RAISON D’ÊTRE 2.0
A redefinition of Naropa’s purpose, mission, vision & values
By Cassandra Smith
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confluence of events created a new landscape for higher education that provides an opportunity both for redefining higher education and demanding that institutions of higher learning are more innovative in the ways they meet the needs of their students and communities. With an ongoing global pandemic, a dwindling amount of time to deal with the climate crisis, increasing political polarization, and daily proof that we still have not reckoned with both the historical and the current lack of racial justice and equity in this country, it is fair to say we are facing a radical crisis. “The old way of being in the world and of interacting with each other in the realm of nature isn’t working. Our survival is indeed threatened and at this point, we are either going to become extinct or evolve,” says Regina Smith (MA Contemplative Psychotherapy, '12), Vice President of Mission, Culture, and Inclusive Community (MCIC), Naropa’s newly created administrative division. In terms of Naropa’s role in this evolution, Smith thinks “the reason that we exist is to co-create a new way of being in the world, a socially just, conflict-positive, compassionate, and regenerative way of caring for each other and for our planetary home.” She says, “I’ve never really looked at Naropa as humanity’s hope for survival before, but I am the mother of a five-year-old, and we watch a lot of Star Wars. So all of a sudden, I’m really into saving the planet.”
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Smith’s leadership of the new MCIC division will allow her to try to do just that. Recognizing that community culture is critical to saving the planet, Naropa’s new MCIC division called in administrators, faculty, and allies in the hopes of facilitating the further integration and impact of Naropa’s values across the university and curricula. Critical to this new division are newly created staff roles, including Senior Director of MCIC, Amanda Aguilera, PhD (MA Contemplative Psychology, '08), and Program Manager Seann Goodman. In this new division, Smith says they “work tirelessly to support Naropa in living its mission and hope to build a bridge between what Naropa has been, what Naropa is today, and what Naropa needs to become, if we are to help humanity evolve.” The new structure is intended to help Naropa to integrate a unified office for its guiding values, with the primary nodes in this new network of MCIC each facilitated by a director. This includes Smith, who leads Justice, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion (JEDI); under which is the newly created Restorative Community Institute (CRI). Smith explains: “We have also recently integrated our work towards sustainability, with the living legacy of Joanna Macy to create the Joanna Macy Center for Resilience and Regeneration, led by the ever lovely and loving Director Michael Bauer, and Faculty Lead Sherry Ellms. In addition, we house CACE, the Center for the Advancement of Contemplative Education, where Director Charlotte Rotterdam and Program Manager Carla Burns (Divinity, '16) lead
