Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center, which already possesses three distinct stand-alone “colleges,” is poised to become Saybrook University by the end of this month.
What’s in a name change? Shakespeare reminds us that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, but in this case the upcoming change in signature, stationary, and design reflects a host of other, more substantive, changes, that have already been happening “on the ground.”
For example:
• Saybrook now has three distinct colleges: the Graduate College of Psychology and Humanistic Studies, housing its traditional “legacy” programs in Psychology, Human Science, and Organizational Systems; its just established Graduate College of Mind-Body Medicine, and LIOS Graduate College, a 40-year old leading institution of experiential-based graduate learning and leadership training, based in Seattle which affiliated with Saybrook early this year. Though united as one institution, each of these three colleges will have their own distinct learning models.
• With new colleges and new degree programs, Saybrook has seen a substantial increase in enrollment over 2008, anticipated to be more than 50%.
• Saybrook has revitalized its learning technology, creating a whole new cyber-environment (“My Learning”) for instructing courses, offering course materials, and helping students and faculty create an academic community that spans the world.
• An entirely new website, focused on the activities of the Saybrook community “in the world” is expected to launch in late September. New technology will make it easy to student, faculty, and alumni to compare notes, share information, and create an “academic commons” that combines scholarship with real-world applications.
For all these changes, however, one thing isn’t changing: the soul of the school. Saybrook University will remain the global home of humanistic thought, in all its manifestations, inspired by the work of luminaries such as Rollo May, Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers, James Bugental, Virginia Satir, and many others. Their work will be carried into new fields, and new forms of human endeavor, for the 21st century, through Saybrook University.