College of Santa Fe

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College of Santa Fe
Established: 1859
1874, Chartered
1947, New Program
1966, Renamed
Type: Private
President: Stuart C. Kirk
Undergraduates: 800-1100 per campus
Location: Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
Campus: Urban
Mascot: Prairie Dog
Website: www.csf.edu

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.

Contents

[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] Visual Arts

Considered one of the top colleges of creative arts[1], 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. CSF is fortunate to be a member of this highly creative community and as such is able to draw from the resources of the city.

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 the only college 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.

[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] 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.

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 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.

[edit] Notable alumni

[edit] References

College of Santa Fe Course Catalog, 2006–2007.

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Lasallian universities and colleges in the United States


v • d • e
Colleges and Universities in New Mexico
Private Colleges
Public institutions
Community Colleges