Students bicycle near new casitas at Fort Burgwin during the first fall semester at SMU-in-Taos.
A group of pioneering students this fall explored the landscape of ancient pueblos, studied the impact of writers and artists in the American Southwest, and considered the role of scientists ushering in the atomic age at a secret city in the mountains of New Mexico.
Others studied botany and geology in an ecosystem that serves as a living laboratory or business with a focus on regional issues. Mountain sports offered lessons in wellness in the high desert environment.
The students were the first to spend a fall semester at SMU-in-Taos, New Mexico. Since 1973 SMU-in-Taos has offered summer classes for about 300 students at its 295-acre campus, which includes historic Fort Burgwin, a pre-Civil War fort, and a 13th-century Anasazi pueblo site. But because its buildings and housing were not winterized and needed updating, use of the campus was limited to the summer months. Now, thanks to renovations, new construction and the latest technology, the Taos campus is open for living and learning through mid-December.
“By offering a fall semester, we are making this tremendous resource accessible to more SMU students, especially those who must work during the summer months,” says Paul W. Ludden, SMU provost and vice president for academic affairs.
Classes were organized into four intensive course modules taken in sequence, each lasting three weeks. A fifth course module consisted of an independent study project. Between modules, students took field trips to sites such as the Grand Canyon.
“Classes here are small and intimate, allowing you to have a much richer learning experience than you normally would,” says Lauren Rodgers, a sophomore in the fall semester program. “Coming to SMU-in-Taos was the best decision I’ve ever made in my academic life.”
For junior Elizabeth Fulton, taking field trips to places “we talked about in class made the experience more real. Between field trips for class and field trips for wellness, I am getting credit for white water rafting, seeing Bandelier [national monument] and visiting Taos Pueblo. Other students don’t know what they are missing.”
James K. Hopkins, Altshuler Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Clements Department of History, taught “The Good Society: Utopian Perspectives on the American Southwest.” He says there was “a great sense of purpose in making the inaugural semester a success. Students, faculty and staff joined to take full advantage of this beautiful and unique learning environment.”