| Established | 1859 1874, Chartered 1947, New Program 1966, Renamed |
| Type | Private |
| President | Laurence A. Hinz |
| Undergraduates | 800-1100 per campus |
| Location | Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States |
| Campus | Urban |
| Mascot | Prairie dog |
| Website | [2] [3] |
The College of Santa Fe is a small liberal arts college, with strong programs in the arts, based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. At its Santa Fe campus, the college offers a traditional full-time undergraduate program, as well as an evening and weekend program for local working adults. The evening and weekend program has another branch in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The college has about 800 traditional students and over 1,000 students in its evening and weekend program. On March 24, 2009, President Kirk announced the College of Santa Fe would cease operations and close by May 2009.[1] On July 22 2009 President Kirk announced that CSF will be posting a fall schedule and enrolling returning students. [2]
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[edit] History
The oldest chartered college in the State of New Mexico, the College of Santa Fe was founded in the Lasallian tradition of education, a Roman Catholic teaching order in which the schools are run by laymen. The institution's first incarnation opened in 1859, as St. Michael's College. It was run by four Christian Brothers as a preparatory school for boys, and it operated out of an adobe hut. It was granted a charter for higher education in 1874, as the College of the Christian Brothers of New Mexico. The college was heavily represented at the first constitutional convention of New Mexico, in 1910. However, after World War I, the higher education program was dropped, and it was a dedicated preparatory school until after World War II.
The school reintroduced the college program, and assumed its modern form, in 1947. The first class had 148 students, with 15 faculty members, all Christian Brothers (by contrast, the current faculty are mostly secular). The president at that time was Brother Benildus of Mary, for whom the largest academic building is named. In 1966, Saint Michael's College changed its name to the College of Santa Fe, and enrolled its first female students in that year.
The college has continued expanding since it became co-educational. In 1980 it opened the evening-weekend program, with the intent of offering degree programs to adults who work every weekday. In 1985 it was accredited to award the Master of Business Administration. In 1986, after the closing of the University of Albuquerque, it opened its Albuquerque branch.
In the late 1980s College of Santa Fe expanded enormously, with the Greer Garson Theatre, Communications Center and Studios, the Driscoll Fitness Center, the Visual Arts Center, and on-campus student apartments. It also began offering many new degrees, including a masters in education, and bachelor of arts in environmental science and conservation. It also opened the Contemporary Music Program.
[edit] College of Santa Fe today
The college is known for its diverse student body, tolerant values and the eclectic interests of its students. The liberal values of the college are reflected in the selection of programs that the college itself, in its course catalog, names as its best: performing arts, visual arts, moving image arts, music, and creative writing. Students from nearly all 50 states and the District of Columbia enroll at CSF, with approximately 80% coming from outside of the state of New Mexico.
[edit] Possible closure
In 2008, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported that the college nearly declared a financial exigency, allowing the school to fire tenured professors to save the institution from bankruptcy. The college announced it would find other ways to cut costs including offering severance packages to about a dozen tenured and tenure-track professors, the construction of a new highly energy-efficient student center, a refocusing on the creative arts, and re-initiating money-generating sports programs. However, the administration acknowledged that they may need to revisit the possibility of a financial exigency in the next year or two. During the summer of 2008, the College of Santa Fe announced a possible partnership with Laureate Education Inc. (Sylvan Learning Systems).
On November 26, 2008 the President of the College of Santa Fe announced that, unable to assume the debt of the college, Laureate pulled out of possible partnership with CSF. The college is working with New Mexico Highlands University, whose regents have approved taking over the private College of Santa Fe.
As of January 13, 2009, the deal still needs to be approved by the Commission on Higher Learning and the Legislature, which must agree to additional funds. On January 12, 2009, the Highlands University regents approved a letter of intent that outlines the process for taking over the financially strapped Santa Fe school. The College of Santa Fe's trustees had already approved the letter.[3]
After much student and local cooperation and efforts for over a year to save the College of Santa Fe as an institution of higher learning and liberal arts, the private college will be closed at the end of the 2009 semester. The New Mexico Legislature did not take action on House bill, HB 577, in the 2009 Legislative Session. The bill was to be considered before the New Mexico State Senate Finance Committee. After the end of session it left no concrete plan for the State of New Mexico to acquire the College of Santa Fe. A press release on March 24, 2009 by the President of the College of Santa Fe, Stuart C. Kirk mentions the demise of college and that all operations will cease. The college has been working hard to put together a teach-out plan with several other comparable institutions, so that students will have the option to finish their degree on time and to still receive a diploma from CSF.[4]
The Governor of the State of New Mexico, Bill Richardson, signed an executive order creating the College of Santa Fe Task Force during a visit to the campus. The Task Force will explore all options to save the financially troubled private college and report back to Governor Richardson by April 30, 2009. “While I am disappointed that the bill that would have allowed one of our state’s universities to acquire the College of Santa Fe did not make it through the legislative session, I want to assure students, faculty and the community we are not giving up,” Governor Bill Richardson said. “The college is too important to the City of Santa Fe and the State of New Mexico for us to allow it to close its doors and this Task Force will look at all ways to prevent that from happening.” Governor Richardson selected his Deputy Chief of Staff and education adviser Dr. Bruce Perlman to chair the Task Force which is composed of education, state, community, and business leaders as well staff and students at the College of Santa Fe. Task Force members held their first meeting immediately following the signing of the executive order.[5]
As of May 7, the college announced that it is in talks with Laureate Education, discussing possibilities of an acquisition. [6]
[edit] Visual arts
Considered one of the top colleges of creative arts, the college is located in the City of Santa Fe, New Mexico which has the 2nd largest art market in the United States (New York City has the largest). There are many professional artists who make Santa Fe, a city with approximately 300 art galleries, their home.
The Visual Arts Center was completed in 1999. It is an architectural masterpiece, designed by the internationally renowned architect Ricardo Legorreta. The Visual Arts Center (VAC) is one of the most photographed buildings in Santa Fe.
[edit] Moving image arts
The program in Moving Image Arts (MOV) at CSF is considered one of the best film programs in the United States. In fact, College of Santa Fe is only one of two (Chapman University) colleges in the nation with a professional film studio on its campus (Garson Studios) which are attached to the collegiate program. Majors in Moving Image Arts have the opportunity to work on the sets of the professional productions that use the college's facilities. Several major motion pictures have been filmed in the college's sound stages, including North Country, All the Pretty Horses, Employee of the Month, Young Guns, The Missing, and No Country for Old Men.
Brothers, a production starring Tobey Maguire, Natalie Portman and Jake Gyllenhaal just wrapped and a new production called Legion is currently shooting with Dennis Quaid, Paul Bettany, Charles S. Dutton and Lucas Black.
[edit] Contemporary music program
The Contemporary Music Program includes traditional training in music history, music theory, singing, keyboard, and the student's individual instrument, but also involves training in music technology and recording, world music, and auditory theory. The world music opportunities at the college are excellent for its size, having instruction in the African drum the djembe, the Javanese Gamelan, and Balkan and Middle Eastern music. There are also ensembles in many styles of western music, including jazz, funk and R&B, rock, electro-acoustic music and improvisation. The department has a strong guitarist presence, in the students and faculty, and offers instruction in guitar styles such as flamenco, jazz, rock, blues, and classical. Benildus Hall, where the Contemporary Music Program is located, has facilities for recording, composition, and computer music, as well as practice and performance. The current director of the program is Steven Paxton. This program is no longer running.
[edit] Social sciences
There are two undergraduate Social Science departments, Psychology and Politics. The Psychology Department is in the process of changing their structure from three concentrations (Counseling, General Psychology, and Global Wisdom Traditions and Spirituality) into a more comprehensive cross-cultural approach, with a new concentration in Multi-Cultural Counseling. This will include the former concentrations and still represent the basic psychology bachelor’s degree that prepares the student for graduate work or entry-level employment in the mental health field. The Psychology program draws upon not only traditional psychology, but also the culture-specific worldviews of Native American, African, Asian, Latino and other cultures. The faculty teaches value-oriented humanistic psychology (including Jungian perspectives) and cognitive-behavioral psychology. Another specialty area is the Art Therapy and Expressive Therapies concentration. This is one of only 12 similar undergraduate programs in the U.S. It prepares the student for application to a master’s program that leads to accreditation as a registered art therapist. The current director of Social Sciences is Robert Jessen, Ph.D.
[edit] Athletics
The College of Santa Fe's athletic teams, dubbed the Prairie Dogs, competed in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics. CSF's athletic teams began competition in fall 2008, and sadly, the Athetics Department was 'cancelled' in December 2008. Men's sports offered were baseball, cross country, soccer, and tennis, while women's sports offered were softball, cross country, soccer, and tennis.
CSF is also the home of the Rosemarie Shellaberger Tennis Center. The center opened in November 2002 and was awarded the USTA Outstanding Tennis Facility Award in 2003. With six indoor Rebound Ace courts, one stadium court (also Rebound Ace), seven outdoor courts, and a state-of-the-art lighting system, the Tennis Center is the premier tennis facility of Santa Fe. The Gladys Heldman Stadium Court seats 1,000 people.
The College of Santa Fe competed as the Knights until the mid 80's when the programs were discontinued.
[edit] Notable alumni
- Octaviano Ambrosio Larrazolo, former Governor and U.S. Senator for New Mexico.
- Conrad Hilton, hotelier
- Manuel Lujan Jr., former United States Secretary of the Interior, former member of the U.S. House of Representatives
- Alissa Moreno, singer-songwriter
- Ray Buktenica, television actor
- Lauren Kline, Broadway actress
- Dominic D'Angelo, experimental filmmaker
- Nick Petree, musician
- Rockmond Dunbar, actor
- Graham Robertson, filmmaker
- Oliver M. Thomas, Jr., New Orleans Democratic city council member who pleaded guilty to bribery in 2007
- Denise Poirier Voice actress for Aeon Flux
- Casey Desmond, former Arizona high school team tennis champion
[edit] See also
[edit] References
College of Santa Fe Course Catalog, 2006–2007.
[edit] External links
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