[ Bell rings ]
[ Laughter ]
>> So, thanks to everyone for taking the time ot come together today in community.
I appreciate the opportunity to make some remarks about Naropa today
and to share some thoughts about the future.
I understand that the State of the Union address last night was the third longest in history,
so I am not one to be outdone [laughter].
So, tea is at 4 and dinner is at 7, just so that you know.
So, while everyone here is a member of the Naropa community in some form and the questions
and the views and the thoughts and the views of students,
faculty and staff overlap in many ways.
We also naturally have some different concerns and aspirations as well
and that's what makes remarks like this a little bit challenging for me to figure
out what most people want to hear about.
But, we'll see where that goes.
My hope is to frame a conversation that can take place over the rest of the semester,
actually, not one that just ends today.
By touching on some of the highlights, sharing some of the successes
and naming some of the challenges that we face.
There'll be some time today for questions and more time over the next few months
as we do what we did last year, which was hold meetings at each campus in a less formal way
for people to go a little bit deeper in some of the questions and comments that you might have.
Weird topic, state of the university.
Clearly, there is no way to freeze time into something called a solid state.
And anyone who tries to do that should be looked at suspiciously.
Naropa, the reality is, is a living organism in many ways.
Evolving and also decaying.
And although we, the reality, huh?
You should've seen me when I was 19.
I mean, it's just, it's just different.
We might want to break from the constant movement,
but the reality is that it just can't happen.
I cannot see anything here, this is great.
This is going to be fun because I can't read anything I've written.
I guess there's nothing we can do, huh?
Well, all right.
We're going to try.
Ah, thank you.
That, no, this is good.
They did it.
That's very [laughter] yeah.
It might've been more interesting, well, anyway.
But the fact that movement is constant alone is not something that should be the cause
of either too much optimism or too much pessimism for that matter.
In addition to Naropa being a living organism, we live inside of a relative framework
so that our state is completely linked to the ways in which we sit
in the also ever-changing social and economic and spiritual universes.
That said, there are many ways for us acting alone or in community
to influence the nature of our cosmic relationships.
We've all experienced the results of our actions when we act from a place
of compassion and wisdom and skillful action.
And I believe it's probably fair to say that for most of us in this room,
we've also experienced the outcomes when our way of being in any moment is grounded
in ignorance and aggression and greed.
We have some choices to make all the time and I think that's true for us as individuals
and it's true for us as an institution.
What I might be able to do today is offer some information for us all to consider, to interpret
and to use as the basis for our work together.
Our friend and early board member, Roshi Bernie Glassman, the Zen Buddhist teacher,
drawing from the Zen master Dogan, considered information and life experience as a collection
of ingredients that could be creatively combined by the cook
and could make a feast that could feed a hungry world.
Our founder, Trungpa Rinpoche, used a metaphor that was a bit lower
down in the digestive tract, looking at the same information and experiences
as the manure of the past experience.
That, if used well, would support the emergence of healthy, new forms.
Both seem relevant at this point in Naropa's existence.
I've chosen to make note of what I think is worth looking
at as we support and nurture Naropa.
But my list, I acknowledge, may differ from yours so please consider this
to be an open-source presentation.
You can edit it, amend it as you find useful.
One area I think worth looking at is the nature of the body that is Naropa.
How we're organized and how we're integrated.
And it's worth making note and acknowledging some of the changes that we've made
to our administrative structure, which in a sense is the sort
of connective tissue of that body.
As many of you know, we made a choice last year to combine our marketing
and enrollment management work and to locate those activities
in the academic affairs division along with the responsibility for faculty
and curriculum and student services.
That decision was made for a number of reasons but I think most importantly was
to support the critically important need to stabilize
and increase both graduate and undergraduate enrollment.
And in November, Kelly Watt, our graduate dean of admissions, agreed to lead the marketing
and enrollment departments and has worked effectively to improve systems,
reallocate resources and to support the staff.
We're all grateful to Kelly in particular, yes, yay [applause] but also to the entire admissions
and marketing team who have, I think it's safe to say, have weathered some chaos.
And in doing so [laughter], hysterically so, they've done,
but have also retained their commitment, their good humor and their creativity.
And so gratitude extends to all of them.
[ Applause ]
Which one, who are the republicans and who are the democrats?
I want to figure out.
This is good.
One notable area of improvement which is worth mentioning is that Kelly and Jessica Breck,
who is our director of student financial services and supported by, this is great,
by many others, have simplified and accelerated the staff's ability
to offer financial aid packages to accepted students.
Now, that seems like a, it may seem like a very, you know, kind of level of detail
but the reality is that in the current climate, students enroll in colleges frequently
that reply the soonest with offers of financial aid, even if it's not the first choice.
Because they're concerned about securing a knowledge for the coming fall
of what their financial needs are going to be.
We've now improved our timing by some months, which is proving beneficial
and it's continuing to improve over time.
And that's taken a lot of work by a number of people to allow us to move forward in this way.
With respect to enrollment, I can say
that spring enrollment met our budget expectations, which is great.
Meeting expectations, always better than the worst.
Spring numbers are always smaller than the fall in any case just because of the rhythm
of our university but it's good to note
that we welcomed 63 incoming undergraduate students this January
which is the largest number of spring incoming students
over the past six years, which is even better, so.
And a product of considerable work by a lot of people here.
Fall 2018 numbers are trending in a good direction as well,
and I could tell that's why the numbers today look great, but that's going to be one
of those you can't freeze things stories.
It's probably not a good idea.
There is a long way to go between now and registration in the fall
and while today's news is positive, we have a lot of work to do to make sure that what we end
up with in the fall is equally so.
We've also seen an increase in applications from students with significant financial need.
As a university committed to improving diversity, we welcome those applications.
And I want to be clear - low and modest income is just one indicator that an applicant may come
from a traditionally underserved community and we need to do a lot more than find money
in order to support diversity at Naropa.
But providing financial aid, sorry, and providing financial aid doesn't substitute
for the need to be a truly supportive and welcoming environment.
However, meeting economic need is one way of addressing our goal to increase diversity.
Last year, I noted in my talk that we had moved our so-called discount rate, the amount of money
that we, from tuition that we return to students in the form of financial aid from 32% which is
where it had sat for quite some time, to 36%.
This last year, this current year, 2017-2018, our discount rate has actually moved to 44%.
That [applause] good, yes.
It is good and it puts us more in line with other schools with the,
that our students are looking at when they consider where to go to university.
That was accomplished without the use of the traditional tools, which is raising tuition.
That seemed very important to us, that holding tuition to where it was was something that was
of critical importance to the board and to the staff here.
It did take considerable hard work to add what amounts to a million dollars
in additional financial assistance this year from what we had available last year.
And so in addition to supporting diversity, the additional financial aid is also needed
to meet the increased competition that we have from traditional
and nontraditional alternatives, which are now available to our students.
Now, it has to be said that our entire staff and faculty body have been impacted
by this need to increase financial aid.
Most broadly felt was the need last spring to suspend Naropa's contribution
to faculty and staff retirement plans.
That retirement match costs us about $40,000 a month and in the spring, we balance the need
for overall fiscal health, the absolute goal to not pass
through what was a very significant increase in our health insurance premium,
something that's faced across the country by institutions like ours.
With the need for saving some money and being able to offer additional aid.
This is an unacceptable long-term solution.
I said it when I sent my note out in the spring and my commitment
to restore the match remains very much in front of my mind.
It's something that we are continuing to look at on a regular basis and as I said before,
we will restore it in whatever pieces we can as we can do it and not wait to get moving.
My appreciation to all the faculty and staff who are definitely struggling
with this suspension of the retirement match.
We're also looking hard at graduate school tuition.
Historically, we've more or less charged the same amount per credit hour
across all of our graduate programs.
But the reality is there's some programs with ample demand and some that are
in need of additional enrollment.
One way to address that reality is not to be tied to a single rate of tuition and to look
at our degree programs across the broader competitive landscape.
This kind of work is possible now because of the efforts of Merritt Dark,
our institutional research director, and my colleague,
Cheryl Barber, along with many other people.
Because now we have the ability to look at making changes that are actually data driven.
And reliable data is available to us,
which is something that's incredibly important for our future planning.
To continue to thrive, it's clear
that the largest counseling psychology graduate programs need investment
in facilities, in faculty and support staff.
And I can say that under the leadership of dean Kathleen Gregory, the provost,
the senior leadership and the faculty at GSCP, we're undertaking a comprehensive review of GSCP
with a view to we need a broader set of strategic objectives,
not a series of incremental changes.
We'll make changes as they become obvious to us,
but we need to have the bigger picture refreshed at this point, we believe.
The GSCP faculty and staff have worked tirelessly for decades
to deliver quality programming and they're deserving of that broad support.
The faculty under the leadership of the provost has also worked over the summer
to create an academic plan which establishes a framework by which programs,
existing and proposed degree programs can be assessed.
The hard reality is that some programs are not finding a market.
There's always a need to look at ways in which better advertising and marketing and outreach
of all kinds can positively impact enrollment.
But we also have to take a hard look at the more painful reality
that some programs may not be successful as they're currently structured.
We're walking a fine line between the need to control costs and to find the means
to gain enough time for program faculty to consider ways
to revise curriculum and delivery methods.
We do of course need to look at creative new programs as well,
and new ways of delivering the content that is at Naropa's heart.
So, that's the kind of balance that we're working on constantly, is kind of acknowledging
that we may be making, have some programmatic offerings that are in need of change
and we have others that are gaps in the market that Naropa's uniquely suitable to fill.
So, for example, I'm very supportive of the fresh thinking that's going
on around the interdisciplinary BA, enthusiastic
about the success so far of the BA in art therapy.
And we're especially excited, as I mentioned a little bit last year,
about the new BA in elementary education and teacher licensure.
I described that degree last year.
I thanked the faculty specifically that were involved in creating that program.
But what I said last year was only in aspiration.
It was what we hoped would happen.
What I can say this year, which is the most important, is that over the past few months,
we received both state of Colorado
and higher learning commission accreditation approval for this unique Naropa degree.
And so the fruition of all the work that was done by faculty and staff
over years is now something that we will realize in the fall when we launch this program.
[ Applause ]
As I mentioned last year when we celebrated, we received an $800,000 three-year lead gift
to launch this program this coming fall, which has allowed it really to take off.
From my view, as mindfulness and contemplative practices are offered in public schools
and those schools have limited ability to actually ensure quality
and as new teachers themselves are in great need of tools to support their personal health
and their personal resilience, our new Naropa BA is a tremendous opportunity to us
and I think a real offering to elementary and soon
to be higher 7-12 education in the United States.
So, it's something that we should be very excited aabout.
We need more students, so those of you that have friends that are interested in teaching,
we're open for business and we would love to talk to people about that.
And as a result of the gift that we got last year, we have some targeted scholarship money
that will enable, we hope, a variety of students
that might not otherwise think this education is affordable to come to Naropa.
So, it's something that we'd love to look at.
The faculty is now reviewing a proposal
to add a massage therapy component to the undergraduate curriculum.
You might recall, we talked a little bit last year that Naropa owns the curriculum
of the former Boulder School of Massage Therapy.
Cheryl Barber has done a lot of work to coordinate a massage therapy track.
She met this morning with the faculty curriculum committee, which was good.
As a way of reinforcing a health and healing offering within our undergraduate college
and also to add a career and livelihood opportunities to the undergraduate curriculum.
We're also going to bring a proposal forward to next week's board of trustees meeting.
Some of my colleagues are here so I'm not going
to presume what you're going to do but I'll say it anyway.
That Naropa acquired the Leap Now program.
We have a formal relationship with Leap Now which for those of you who don't know,
offers a four-credit alternative, first year, freshman year experience to undergraduates.
We're currently the school of record for Leap Now, so that students who attend
that program actually apply to and are accepted by Naropa.
And so they are Naropa students.
And we receive revenue, a fee for providing that service.
The founders of the program, both of whom have had a long connection to Naropa in the past,
are looking to retire and came to us first to see whether or not we'd be interested in talking
to them about acquiring the business.
In part, I'm interested in doing it because we can increase the revenue
that we earn simply by moving the US portion.
It's not a study abroad program but it has a domestic component.
Moving the US portion from California to Colorado, where we have less expensive ways
of delivering the in-country program.
But more than that efficiency, we see it as a strong opportunity to successfully retain more
of the 40 students that right now attend the Leap Now program each year
as Naropa students in years 2 and beyond.
We always keep some but we're distant from those students
since they don't really come to Boulder.
And our view is that if we have them here, if they're actually working in Boulder,
if they're on campus and they're meeting students, the motivation to want to stay
on after the Leap Now experience would be greater.
So, it's something that we're looking at.
We're still negotiating the financial component but I can say that the plan is
that the purchase price will be tied to the revenue generated by the program.
We're not looking to fund the program from other Naropa resources.
And I'm sure there'll be questions at the board meeting.
I should have more to talk about after the meeting,
and we have a deeper discussion about this.
Some other things that are happening which I think are important to note is
that under the direction of the director of library services and archives, Amanda Rivencoob,
and the generosity of one particular donor, Jane Dower of Bull Hollow,
we've taken some significant steps to improve archive access, both physically and digitally.
We're moving the archives from a now offsite location to new space
which is adjoining our offices at 63 Street.
We're kind of trading space but moving it next to the offices
that now house human resources development and business and finance.
That's going to allow, it's a bigger space to allow more access and allow a lot more security.
So, exciting to be moving the archives closer.
Amanda's done a ton of work with a consultant that we were able
to hire because of Jane's generosity.
And there's more to say about that over the next couple of months.
It has to be noted that Naropa's biggest financial challenge and same as the challenge
for any small school is the considerable reliance that we have
on traditional tuition to fund our operations.
As I've discussed already, we've been focused on increasing other sources of revenue
such as the potential of the Leap Now program, but there's more that we have to do.
Philanthropy clearly needs to increase.
Now, last year the office of development raised a record number of gifts.
Fantastic, it was extremely helpful and it was due to the hard work
of the development staff under Angela's leadership.
[ Applause ]
The even better news is that this year we're on track
to exceed what happened last year, which is even better.
We're in the fourth year of our $10 million fundraising campaign and last year I noted
that we were about 40% of the way toward meeting that goal.
And I can say that this year we're at 60%.
So, great progress in the last 12 months.
Now, much of that money, this is not a traditional capital campaign.
We're not squirreling away or prairie dogging away the money for,
always have to have a prairie dog reference in these talks.
For new buildings, but we are using the money to support students through scholarships,
housing and other means of support.
The campaign is clearly, message of the campaign is clearly resonating
with an increasing number of donors.
One of the ways for us to continue having success in the fundraising area is for me
to be able to serve in the same way that most college presidents do, by having the flexibility
to travel and to cultivate donors.
I've been involved in raising funds for nonprofits for 30 years or more
and what I can say is that the donors today do want a deeper relationship and deeper engagement
than anything I've experienced previously.
They're also looking for creative ways to be supportive.
So, not just with money but also with ideas and energy and effort.
We need to be creative and we need to be able to work with donors and meet them where they are.
So, for example, we recently received the gift of a house
in northwest United States by a donor.
It took a lot of work.
The door was open by Angela and by our recently retired major gifts officer, Erin Ferrell,
the result of which was the donor ended up with a significant tax writeoff and at some point
in the future, Naropa will receive a house that's worth about $1 million
that we will be able to sell and bring funds back to Boulder.
Now, in this particular case, we have to wait for the donor to pass on,
so we hope it will be awhile before we get the house.
But there it is.
But pass on, we will.
So, that's what's going to happen.
Closer to home, a local real estate developer who's doing a significant affordable housing
development in North Boulder had a small parcel of land as part of a bigger project,
that he had to have a nonprofit owned for a period of time.
And it's complex, but that was the requirement by the city.
He approached us and we worked out a situation where Naropa now owns this parcel of land
that will ultimately become 20 units of low-income housing.
And later this summer, we'll receive $350,000 in proceeds for serving
as the nonprofit home for awhile for this land.
And have no idea where it will go but the same guy just sent me a note and asked me
if I would have coffee with him tomorrow because he has another idea.
So, we'll see.
I don't know what'll happen but think good thoughts about that.
So, we'll see.
But these are the kinds of complex and time-consuming oonversations
that are essential for our long-term health.
And as I noted, you know, the doors are open by the development office.
I then am able to come and step in and hopefully carry these ideas to a successful outcome.
Naropa has a great story to tell.
I think that's obvious for anybody in this room.
But what I need most is the time and opportunity to tell it.
Certainly not alone.
All of you have that same opportunity and I hope feeling, passion about telling the story.
But for me, it is my day job and it's something that I need the time to be able to do.
That can only happen because my colleagues are ready and able to take on some
of the administrative leadership tasks
that traditionally the Naropa president's have handled as well as the fundraising.
And I can say that people have done so willingly.
Taking on the leadership is not limited, however, to just the members of the cabinet.
And the cabinet, for those of you that don't know, are Janet Kramer, our provost
and vice president for academic affairs, Tyler Kelsh, our VP for operations.
Cheryl Barber, who's the special adviser in the President's officer.
Regina Smith, the director of the office for inclusive community
and Angela Medura, the development director.
Some months ago I talked with Janet and Tyler and asked them to consider ways
that a greater number of administrative leaders
at Naropa could be more effectively engaged in decision making.
This idea flowed from the creation of the create 2022, the strategic plan that Janet coordinated.
When I saw how many hundreds of people connected
to the Naropa community felt real ownership of the outcome of that plan.
And realized that we needed to continue to take advantage of the wisdom and the energy
that those people brought to that project.
And the result of that conversation was the creation of a university leadership group
which today is about 23 staff and faculty members.
It moves a little bit but I think 23's the most current number.
Who are the most responsible for the stewardship of Naropa's resources
and who've supervised the vast majority of our staff.
That group is meeting weekly for several months.
My goal is to find ways through Janet and Tyler's work to delegate leadership
around the crucial issues that we face and to delegate it to a greater number of people
who have the wisdom and experience to step up.
I temporarily suspended the meetings, regular meetings of the cabinet,
specifically so that the leadership group could actually have a chance to become established.
That has happened and the example I gave about the financial aid change happened
because a conversation started around that table and then carried on with a smaller group
of people that were actually able to get it done.
So, we have some very specific examples of how it's working.
The cabinet is now meeting again but I think with more clarity around its mandate
and less motivation to overly manage our senior staff.
I'm sure people'll let me know if that part of it isn't true, but it's at least the aspiration.
I also want to say that the leadership group is not a replacement
for the elected staff executive council and I realize we've got a lot of entities
so people can be confused about it.
My view is that the SEC now can focus on overall staff health and more effective integration
of the staff needs within, with those of the faculty and the students.
So, there's definitely place for both.
The leadership group is, I think, the most significant structural change we've undertaken
in a long time to work across divisions and break down the silos that often evolve
in any kind of complex organization.
So, both increased enrollment and improved fundraising success means that Naropa also has
to be outward facing and look at fresh and effective ways to share our founding story.
He's on, listening to Pandora there or something.
I don't know what it is.
I can't tell the tune.
I'll let you know.
But we have to know fresh and effective ways to share our founding story, the accomplishments
of our faculty and alumni, and to be a visible thought leader.
Also to broaden our offerings to include content and competence,
not always tied to traditional for-credit degree programs.
And it's worth recognizing some examples of that work that's happening now
and has happened over the last year.
In October, we produced, and Kelly was in the middle of this,
a series of Spark talks at Naropa.
Paul Fowler, was our MC and we invited eight alumni to offer TED-like talks on a wide range
of topics, the areas that they're actually working on as they've left Naropa.
All of them are viewable on YouTube and they're wonderful ways
to show somebody the impact of the Naropa experience.
And also I think a chance for us to take great pride
in the exceptional people who've graduated from this place.
Because the talks were incredible.
So, thank you.
I know a couple of people here that gave those talks and I want to thank you for that.
[ Applause ]
Also, Naropa photographer and videographer, David DeVine,
who apparently is at a music festival in Hawaii, who knew, is producing a series
of podcasts featuring faculty and staff.
So, this has been launched since sometime in late October and to date,
about 7000 people have downloaded the podcast.
10 of them are posted and 16 more are underway.
Now, I found out that Phil Stanley and Judith Simmer-Brown seem to be neck and neck
with about 1000 downloads each from their podcasts.
And not that it's at all important, but I'm third [laughter].
And we're going to do something about that [laughter].
Also, what's really interesting is that David reports that listeners from Thailand
and Japan are tied for the most downloads from abroad but notes to me,
he sent me an email noted that Trinidad and Tobago is hanging in there.
So, that may be an opportunity for us.
I know these examples as ways that fresh forms
of sharing the Naropa story can indeed have impact.
The authentic leadership center led by Susan Shea and her team has taken
on the overall strategic management of extended studies in professional development offerings.
The impactful 15-week certificate program in authentic leadership is happening now.
In fact, the onsite is happening this week at Nalonda.
This is, I think, Susan I don't think is here but I think it's the 15th year
that we've done this program or something like that.
It's been quite awhile.
And we have just expanded it to include a summer option which is already, this being the end
of January, it's already very well enrolled for June, which is exciting
and seems to be meeting a market need.
The ALC has also been offering a mindful at work program, both in person and online.
Some of the clients that we've been selling, to be clear,
these services have included Rodale Publishing, Organic India, Naturally Boulder,
the University of Colorado Family Medicine Department and others.
We've also just contracted with the government of Jamaica to offer Mindful
at Work training to their finance ministry.
Cool. A project which was funded by the World Bank, requiring us to become a vendor
to the World Bank and therefore a project
which we think can be replicable to governments across the world.
This came about really, it's a Naropa story.
There's a woman who works for the government in Jamaica who's responsible
for professional development training.
She has a certificate from the authentic leadership program that she took in Boulder.
It was personally and professionally transforming for her.
And when they asked her to come up with some mindfulness program,
she basically presented our tiny little Colorado-based university as the option.
And after many months of bureaucratic negotiation,
we signed the contract a couple of weeks ago.
Now, before you ask, we have all the staff we need
for this coming Jamaica program next month [laughter].
So, you can take that up with Susan but if it works, we will need more.
So, I would encourage you to look at the mindful,
look at our authentic leadership certificate.
An online version of mindful at work is also available to the general public.
We're launching, I think the third in the series of classes.
And we're working now on a mindful leadership
at work online program geared toward leaders and supervisors.
And that really came from the request from a number
of the customers that we've been working with.
Also, in terms of work that we're doing externally.
As many people here know and many have the scars to prove,
hosting on-campus conferences is a challenging place to go.
So, if I never had to host another on-campus conference again, I'd be very happy.
However [laughter], there is some value to it as well and I do need to note the success
that we had in December at the Reimagining Death and Dying conference, which was held at Nalonda,
cosponsored by a number of organizations including Boulder Community Health,
which is the Colorado Hospital Association,
the Colorado Chaplain's Network and the Humira Foundation.
Particular thanks here to Elaine Nguyen and Judy Leaf in the Authentic Leadership Center team
for making this event so successful
[ Applause ]
Now, you know, we should all know that many of the sponsors and many of the participants
in the program accept and work with Naropa interns and hire GSCP graduates.
So, the long-term benefit to Naropa through these collaborations is very important.
This coming March, we're actually going
to be hosting the American Psychological Association Society for Human Psychology.
They have a regular national gathering which this year will be at Naropa.
It's called, it's a long name.
It's called Liberation Through Wisdom and Love: Humanistic Psychology,
Social Justice and Contemplative Practice.
Kind of hits the sweet spot, right?
And so great thanks to people here, particularly Carla Clements, and Ian Moscara
and to Rachel Solemn in my office for really working hard to organize this event.
They're particular about their events and we are rising to the occasion.
Naropa will have a national platform with the American Psychological Association in March
and that's a very good thing for us.
We also just, some of you may have seen some notes from Professor Sue Wallingford.
She and several of our art therapy alums just coproduced a very successful conference
on art therapy and wellness in Cambodia, kind of flowing from the work
that they have done in Cambodia over the years.
That was attended by people from 25 different countries.
All of the Naropa material was gone by the first, end of the first day, which was great.
And another example of ways in which Naropa is going to the world.
Something that really kind of funded by incredibly passionate alumni.
This was something that we provided some marketing support but the money came from them
and much gratitude to them for that work.
Finally, in terms of outreach, let me say that both Drs Judith Simmer-Brown
and Amelia Hall have just launched a free five-week online course which has been produced
in partnership with Shambhala Publications.
It's called The Heart of Mindfulness Meditation and in it,
Judith and Amelia are providing a taste of basically our wisdom tradition curriculum.
Again, something that if you know somebody that you'd like to expose to Naropa,
this is a pretty low commitment way to experience Naropa and you can go
onto the Shambhala Publications or the Canvas websites, Canvas being the platform we're using
and people can just register for this course.
So, it's something, and it's free.
Yes, free.
Case, the center for advancement of contemplative education directed
by Charlotta Rotterdam and advised by Judith Simmer-Brown,
has had its own impact, both in Boulder and beyond.
Case is continuing to offer internal resources to the Naropa faculty as the many ways
in which contemplative pedagogy continue to evolve.
And again this year Case will host the Rocky Mountain Dialog for university faculty,
representing institutions up and down the front range who are engaged
in bringing contemplative work into the classroom.
This year the dialog will happen here at Naropa.
At the risk of jinxing it, I will say we're also in dialog with the Colorado Bar Association
and the Colorado Supreme Court to offer compassion training to judicial officials.
[ Applause ]
Again, something that, you know, I think we're suited to do
and something that's quite replicable if we have the opportunity to do it.
Case is also running the second public compassion training course this spring
with the help of many faculty.
I think this prototype has relevance across many disciplines and sectors and really brings
to heart what can be, really brings to heart, sorry,
to what can otherwise be pretty sterile mindfulness training,
which is what a lot of people are exposed to.
A little further from home, case is going to be offering two events in New York City this spring
in partnership with the large retail store ABC Carpet and Home.
One of them will feature professor Jeanean Cantieu, I think is here.
And one led by Ann Waldman.
This is not random, but ABC actually reaches into a very wealthy,
very curious and progressive customer base.
They get great response to the programs that they offer at their facility
and it's an opportunity for Naropa to make connections in New York and New York City area.
So, a lot of thanks to Charlotta for putting that together.
And then finally with respect to Case, I want to say that I was really honored
to experience the extraordinary work of our faculty at a recent national conference
that we cosponsored, that was produced by the contemplative mind
in higher education, CMIND, organization.
Particularly, Regina Smith, Carla, Cheryl, and Judith Simmer-Brown, took the attendees.
There were more than 150 faculty and staff who are engaged
in higher education contemplative practice and social justice,
through a truly transformative Naropa experience, and reinforced the importance
of our role in this crucial intersection of contemplative practice and social justice.
So, gratitude to them.
I was an observer for the conference and it was amazing to kind of watch people resonate
with what was presented to them by people connected to this place.
[ Applause ]
I also want to make note of the significant impact that the office
for inclusive community is having on our university [applause].
As many of you know, for the past few years, under the leadership of Regina Smith who,
from a somewhat traditional office of diversity, to the not just renamed
but I think really significantly re-envisioned office for inclusive community.
Diversity and inclusion remain central to the work but it now covers so much more.
In recognition of the university-wide commitment to inclusion and community, Jerry Kalona,
who's the chair of our board of trustees, with the help of other trustees,
has established the first new board committee I think that we've established in years,
to support the office, the OIC, and its work.
So, that motivation came from the board.
It wasn't something that we asked the board to do and it makes it all the more important,
I think, that at the highest level of leadership and really,
amongst the group of our most generous donors,
that the work from the OCI is actually being recognized.
The first meeting of that committee will happen
at the upcoming board meeting next week, so we'll see where that goes.
But I'm excited about it.
Within OIC and building on the commitment to find alternative ways to address concerns
and other interpersonal challenges at Naropa, we've invested in training many staff
to restorative justice practices.
And people have worked very hard to learn these techniques.
We've also moved our title IX coordinator, Sara Silves-Bernstein,
into the office for inclusive community.
And we did it very deliberately so that the more formal and legal process that's directed
by title IX is also supported by the restorative justice
and other less formal processes when that's called for.
So, I still have a direct relationship as I need to have with Sara about the legal issues
but Sara's now within a bigger office that has a more expansive mission.
And I have to say that speaking of all things legal, I'm personally incredibly happy
that Joy Valenia, I don't know if she's here, but happy that Joy returned to Naropa
after her endless parental leave [laughter].
I think her daughter's graduating from high school I think in March.
And has seamlessly picked up her crucial work.
So, when you see Joy, say welcome back.
It's a good thing.
Also talking about office for inclusive community.
Very excited that as I noted last year, following the very generous gift by Christopher
and Louannn Hormel, we conducted a national search for a director of sustainability
and successfully completed that search with the great help of the faculty connected
to the Joanna Macy Center and of students.
The success resulted in the hiring of Michael Bower who may be here, I can't tell,
who started work about four weeks ago.
And also in the office for inclusive community, that was the plan from the beginning.
And we're very happy that we were able to work it out.
I would be remiss, however, if I didn't express gratitude on all of our behalf to our director
of safety and facilities, Aaron Cook, who held the sustainability values and mission for years
with limited resources and great passion.
So, I want to thank Aaron for that.
[ Applause ]
We're also looking to house the contemplative practices office in the OIC.
Joe Venina-Jobson, who's been so diligently directing that work for so long,
will continue to offer contemplative practice resources to students
and she is currently sitting within the student affairs office.
But is also going to be working with faculty and staff in the broader community
which is something she's also been doing.
So, it's not new work but it's maybe a new home.
Joe Venina will also continue to be a meditation instructor to people who are frequently asking
for that support and able to teach in ways that the faculty find helpful as well.
So, really with all of that, I think we can look at the fact that with diversity and inclusion,
sustainability in contemplative practice, all within the office of inclusive community,
we can aspire to supporting the broadest
and most impactful community that Naropa can imagine.
And so I think it's a really exciting moment for us.
[ Applause ]
I was pleased last week to be invited to a recent retreat
that was organized by Sun, the student government.
We had not so much time together but had a chance to have some dialogue
about how we could work together more closely.
I'm also happy, as I think are many people, that we were able to move the Sun offices
to the much more visible location next to the Pavilion.
I'm hoping that that will have an impact on student engagement
with student government which is extremely important.
Sun succeeds with increased student engagement.
And so anything that we can do to encourage that I think is very important.
And the student voice, this is important.
It was the student voice, I would say, that led most immediately to the message
that I offered last September in solidarity with the sanctuary campus movement.
Staff and faculty were working with me on that statement
but when the student voice became evident, we move with a special urgency to issue something
to the Naropa community and beyond.
And I think that's an example of how student engagement can actually have direct impact.
And as you should know, there is a student trustee who is a fully empowered voting member
of the board of trustees, nominated by Sun and elected by the board.
And so the student voice is heard at the board table and the more people that show interest
in participating in that way, the better, from our point of view.
Few other things just to note.
The Naropa community counselling center, which is serving low-income residents
of Boulder county and also offering more internship opportunities for GSCP students,
was granted a Medicaid license this past year, which is fantastic.
[ Applause ]
I said last year we were going to apply, not knowing what that meant,
and it actually moved at sort of record speed.
So, assuming there's still a Medicaid, we have a license [laughter] which is good.
Whoops. But the counseling center is now able to offer affordable mental healthcare
to a population of people who are frequently going without important mental health services,
sometimes seen as of lesser importance to physical healthcare.
And so thanks to the efforts of the staff and the faculty
at GSCP for moving us in that direction.
Our mental health work is also extending far beyond Boulder.
Through the efforts of the center for Bhutan partnerships led by Professor Jane Carpenter
and faculty at GSCP, we just marked the one-year anniversary of two programs
at the Royal University of Bhutan.
There are master of arts and a postgraduate diploma in contemplative counseling psychology.
Amazingly, and I think just remarkably, this is the first professional degree
in counselling offered in Bhutan.
And 62 Bhutanese students began the program last January.
The opportunity, and the faculty of that program
who are Bhutanese faculty are working hand in hand with Naropa faculty.
They're working in Skype.
They're grading papers together.
They're getting mentored.
It's a quite wonderful relationship.
And I think to me the opportunity to influence the mental healthcare system
in Bhutan is an honor for Naropa and will have a lasting impact on a country which really,
up to now, has been reliant either on medical doctors who have limited counselling skills.
They have prescription writing skills but not much more.
Or on some occasional foreign volunteers who come from Europe or Australia or New Zealand
and provide some very short-term counselling services.
I was thinking about this when I wrote it that nobody exactly understood
when Trungpa Rinpoche a long time ago, almost 50 years ago, said to us that students
from the West would eventually be taking genuine understanding and effective application
of contemplative practice back to Asia.
I think we're beginning to understand what he meant.
I also need to note that several long-time faculty will be retiring this year.
And I'm not going to name names today because more will be done over the course
of the semester to celebrate their accomplishments
and their hard connection to Naropa.
But we can't underestimate the impact that these faculty have had on our university
and the impact that their departure will have.
As our recent successful searches have shown, we're also attracting skilled
and committed younger faculty as well, which is a really good thing.
But change inevitably brings a degree of sadness along with celebration.
We correctly say that Naropa has a founder, but think the fact is it is a place
that constantly reinvents itself in both large and small ways.
Everyone who engages here is a founder and so the departure
of the founder is something that's worth noted and deeply worth honoring.
As is obvious, Naropa is not without its challenges, practical ones, emotional ones,
interpersonal ones, existential ones, the whole range.
And while I think that diagnosis is true for any organization that you can think of,
the interesting aspect of working at Naropa is that our family business is actually to study
and practice ways to undermine the solidity of the apparently intractable problems
and to do so with discipline and humor.
So, we don't get to bring in consultants.
We are the consultants.
On the day of the Tibetan new year, and I think it was about 35 years ago,
Trungpa Rinpoche made a statement called the future is in our hands.
Which I somehow, at 6 o'clock this morning thought was apt.
So, we'll see if it still has legs now.
What he said was we hold the threshold of the future of the world in our hands, on our path.
When we say this, we're not dreaming.
We're not exaggerating.
We hold a tremendous hope, maybe the only hope for the future dark age.
We have a lot of responsibilities and those responsibilities are not easy to fulfill.
They won't come along easily like an ordinary success story.
They have to be stitched, painted, carved, step by step, inch by inch, minute by minute.
It will be manual work.
There will be no automatic big sweep or solution.
When something good is done in the world, it's usually difficult.
It's manual rather than automatic.
When something bad is done, usually that is automatic.
Evil things are easy to catch but good ones are difficult to catch.
They go against the grain of ordinary habitual tendencies.
There you go.
So that's kind of us, at least my version of us today.
I'm going to end by just saying that last summer, as my 5-year contract was winding down,
I actually put a lot of thought into whether or not I would renew it.
And that was a surprise to me.
I kind of assume because I'm not the guy, kind of retired kind
of guy that I would just stay around.
But I thought that actually that Naropa was owed a more careful
and deliberate consideration on my part.
And ultimately, in consultation with the board and my colleagues,
I did elect to stay on and did so obviously happily.
Because I think I came to the realization if you have to wake up at all,
being awakened by the students, faculty and staff
of this place is a blessing and my good fortune.
In the future, I think it's quite safe to say that there will be better presidents
and believe it or not, there might be better students, staff and faculty as well.
But to go back to Bernie Glassman's work in Instructions to the Cook,
what we have right here I think are all the ingredients
that Naropa needs to cook the supreme meal.
I look forward to sharing the cooking, the serving and the cleaning up with all of you.
So, thanks for what you do to maintain the pilot light that we ignited 44 years ago and thanks
for all of your commitment to Naropa.
[ Applause ]
Thank you.
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