SAVE The JKS

Dear Committee,      attn: Lina Oh & Adriana Karagosian.

Thank you for your letter Lina and Adriana, and your apologies.

I was extremely distressed to hear about the shameful violation of Dr. Lord at the Friday night student reading, and will be reviewing the video of the performance in the next day. I strongly recommend that you desist from this kind of hateful display. I suggest that all of you read the Code of Conduct for the Naropa community and formulate your questions with scholarship and details and respect, and know what you are talking about and not be simply reactive and emotional. I don’t think you have been listening to what Lisa and I have been saying in our letter to the community nor what we said (with Reed Bye) during the 45 minutes of Socratic Rap. I am surprised you would view me or Lisa or any of your faculty as “enemies”.  This is pure ignorance. The people who have been guest faculty this summer also ARE your faculty. The SWP is part of the degree program as you must know.

I don’t know if you have any idea what it takes to put the SWP together and what it takes to have it run this intense month.  The “protest” has run us ragged. We have scores  & scores of emails & calls coming in- totally misinformed inquiries about the school & its future. This alarmist activism has not been constructive. We need to stay on track with our own roles in this SWP community.

Lisa and I have our own concerns, naturally, about the “cuts” & the future of the school & it’s the STUDENTS we are thinking about! Not just ourselves & our vision. But we are working with perspicacity and making our concerns known through respectful action, writing informed queries & engaging in dialogue.  We are working CONSTRUCTIVELY with the new re-structuring plan. The Kerouac School is not folding. We want it to survive for all our sakes, and especially your sakes.

We cannot support your protest outside the door of Dr. Stuart Lord.   We also are not excusing anyone from classes. We would like you to respect the guest faculty this week and not try to pull them into this maelstrom, which has not been productive. Teachers will be teaching in their classrooms. Other students have also urged us to make this request. They feel their time here has been compromised. Many of the other students do not support your protest & the form it has taken. They are here to write and study and spend time with this extraordinary faculty this final week.  It is a precious opportunity to work with these writers as writers yourselves. My advice is not to squander it.

I was extremely impressed by Val’s presentation on Diversity on Friday - his statement- written with intelligence and sincerity was very moving. We support this and have made our support known.

Further clarification: Dr. Stuart Lord was not responsible for not renewing Elizabeth Robinson’s visiting faculty position. The position ran out. Other people lost their jobs, Elizabeth Robinson is not the only person in our universe. I have supported her as a teacher here, I respect her as a poet and a member of the poetry community at large and I am sorry it did not work out for her to have the position renewed. I am saying it again, it was not renewed. She was not fired. I am sorry the situation became so inflamed and was not handled properly. It has now escalated and been tainted by a very acrimonious document which unfortunately reveals a counter-productive mentality. I highly recommend “closure” at this point.   This is now a dead issue. SWP directors do not want to hear of it again.   Elizabeth Robinson- in case you didn’t notice- has been working for us all summer! We hired her this summer!

Dr. Lord has been president for 1 year. He has inherited a difficult situation he did not create. Michele Naka-Piece from the FEWG has offered to meet with students and there are local Board members in town who can be contacted, but we say it again:  GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER. Make informed inquiries & decisions about your actions.

There was a question about the “Naropa” sign on the lawn absent the dharma wheel. Everyone assumed Dr Lord had it removed. It was a Board decision 3 years ago. It is important to get the facts. Now you can query the Board about the decision.

It doesn’t seem to us and others in this community you are doing the real work at this point. We invite you to go deeper into what it means to be a responsible member of a community. We teach Investigative Poetics here. Lisa Jarnot taught this Week 2. I handed out the Sanders document. Steven Taylor also pointed to the work of Ed Sanders the other day.

Many of the problems- as with the rest of the world (wake up people!)- are financial. Do you have any idea of the cut backs in education and other services ALL OVER THE COUNTRY. We are in a recession. Naropa is struggling for its very survival. We need to raise more endowment, we need support for the archive work and many other things.

It is important that we honor the colleagues and friends who have been laid off. I don’t the sit-in will accomplish that.  Lisa and I ask you: what do you hope to accomplish at this point with your sit-in?

Lisa Birman, Reed Bye as Chair of W&P , and I will be addressing  students at 2:30 pm after the Monday panel. We will not have time for a discussion at this time. We need to clarify the decorum for this week. We are also writers ourselves who have spent our lives on a creative path.  We have also worked for years with Naropa and will struggle in hopes of having it survive with its original vision.

With respect and encouragement to stay on track with your writing & study and with your generosity and compassion, and respect for others.

Warm wishes,

Anne Waldman