Pittsburghers seek to create an innovative, low-cost college: The Saxifrage School
-
The Saxifrage School crew with Tim Cook, who launched the project, standing at center. -
Tim Cook, founder of The Saxifrage School, stands by a quote by Henry David Thoreau on a window at the organization's office on the North Side.
Share with others:
Imagine a freshman English class set in the back room of your neighborhood bar, or a philosophy lecture reverberating inside a church footsteps from home.
Picture dual majors that require proficiency not only in literature but also in renovating a house.
If this sounds like an unusual notion of a four-year college, that's only the start.
North Side resident Timothy Cook and a group of his peers say the traditional college experience doesn't guarantee that students will acquire the balance of physical and intellectual skills they need to lead self-sufficient lives.
And besides, the whole thing costs too darn much.
So they have set out on a quest that, depending on your level of optimism, is either a model for the future or nothing short of a pipe dream.
This group that has almost no capital -- let alone experience in such an endeavor -- wants to create its own stripped-down version of college.
The Saxifrage School, as it is called, would have no sports teams, no dorms, and no classroom buildings or traditional campus. Instead, classes would be clustered in a yet-to-be determined neighborhood where faculty would hold court in cafes, libraries and other available spaces. Students would have to learn Spanish, in addition to pursuing two starkly different programs of study: one academic, the other technical.
The annual price would be $5,000 in tuition plus a $1,500 administrative fee, a rate intended to help students avoid crushing debt.
Mr. Cook, who conceived the idea three years ago, and other organizers acknowledge that raising $2 million in startup money (mostly to hire faculty and staff) will be no small feat but insist the attempt to enroll the first of 500 students as soon as 2014 is worth it.
The organizers, who quote Henry David Thoreau, tout the value of individuals pursuing their life's work while enjoying the freedom of being able to maintain their own car, renovate their house and even grow their own food.
The school's name comes from a reference to the plant Saxifrage in the poem "A Sort of a Song" by William Carlos Williams: Compose. (No ideas / but in things) Invent! / Saxifrage is my flower that splits / the rocks.
First Published June 5, 2011 12:00 am
