Southwestern College — Local services in Santa Fe

I was part of the inaugural PhD cohort in Visionary Practice and Regenerative Leadership. The administration at SWC tries to reform rather than expand your thinking. Groupthink trumps critical thought. While some of the students admitted were creatively- and academically skilled, others were almost astonishingly ill-equipped to thrive in graduate programs that aren't diploma mills in disguise. Within one year, my cohort went from over 15 to 5. Those who left were generally never spoken of again. Their money was spent. Some in the cohort were shockingly lacking in writing and argumentation skills, meaning the program had to accommodate their remedial abilities. Classes shifted to focusing on skills I learned in undergrad. Since many students' skills were lacking, the program leaned heavily on clunky peer review processes to help them that ultimately just put additional weight on more-qualified scholars. (Peer review is simply most useful when one is serving as peer rather than tutor.) As numbers dwindled, the scholars that remained were cliquish, unskilled, and defensive. Meanwhile, the ethical and personal issues and entanglements of the faculty and staff make flourishing as a scholar there challenging due to the nonstop chaos, lack of professionalism, and low-quality standards for integrity. You can look forward to little details being shared with you by administrators who can't be counted on to be honest toward each other. They 'd rather dish to you. The current executive director of the PhD program, the president while I was there, "adopted" me as their "niece" and shared personal details and opinions about staff, faculty, and fellow students, sending me a card, and making "special" appointments to meet with me that included discussions far beyond professional and appropriate matters coming from an ostensibly respectable administrator. I know details about administrators and faculty that are none of my business. Here, however, boundaries are optional and often overstepped. She soon forgot her professed love for me when I expressed concerns about the quality and character of the program and the behavior of the cohort. Some faculty and staff were bright lights and incredible to learn from and work with, but the school was so academically and professionally chaotic and flawed I wondered what they'd been told to expect. I wondered if they felt as misled as I. One instructor targeted me for describing a racist politician in negative terms. I was made to feel problematic for criticizing someone who doesn't believe in the rights of my citizenship. I had to withdraw from that course, which I've never done. Accommodations were made but I had to advocate forcefully for myself when I should have been studying. Here, students who speak uncomfortable truths will not be supported or defended. They will be blamed, silenced, and openly excluded. Staff ethics were particularly problematic. Another head of the PhD program actively gatekept academic contacts for certain students while facilitating them for others. She responded to acts of bullying and exclusion by blaming the target and made no effort to foster a culture of mutual respect and diversity of thought. She was not mentally or emotionally equipped to deal with the relationship dynamics in an academic cohort and seemed at best indifferent and, at worst, openly hostile. I felt that she was intimidated by more talented students and it showed.

At Southwestern, "diversity of thought" means anything goes, no matter how lacking in factual basis. Culturally diverse scholars can expect to be labeled problematic for speaking up for diverse and oppressed voices. This is a community comprised overwhelmingly of idealists with more hope than information, more ideals than knowledge, who sugar a lie and slime the truth. Critical thought is not welcome. After I left SWC's PhD program, I ran across a comment on their Instagram page: "Didn't this place start as a cult?" Reader, some things never change. Serious academics should look elsewhere. This scholar is...

I submitted a application for admission along with the admission fee and all my transcripts including letters of recommendation and never received an admissions interview or a letter turning me down.

Additionally, besides earning a B.A in English Literature and a Masters in Theology and Religion and the Arts with a GPA of 3.77, the Admissions Coordinator ignored me: she never returned numerous messages; she never refunded my fee; nor did she act in a professional manner whatsoever!

Besides the degrees that I earned, I also completed another 40 graduate credits beyond the Masters level.

I am a victim of educational discrimination which I assume the Admissions Coordinator targeted me based on the fact that I am a Vietnam Vet coupled with age discrimination.

Furthermore, since this institution participates in the Federal Student Loan Program they are in violation of numerous standards inimical to the Federal Government rules which prohibit discrimination.

The board should bring an investigation against the Admissions Coordinator because I plan on filing a complaint with the...

If you don’t believe in auras and energy fields and other pseudoscience stay far away from this place. I was a student here for a short time and most of their curriculum is about as far from scientific as it gets. If you want to learn how to scam gullible people into letting you ‘cleanse their energy field’ or ‘unblock their heart chakra’ and whatnot this is the perfect place to get an education. What you won’t learn much of is real science-backed methodology...