Please Help Others Learn about WISR
To Members of the WISR Community-Students, Alumni, Faculty,
Board and Friends of WISR:
We are writing this important letter to you to request your assistance
in promoting WISR and in informing more people about our degree
programs and our new web site. As always, we limit the monies we
spend on advertising, in large part to keep tuition is affordable
as possible. We do not intend to indiscriminately spam individuals
and organizations, but we do hope to reach out to people who are
likely to be interested in knowing more about us-whether it is to
make use of the resources on our new web site, to consider the possibility
of enrolling at WISR, or to tell others they know about WISR and
its distinctive degree programs and new web site. We are asking
you to help us in launching our email marketing campaign to promote
our degree programs and our new web site, especially to progressive
individuals and organizations, and to people and groups strongly
committed to community services and development. We are asking you
to paste the letter below (Subject: A College that honors our commitments)
about WISR into an email that you would compose and send to people
in your email address book who might want to learn about WISR. The
email letter highlights the new and expanded website,
www.wisr.edu, degree programs as well as free seminars. It offers
to exchange links with other web sites. Alternatively, you may wish
to ask people to go to the following address (www.wisr.edu/help/introducingwisr.htm)
on our web site to read the letter of introduction about WISR-and
that web page contains not only the letter, but also active links
to portions of our web site that address some of the particular
points outlined at the end of the letter of introduction. We hope
that you will be able to send the letter below to a number of people
and groups whom you know, but even if you only decide to share it
with one or two people, we very much appreciate your efforts on
our behalf. If you have any questions or suggestions, please let
me know.
Sincerely, John Bilorusky WISR President
The letter to be sent to others introducing WISR is as follows:
Subject: A College that Honors Our Commitments
Dear Colleague:
Thirty (30) years ago, the Western Institute for
Social Research (WISR, pronounced “wiser”) launched a unique State-approved
educational alternative for working adults committed to community-based
social change. As an academic institution, WISR is distinctive
in providing
·
personalized and affordable educational programs for
working adults who want to shape their own studies,
·
intellectually engaging and community-oriented studies,
·
a socially progressive and multicultural learning
environment, and
·
an alternative to conventional and sometimes inflexible
universities.
*We offer personalized BA, MA and PhD programs
for working adults in Education and Social Change, Social Sciences,
Community Services and Psychology, including a program fulfilling
the academic requirements for State licensure as a Marriage and Family
Therapist. Sometimes, WISR students study from great distances—currently,
from such varied locales as Boston, Nebraska and Nigeria--and confer
frequently with faculty by phone between occasional visits.
We are always especially interested in new students
who will also be participants in positive social change. Consequently,
we are reaching out to organizations whose members may be interested
in rigorous but flexible degree programs that emphasize independent
study and community-based social change. We at WISR honor our learners’
wisdom and support their natural joy and love of learning as well
as their efforts in pursuing their community commitments.
Whether or not you are considering enrolling in a degree program at
WISR, we are now offering free resources to assist you and
support anyone who is deeply committed to community service, progressive
social change, or improvements in any domain of the educational system.
Specifically:
*WISR offers seminars each month that are open
to the public (space is limited so please RSVP if you are coming).
Seminar topics include community organizing and education, participatory
action research, social change, grant writing, and marriage and
family therapy. If you or anyone in your company would like to
receive monthly or occasional announcements by email or postal mail,
please contact us at mail@wisr.edu,
(510) 655-2830, or forward this information to their email address.
*We are beginning to develop reciprocal links
on our web site, http://www.wisr.edu/, with progressive and community service
organizations like yours. If you are interested, we would like
you to send us your web address with one to three sentences about
your organization/group/web site. The link will then soon appear
under "Learning Resources" on our web site.
*You can download articles from our web site
— on action-research, adult education and social change, multiculturality,
trauma recovery, and other topics.
Sincerely,
John Bilorusky, President
Western Institute for Social Research
3220 Sacramento, CA 94702
510/655-2830
http://www.wisr.edu/
For More Information,
Click on the Following Links:
Where can I view an informational Video
about WISR?
What's special about
education at WISR?
What is the schedule of upcoming
seminars?
Does WISR prepare its students
to do effective community work and professional practice?
Does WISR have an informational catalogue?
What's it like working on a thesis
or dissertation at WISR?
Is there a site map that describes the information
and resources available on your web site?
***
If
you don't want to receive future e-mail's from us, please click here,
write "unsubscribe" and click on "send."
(end of letter)
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Letter sent to friends of WISR and to WISR
Community, December 2004:
Celebrating 30 Years of Outstanding Education 1975-2005
To WISR Students, Faculty, Alumni, Friends:
Happy Holidays to you and your families. Next year, 2005, will
be WISR's 30th Anniversary. Over the past 30 years, WISR has successfully
aided the learning of the many outstanding adults who have been
our students. We have consciously worked to honor our commitments
to multiculturality, personalized education, progressive social
change, action-oriented inquiry and community improvement. As a
tiny institution, the magnitude of our accomplishments have been
modest, but the quality and distinctiveness of our efforts and successes
have been impressive and quite rare among the more than 2,000 institutions
of higher education in this country. It is remarkable that we have
survived and that we have done so without compromising our commitments
to our distinctive educational and social values.
None of this would have been possible had it not been for the efforts
of all of you who have been part of the WISR community. First and
foremost, the learning successes of our students, their contributions
to the community, and the continued accomplishments of our alumni
make those of us on the WISR faculty and those on the Board of Trustees
proud to be associated with WISR.
WISR will never be large enough, by itself, to take on all the
problems that we can see in the world around us. But it is important
for WISR to continue to survive, and even to grow, to help more
students to experience the learning support that WISR can provide
to creative, innovative people concerned about the future of their
communities and the society as a whole. It is important for WISR
to continue to exist as a model for others, and hopefully, to gain
even greater visibility to inspire others to create other worthwhile
alternatives.
As always, we need your continued emotional, intellectual, moral
and spiritual support. But we also need financial support. Even
though we could always use a lot of financial support, continued
modest support from a larger number of individuals would make a
major difference to WISR. We need to replenish and expand our revolving
loan fund. We need to build a scholarship fund that can support
at least one or two students per year. We need funds to purchase
that occasional special computer upgrade, better sofa to sit on,
or functional fax machine. We keep our tuition low to make it as
affordable to as many people as possible. As a result, faculty pay
increases are modest and infrequent while dramatic increases in
costs in one area, for example $3,000 more this year alone in worker's
compensation insurance, put an enormous stress on WISR. We are not
in danger of closing, but if we are to thrive, we definitely need
a stronger financial base.
As we embark on our 30th anniversary year, we want to ask each of
you to make every effort to do all that you have done in the past
as well as three additional things:
. Identify at least one person who would benefit from being a student
at WISR, talk to them about WISR, and ask if they would be willing
to look at our catalogue and come and visit with us to learn more
about WISR.
. Identify at least one community agency, educational institution,
or informational forum where you can help us to advertise and promote
WISR--for example, by talking with the staff of a community agency
at an informal lunchtime gathering.
. Make an annual financial contribution to WISR. We suggest at least
$100/year, however all contributions are helpful. WISR can accept
VISA or Master Card payments, if that is easier. If need be the
payments could be made on a semi-annual or monthly basis (however
it is not cost-effective for WISR to receive a credit card payment
of less than $20).
We are thankful for donations of books, furniture and equipment
to help make this a better learning facility. We appreciate those
who volunteer and pitch in at events as well. We frequently could
benefit from help with mailings, proofreading, and volunteers at
events such as graduation ceremonies. We are grateful for your donations
to help upgrade our equipment and furniture. We also could use your
scholarly assistance for a possible online journal and newsletter
and your technical expertise in computer maintenance as well as
to upgrade our web site in the near future.
We want to hear your ideas and suggestions about ways to continue
to improve WISR and help it grow and flourish. We promise to use
any financial contributions prudently and wisely and will keep you
posted on our efforts to further develop WISR and to make WISR accessible
to others who can and want to benefit from WISR's distinctive education.
We look forward to hearing from you soon!
Sincerely,
Dr. John Bilorusky, President and Co-Founder
Dr. Cynthia Lawrence, WISR Alumnus, Faculty and Trustee
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