That old self-help saw about the Chinese character for "crisis" being comprised of the words "danger" and "opportunity" isn't strictly true. But the legerdemain of living in a postmodern world is that situations tend to fit our compiled mythos of perception and that truth and accuracy become malleable propositions. The College of Santa Fe (CSF), which has announced that it faces up to a $7 million shortfall next year, is indeed in the midst of a crisis that, sinologists and the self-help industry be damned, precisely represents an intersection of danger and opportunity.***image2***
In parallel with its questionable cash flow, CSF is reorienting its focus away from a liberal arts program and toward what it calls "creative arts with a liberal arts emphasis." In other words, its going to be an art school.
This represents opportunity. It makes no sense to compete, and compete poorly, against the teeming masses of middling quality liberal arts schools, especially since CSF has little to distinguish itself from these schools, save for some dilapidated, asbestos-infested, former interment-camp barracks. With more than 80 percent of its enrollment focused on the arts, it's a no-brainer to accept that, despite the best attempts of previous college administrations, a potentially successful niche has opened up. Add to this the knowledge that if Santa Fe is to ever be a world class contemporary arts center it needs to be home to an innovative art school, and CSF's new direction should get support from the city, the arts community, the gallery association, regional culture-focused philanthropies and advocates of a generally progressive community.
The danger for CSF lies in the fact that this is no well-financed redirect. Given its budget issues, the school has said that it may need to cut up to 20 percent of its faculty by as early as the spring semester. Ironically, the visual arts department is among the areas facing significant staff cuts. The logic behind this maneuver is that, unlike the more specific arts programs, such as moving image arts, theater and creative writing, the core practices of painting, sculpture and immediately related endeavors have too high a student-to-faculty ratio to appear profitable on the balance sheet. Meanwhile, the school has received funding to increase its sports activities. Leaving aside, for a moment, that an art college (with the legal name College of the Christian Brothers of New Mexico) that is growing its sports program while cutting art faculty will have some trouble appealing to, you know, art students, there are other issues of shortsightedness to tackle.
Over the past few years, CSF has easily doubled the number of its more innovative and dynamic faculty in the arts. Strong programs have become stronger and more flaccid programs have been bolstered. Because of the tenure system of protected employment, which really is only meant to protect academic freedom and dissenting opinions, the newer faculty, considered probationary, is the easiest to subject to, as the CSF faculty handbook terms it, "non-reappointment." Under a condition called "financial exigency," which must be declared by the board of trustees, the college may let go of either tenured or non-tenured faculty, but tenured faculty would have potential grounds for a lawsuit, especially if non-tenured, less senior faculty appear to have been given preference.
Obviously the senior faculty is due considerable respect for devotion to the school and helping it to arrive at this moment of dangerous opportunity. Nonetheless, at a Thursday, Nov. 15 meeting between students and a range of art department faculty, it was impossible to miss the students' concern that the program would be left at a particular loss if newer faculty were let go.
If CSF is to become an art school with enough draw to achieve financial success and to create a sense of reciprocal prestige with Santa Fe's existing arts and culture assets, its program must be forward thinking, interdisciplinary and cutting edge. Existing models are being dropped at schools everywhere, and students are thriving in atmospheres in which they choose an emphasis but are allowed to move easily between departments and use a broad range of media to create their studio work. There is little point to creating an art school if it is not going to be an innovative and exciting one with compelling attractions. Further, although the CSF faculty handbook's rules for removing staff under financial exigency does value seniority and tenure, it does not do so at the expense of the viability of the program. Having led the school and endeared it to students for a great many years, the obvious solution is for long-term faculty who are close to retirement to graciously step aside and allow the school's transition to be truly new.
Clearly, early retirement incentive packages would have to be prepared in order to make such a generosity even possible. But the import of CSF's metamorphosis, not only to the future of the college, but also to the future of the city, is so great that, even in troubled times, such an incentive package should be at the top of the list of fund-raising goals for the college. It also is an instance in which financial support and creative solutions from within the larger community should be made available to CSF. I've no doubt there are unorthodox ways to structure longterm packages with financial guarantees that might require less up-front compensation.
The bottom line is that the college's survival depends less on marketing its new approach and trimming perceived fat from its budget, and more on proving to its supporters, its existing and prospective students and its community that it is undertaking a deep-rooted and thoroughly committed engagement in next-generation arts exploration. Its salvation won't lie in popular maxims based on questionable interpretations, but from self-defined leadership and its support of visionary faculty.
