The College of Santa Fe and How it Communicates These Days

It’s been interesting watching stuff shake down at one of the USA’s most intriguingly independent 4-year schools.

The College of Santa Fe has always been cut from a different cloth.  It’s in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA; so that, to some people, might be all you need to know.  It’s an arts school but more than just that.

 

CSF on Facebook

And, lately, it’s the subject of quite a bit of speculation.  The latest, Tuesday night, comes from this post within the Facebook page:

The College of Santa Fe and New Mexico Highlands University are negotiating an agreement that would lead to acquisition of the college by Highlands in time for the fall 2009 semester. 

The agreement would assist the College of Santa Fe with its planning for the spring semester, which starts in January, and would require refinancing of the college’s debt by Highlands and approval from the Higher Learning Commission, which accredits both institutions. 

“As a result of more comprehensive discussions with Highlands University, I am greatly encouraged about the future of the College of Santa Fe,” said Dr. Stuart C. Kirk, president of CSF. “Highlands’ interest in preserving our creative arts focus while building upon programs that serve the region’s educational needs will provide opportunities for current CSF students as well as Highlands students, and enrich the education landscape of Northern New Mexico.”

This is all rooted in a few things — debt, who will assume the debt, what will the school look like, can it maintain its independence.  But it also follows what was a long dance macabre between CSF and Laureate Education, a for-profit educational management group in Baltimore, Maryland, USA.  Talks broke down between those two groups around Thanksgiving, as was reported in the New Mexican, the paper in Santa Fe. Excerpt:

College of Santa Fe considers becoming a public institution

By John Sena | The New Mexican

11/26/2008

Talks between the College of Santa Fe and a for-profit group have fallen through, and now college officials have called upon Gov. Bill Richardson and the state’s Higher Education Department to consider making it a public institution, the college announced Wednesday. 

The college was in talks with Laureate Education Inc., formerly Sylvan Learning Systems, about a deal that would have resulted in the company assuming the college’s debt and funding the college’s operation. 

On Wednesday, though, the college announced in an e-mail that wouldn’t happen. 

What’s interesting: how CSF has been sharing these messages.  Other than having its own Twitter account, the school has pretty much aced the “new media” communications test, sharing often and even sharing the not-so-good news.

For discussion: Are there schools facing crises or difficulties that are doing things exceptionally well via new media?  AND would a CSF/NMHU merger create unwieldy challenges for faculty, staff and especially marketers?

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