As previously reported in this column, a "partnership" agreement between the College of Santa Fe (CSF) and the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), appears to be nearing consummation [
Zane's World, March 12: "College Confidential"
].
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A high-level delegation from CSF visited SCAD in Atlanta last week and SCAD officials are said to be in Santa Fe this week. Early indications suggest there may be strong resistance to such an alliance from several faculty members at CSF, and that turmoil could engulf the school in the weeks leading to mid-May graduation, just as the college is attempting to woo new students for the fall term.
Unsteadied by heavy debt, dwindling enrollment and a murky identity as an average liberal arts school, CSF has taken steps over the past academic year to reinvent itself as an art-focused college. Capitalizing on its strong moving image arts and creative writing programs, and its growing reputation for visual arts, just as the larger Santa Fe community seeks to solidify and expand its own national and international arts reputation is, at base, a sensible direction. And it's one that has met with generally increased morale from CSF staff and faculty. However, a key decision to accept funding for developing new competitive sports programs and the non-renewal of contracts for some of the most engaging and dynamic faculty in the art department (Christina Cogdell, Kim Russo, etc.), led to early speculation that CSF would try to partner with SCAD, the only art school with a sports program and an aggressive interest in colonizing its efforts.
After it was revealed that talks between the two schools had indeed been instigated, early concerns were voiced by some faculty, including associate professor of moving image arts, David Stout, who was controversially dismissed from SCAD in 1992 along with a dozen peers.
Stout and other SCAD faculty had voiced opposition to administrative practices at the privately held SCAD campus in Atlanta and attempted to form a faculty senate. Their dismissal earned SCAD a censure from the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), which claimed, in a six-page report, that SCAD administrators had violated the largely accepted principles of academic tenure and freedom, as well as procedural standards in faculty dismissal. The AAUP report, compiled by a 15-person investigating committee comprised of professors from around the country, also found that SCAD had ignored a
prima facie
case presented by Stout and his peers that the terminations had violated their academic freedom. SCAD has never responded to the report, outside of a letter drafted by a lawyer that states it "does not accept" the "version of the facts" represented.
Initially, the CSF administration took the concerns from its own faculty seriously, and relations between the two schools appeared to cool.
However, in a Friday, April 11 memo to faculty, CSF President Stuart Kirk reported that attrition rates were projected to rise and enrollment numbers were expected to dip for the coming year. This dire set of assumptions, Kirk concluded, had led the CSF board to decide "there are two choices: engage in immediate fundraising with the need to raise $5MM by this summer or enter into serious exploratory discussions about collaboration with another institution." Later in the memo, Kirk details plans for a CSF visit to Savannah and states that SCAD is "the only institution remaining on our list of potential partners."
Any debate about the relative merits of SCAD as an art school, its presence in Santa Fe and its value as a partner for CSF in a yet-to-be-determined capacity is difficult to parse in entirety at this point. It would certainly be preferable for a significant philanthropic and community effort from within Santa Fe to bolster CSF as an independent institution ready to reinvent and revitalize itself in tandem with many of the community's larger priorities. But whether the issue is insufficient goodwill or insufficient cash stores, it is almost purely fantasy to hope for such an event. If CSF needs $5 million by "summer" just to survive, how many more millions are required to prosper? Therefore, no one may fault the prudency of the board in seeking a partner with deep pockets and extant resources. Further, there are open questions as to how condemnable SCAD is today for its actions of well more than a decade ago.
Nonetheless, SCAD continues a practice of keeping its faculty on short-term contracts rather than offering tenure, the accepted tool for ensuring that professors needn't fear repercussions for voicing unpopular ideas or be more concerned with politics than inquiry and education.
Unfortunately, CSF has already been clumsy in its release of key faculty, in the manifestation of its financial troubles and, apparently, in its successful courting of the most desirable partners and opportunities for the future. It would be nice to believe the current administration will demand a tenure situation for the Santa Fe campus before allowing SCAD to assume any significant degree of influence. But if not, the existing faculty, as well as the greater northern New Mexico community, should be prepared to demand it. A thriving college that recruits from, and contributes to, the immediate community is in the best interest of us all, not just the beleaguered faculty plugging through this painful transition in the small school just off St. Michael's Drive.
And it is high time this community begins to view its assets and liabilities as components of a holistic system. Higher education should be as valuable to us as, for example, grade school, affordable housing and responsible land use. How would we react if these arenas, and the people who champion them, were being threatened so?
