Mail letters to Letters, Santa Fe Reporter, PO Box 2306, Santa Fe NM 87504, deliver them to 132 E. Marcy St., fax them to 988-5348, e-mail them to editor@sfreporter.com, or use our online form.
MIND MATTER
I'd like to compliment Dan Frosch on a well-researched and mostly balanced account of the recent troubles and conflict at Southwestern College [Cover story, June 21:
]. Lest the Reporter's readers be left with the impression that those difficulties result mainly from a failure of the college faculty and staff to "walk their talk," however, I thought that some mention of the college's many accomplishments and contributions to the Santa Fe community would have been in order. Consider the following:
Founded in 1976, Southwestern College is a fully accredited private nonprofit graduate school with 153 students, offering masters degrees in Counseling, Art Therapy, and Grief & Loss counseling. The college also offers professional certificates, continuing education and community service programs.
For 20 years, the college has operated the Southwestern Counseling Center, providing a wide range of art therapy and counseling services to hundreds of residents of northern New Mexico each year. Forty-four percent are minorities or children, and 72 percent report incomes of less than $20,000. In 2005, the recently expanded counseling center served 477 clients with 3,815 sessions worth over $300,000. The center receives on average less than $8 per session, and no one is ever turned away because of an inability to pay.
Southwestern College graduate students complete 600-hour internships through a network of 90 mental health nonprofits throughout New Mexico. This totals 35,000 hours of free counseling and art therapy services to thousands of New Mexico residents while the students train to meet the growing demand for qualified mental health professionals.
Certainly, now that Southwestern's board has resigned, there is every hope that the college and its students will be able to learn from the recent difficulties, put those troubles behind and move forward with the purpose and mission of the College. Many times in the past, it has overcome difficulties as serious, if less public, than the recent crisis. Despite the characterizations and critical comments voiced by some of the former Board members, the College needs and deserves the strong support of the Santa Fe community.
Chuck Purdy
Santa Fe
MASSE THINKING
Concerning SFR's piece on Southwestern College:
Mass suicide? Cultish? Unhealthy?…Only a board so removed by their own pomposity from the light that is Southwestern College could make such discrediting comments. The parody running in my mind has Gil Frith as George Bush…Patrick Thomas as Dick Cheney, Patricia Murray as Condoleeza Rice and Alan Brody as Donald Rumsfeld…It's Saturday night and the four of them are huddled in a bunker pouring over fabricated CIA leaks (Larry Dettweiller)…The intelligence is obviously flawed and biased but, hey…"We can sell it!" Cheney says-Rumsfeld strokes his chin and nods.
None of them apparently have a clue what Southwestern is about, as Gil Frith admits, "I had nothing in common with the school"…And indeed, at a meeting at the college on May 31, not one board member raised their hand when asked who had read the bylaws and staff handbook…well…except for one who had read the bylaws only two weeks before (after being in office for three years). From a briefcase one of them pulls a report entitled "WMS" (Weapons of Mass Suicide)…"THIS will get 'em," Frith says with a devilish grin…Condi too flashes a sadistic smile…"One for all and all for one!" the puppets cry…
Bravo to Southwestern for giving us a victory over the "antics" of evil…Bravo to the students, faculty and staff that stood like Gandalf in front of the fiery Balrog and proclaimed, "You shall NOT pass!!"
Of course as we all know…there never were any WMS's. Well, except for those held by the now-defunct board, who, thank God!, resigned…en masse.
Daniel Wolf
Santa Fe
STUDENT POWER
It is unfortunate that most of the "Peace of Mind?" cover story on the situation at Southwestern College emphasized the battle between Katherine Ninos and Gil Frith. In doing so, so much information about why the students decided to act was left out. You see, the beauty of this (at times ugly) situation was the students. Often times throughout this ordeal it was the students who led the charge, holding meetings, seeking information, sharing information, speaking with staff, faculty and other students. It was because we love this school and it IS such a great school that we chose to manifest all that we had learned from our teachings about creating change in the world into action. Unfortunately, the article failed to include the fact that the board-appointed interim president, Alan Brody, failed to deliver the 89-student-signature petition to the board when he promised students in a meeting held in April that he would. It was not until the May 31 meeting when he could no longer deny his actions in front of the board that he admitted to not delivering the petition. It was not included in the article that the board in "crises management" granted two-month paid leaves of absence to the academic dean and the school's financial manager. More importantly, after the fact, they failed to follow up on their decision that left 20 students without an academic dean or professor as well as the school's financial needs in a chaotic state. Never mind the fact that our school's policy does not allow for paid leaves of absence! Let us not forget that the reason this situation was left to escalate was due mainly to the fact that upon receiving their "confidential" information, the board never spoke with any of the department chairs as to the reality of the "split" among the staff and faculty. The final breaking point for many students was the board decision to disregard their promise to respond to our requests within a week from the May 31 meeting. Five days after their promise to respond to us, they sent out an e-mail to students saying they had no timetable for a response to us.
These are only a FEW of the MANY reasons that students finally decided to take action against the board. For three months during our spring quarter of graduate school, we held the space for the board to show us that they indeed could lead our school. And for three months we watched as our school slowly divided and began to fall apart. After three months, we knew that the only people who could really change the situation were the students. One thing was certain among students…we would not act until we had searched within ourselves to know our truth about the situation; we would only act in non-violent manners; and we all agreed that our decision to request the board's resignation was not a personal character attack on any of the board members, but rather a need for members who could function in a role that would best serve OUR school's mission. Taking action is not a sign of an "unhealthy" atmosphere. In fact, it just exemplifies that we have learned not to live in fear. An unhealthy person would be apathetic, and our student body has shown that we are anything but…
Erin McConnell
Santa Fe
The Reporter welcomes original, signed letters to the editor. Letters (no more than 200 words) should refer to specific articles in the Reporter. They may be edited for clarity and space. Please include address and phone number for verification purposes; these will not be published.
