Ch.19 New College Initial Mandate, Vision, Mission Product statements
Serializing Insight Colleges, how Women In Congress re-invented liberal arts college curriculum and teaching methods to produce graduates capable of redeeming-restoring SpaceShip Earth
Women’s Summer Conf., June 2031 — Days three and four
2,500 women attending live. 7,000 attending online worldwide
The initial mandate
Women In Congress were politicians, full time elected officials, with committees to chair and meetings to attend. While colleges were a top issue, they knew delegating to some smaller New College group was inevitable. All Women could do was give them clear mandates, a timeline, ask for progress reports; and, pray for the best. A New Colleges Project Committee was forming but was not quite ready to announce publicly.
“New Colleges” brand
Until a better name emerged, the placeholder brand was “New Colleges.” The scope of the project announced in 2031 was five pilot campuses, in five different states. The hope was one or more of these would be be successful and show the way for the others to follow.
Initial Vision, Mission Product statements
On the last official, fourth Day of Summer Conference 2031, the first public version of Vision, Mission, Product statements by Women In Congress, was read to the public.
Vision Statement
To make SpaceShip Earth more wonderful by conveying the values of Team Human, Spaceship Earth and what is workable-sustainable for the next seven generations, to the current generation of 18–25 years olds, and all future generations.
To demonstrate how New Colleges can be profitable and have high-workplace-satisfaction for students, faculty and administration.
To create a four year curriculum highlighting Best Practices in each core subject: Sports, Communications (psychology, counseling, sociology), History, and Philosophy of Science.
To make the world more wonderful by demonstrating to all colleges-universities world-wide, what a four-year liberal arts college education can be, when the following are converged:
- best practice interactive teaching methods, and
- best practices in emotional intelligence and interpersonal competency.
To explore Cultural Creatives as both our ideal customer for a four-year, liberal arts-humanities education; and, as our ideal graduate.
Mission Statement
1) TRANSFORM the four year liberal arts college experience for 18–25 year olds, from an “information chase” to a “curriculum for life” as crew on SpaceShip Earth, how to organize your Inner Game of Life so it’s a stable foundation and home-base for playing the Outer Game of Life: future careers and relationships.
2) TRANSFORM TEACHING METHODS. Instead of “open brain, insert information, test periodically until full,” use 50% or more of each classroom period to practice partner exercises; and, team skills of connection, cooperation, collaboration and leadership.
3) Teach individual “freedom” is neither “free” nor passive. Individual freedom comes with individual rights, responsibilities and accountability to the 99%, to the highest good of all concerned, for the next seven generations.
4) Impart-convey to students the significance of a balance of both internal feelings and intuition; as well as, accessing, organizing and processing of external information.
5) TRANSFORM ADULT RELATIONS within and between faculty and admin; so, students see adults behavior aligned with the human values being taught in class.
6) Create a core course, Philosophy of Science, to impart-convey all Three Orders of Science. In this way Second Order Science (technology) will have adequate-sufficient guardrails, both above and below it.
7) Transform STEM courses LEAST of all.
8) HAVE FUN. Keep everyone involved learning, each according to their interests and capacity. You are not just re-making colleges. If New Colleges succeed, you are re-making mainstream culture; perhaps in time even, worldwide.
Product Statement
Graduates will be able to competently write three-part thesis papers, articles, journals, speeches, reflections and booklets. [Marjorie Skillin’s Words into Type will be the preferred style manual supplemented by The Chicago Manual on Style only for the topic of citations.]
Graduates will be self-propelled, Cultural Creative, problem solvers; who will in turn, invent new social forms, as new generations call for these.
To graduate as many talented, skilled, trained facilitators of live group process, who can function in classrooms, in boardrooms, and as professional diplomats.
To increase the number of citizen-voters who can think independently and vote for candidates and propositions, in support of the highest good for all stakeholders concerned.
-=+ -=+ -=+
In this way, from Conference 2031, New Colleges Project was picking up both speed and momentum.
2031 Day Five Conference Closed Debrief
What have we accomplished?
Conference 2031 organizers and facilitators did not immediately disperse and go home. The Monday after they met with Women In Congress to debrief each other. “What had happened?” “How do we prefer this be covered in the media?” “What had, and had not, been accomplished?” “What do we want to use next year’s Conference for?”
They agreed some big obstacles had been hurdled:
- The public seemed to like the direction Women were taking on New Colleges. Honeymoon period. Surely the devil was in the details,
- The public seemed to accept Women were the right public body to be in charge of this project. No other body of experts was challenging, trying to hijack, or re-make colleges,
- A great deal of public goodwill towards New Colleges had been generated. This made it easier to ask for support, call in favors; and, cajole outside experts to contribute as needed. Stories about the New Colleges project were already appearing in college newspapers and national news media. A national poll taken showed significant skepticism anything could save liberal arts colleges. Yet, there was also much hope among students age 12–22 something better could be conceived and manifested.
Delegating mandates begins
In college, most elected Women In Congress had been Political Science and Law majors. In Conference 2031 they began realizing few of them were equipped to make informed decisions on questions of re-shaping mainstream culture thru colleges. Power and influence on the project would naturally shift away from elected politicians to curriculum experts. Women started looking around the debrief room at staff who had college-level background in mythology, comparative cultures, sociology and psychology.
On this shifting ground, Women In Congress realized their initial mission statement, built on:
- Team Human,
- SpaceShip Earth, and
- wisdom for the next seven generations…
… was too vague, not detailed enuf to move further forward.
On this Monday, pressed for time, this group was able to expand the above sketchy VMP statements into much clearer, more coherent vision for New Colleges. The following is what was released to the public.
Vision Statement
To make SpaceShip Earth more wonderful by creating five campuses, each with the same four year curriculum, producing graduates, ready, willing, able and wanting to improve conditions; and, plot a positive course for SpaceShip Earth.
To make SpaceShip Earth more wonderful by identifying and spreading, all known best practices in all known academic and STEM fields.
To especially focus on graduating young men and women who have practiced and gained skill in interpersonal competency, healthy Self-leadership, and, tolerance-acceptance for ethnic, class and spiritual diversity.
To create a four year curriculum, on top of which, smaller graduate curriculum modules can be placed: Best Practices in facilitating healthy Group Process; and, Best Practices in Male Gender support. Perhaps other graduate-level topics as well.
To make SpaceShip Earth more wonderful by educating all students to what Cultural Creatives are, to invite all students to consider to what degree they align with Cultural Creative values. [Exhibit A attached defining-describing Cultural Creatives].
To demonstrate how New Colleges can be profitable and have high workplace satisfaction for students, faculty and administration.
To make the world more wonderful by demonstrating to all colleges-universities world-wide, what a four-year liberal arts college education can be, when the following are converged:
- best practice interactive teaching methods,
- best practices in emotional intelligence and interpersonal competency,
- best practices in ecumenical spirituality, and
- best practices in each respective academic field: Sports, Communications (psychology, counseling, sociology), History, and Philosophy of Science.
Mission Statement
1) TRANSFORM the four year liberal arts college experience into what serves the needs of 18–25 year olds for their future career, relationships and physical longevity.
2) Without evangelizing, TEACH with the awareness Cultural Creatives aligned with Team human values are our ideal graduates.
3) TRANSFORM the four year liberal arts college experience into a pipeline thru which students, faculty and administration have adequate-sufficient opportunity to choose into Cultural Creative and Team Human values.
4) TRANSFORM TEACHING METHODS. Instead of “open brain, insert information, test periodically until full,” use 50% or more of each classroom period to practice partner exercises; and, team skills of connection, cooperation, collaboration and leadership.
5) Use age-appropriate, college-level Whole Language methods for writing assignments and papers [see Exhibit C defining-describing James Moffett’s vision of using verbal games and informal drama to develop reading-writing proficiency].
6) Impart-convey to students the significance of balanced between internal processing of feelings-intuition; as well as, accessing, organizing and processing of external information, in written papers.
7) Expose students to Best Practices in terms of Balance between their Inner and Outer Games of Life. [Exhibit B attached defines-describes this model].
8) Encourage students to conceive of, and strive for, Balance on All Levels, physically, imaginally, emotionally, mentally, and mythologically [Exhibit D attached defines-describes the PACME+Soul and Above model].
9) Erect and administer a testing instrument to score individual demonstration of interpersonal competency. [Attached Exhibit E sketches an EQ test and its administration].
10) TRANSFORM ADULT RELATIONS within and between faculty and admin. Students learn when adult behavior aligns with the human values being taught.
11) TRANSFORM the core courses of SPORTS, PSYCHOLOGY-SOCIOLOGY, HISTORY-SOCIOLOGY [Mandate on curriculum to come].
12) All current and legacy Frankenstein tech monsters emerged from distorted male views of science and technology. [Exhibit E attached: Goethean Holistic Science (2014, 2022)]. Therefore, ARRANGE the course, PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE, to impart-convey a healthy view of all Three Orders of Science. In this way Second Order Science (technology) will have guardrails, both above and below it.
13) Transform STEM courses LEAST of all. Except for the philosophical foundation, they are least in need of change,
14) HAVE FUN IN THE PROCESS. How can students, faculty and admin be invited to continue their education? Keep everyone involved learning, each according to their interests and capacity. You are not just re-making colleges.
Product Statement
If New Colleges succeed, you are re-making mainstream culture; perhaps in time, worldwide.
Arrange curriculum content and instruction so students learn primarily thru two core competencies:
1) interactive, social partner and small group exercises; and
2) Use a Whole Language approach to student writing and public speaking. Graduates will be able to competently write three-part thesis papers, articles, journals, speeches, reflections and booklets. [Marjorie Skillin’s Words into Type will be the preferred style manual supplemented by The Chicago Manual on Style only for the topic of citations.]
To graduate as many self-propelled, Cultural Creative, problem solvers; who will in turn, create new social forms as new generations call for these.
To graduate as many talented, skilled, trained facilitators of live group process, who can function in classrooms, in boardrooms, and as professional diplomats.
To increase the number of citizen-voters who can think independently and vote for candidates and propositions in support of the highest good for all stakeholders concerned.
Public response to this longer version of VMP statement was also positive. It changed the minds of a fraction of former skeptics; who then, came on board in support.
Emotional transparency is the new “sexy”
To keep things light, humorous and engaged, Product statements ended with one more encouragement: “Emotional Transparency is the new sexy.” We believe colleges died in part because they weren’t sexy enuf. Our ideas of “sexy” change every generation. What’s sexy since 2000 is emotional transparency, honestly admitting what you feel, when you feel it — keeping in mind appropriate boundaries. We believe this is especially relevant as a guide for New Colleges staff collaborating; and, for the re-making of teaching methods and faculty relations.
Indeed, building on BluePrint of WE, New Colleges Project maintained a strong commitment to emotional transparency among themselves; and, tried to convey the value to new hires. Many people reading this for the first time thought, “Good Lord, How are we going to teach this in colleges??!”
Another angle was: What is most sexy about college seniors for businesses looking for new hires? The sexiest attraction was college grads practiced and enthusiastic about joining a work team, as a collaborator, or as a leader. As the national and international jobs-scape continued to shrink, most remaining jobs were working in highly flexible, task-oriented teams. Upbeat team players and team leaders — not good grades — was the new “sexy” in biz. The old sexy-male model, Sherlock Holmes, James Bond, one-sided males, devoid of much capacity for Imagination, Intuition, Inspiration and Intimacy, had rapidly dissolved since Microsoft Windows ‘95.
Delegating decision-making power
Working into Monday night, the next urgent need was to flesh out immediate next steps so these were clear to all. Primarily, New Colleges Project could only succeed by delegating to smaller groups. Delegate what? To whom?
This revealed a weak area. Women simply cared little for organizational chart activity. The old organizational problem:
- setting up new sub-committees,
- dividing up the big mandate into sub-mandates for each committee to work on,
- keeping new leaders accountable to the project timeline for results…
… this bored many women. Many disliked such activity. It reminded them of male obsessions with power and authority. After some venting, women had to eat their prejudice. Many women, some grudgingly, learned to value at least minimal organization, delegation and minimal accountability for results.
New Colleges Project Committee quits
This Committee had been set up and impaneled during Summer Conference 2031. It consisted of three well-respected women. Overwhelmed with the enormity of the task, by Sept. 2031, all three resigned.
The next idea for an organizing committee was a “Blue Ribbon Commission on the College Crisis.”
The problem was, due to male Gender Collapse, most professional higher education reform lobbyists and consultants were still male. By the 2031 most were dead or incapacitated. Still, bodies were found, male and female, scraped together; and, impaneled to sit in seats for three days of meeting. There were five of them. At the end of three days, all they could decide on was to “study the matter further. They were fired.
Then briefly, there was the “New Colleges Organizing Committee,” a group of nine women. Here confusion and anxiety reigned. After two weeks they too voted to disband. Next came the “The New Colleges Task Force,” a group of five men and five women. In only the first 24 hours, they issued 22 mandates for others to follow. This group proved too aggressive and too head-strong. When response to their mandates was virtually zero, the women entrusted with the mandate to manifest New Colleges, realized they still had a serious group process problem.
What was wrong with how Women In Congress was conceiving of its most significant, right-hand, managing group-to-be?
