Oh Asheville



"Dear Chancellor Van Noort and community members,

It is with a heavy heart that I share this Citizen Times article, with my prognosis for the U.S. political economy if citizens do not take back our democracy. I also worry as a mom, resident, and U.S. Citizen who has lived in Europe twice, Asia, and spent time in Africa, Central and South America. I worry for my country, and I cannot hide this from students. To do so would be moral hazard and destroy my soul. Being a living, breathing, compassionate human person as a front line worker, like all our administrators, staff, and faculty - all better viewed as trapped participants in a game that we didn't design.

We are all doing our best, including our Chancellor, who I would never criticize online, in person, behind her back, or on social media. Ad hominem attacks are not non-violent. I support my elected and appointed officeholders, even if I disagree with their choices, policies, or reasoning. Classical liberalism offers a path to civil, reasoned discourse. Rule of law protecting free speech and freedom from religion, freedom from discrimination or bias due to class, neuro-distinction, parental status, familial wealth, race, ethnicity, immigrant status, gender identity, orientation, political ideology or lack of religion or ideology, should not be reason to negatively evaluate any human, under any circumstances. We are all worthy of freedom from sexual harassments, ideological bias and religious and political bias in evaluations of instructors and students.

I hope our political and civic situation calms, our economy remains stable, if not a bit chaotic, and our democratic institutions restored peacefully. As my daddy taught me, pray for the best, plan for the worst, and live each day joyfully and honorably - as you never know what tomorrow might bring.

As I have been posting on socials, my lived experiences as well as my scholarly expertise, interdisciplinary, liberal arts, humanities and social sciences, has helped me to formulate a lifelong love of learning, enjoy crafting an occupation from a place of intrinsic drive, authenticity, passion and curiosity.

Slowing down your monkey mind, socializing and walking in nature (or going for a trail run) clears your head for real innovative ideas to emerge.

Educational philosophy, psychology, sociology, cognitive science, developmental and emergent science that is double peer blind reviewed should inform our educational infrastructure (woods, nature, or man-made) as well as pedagogy, curriculum, and ways of evaluating educators and students.

AI as being rolled out by Grok, X, etc. is a disaster, in my opinion, for our students' cognition, moral and psychological health, and development and wellbeing. Unplugging will restore it.

Connecting with each other without devices and with nature, our Source, is a way of embodying ecological systems thinking, which recognizes all humans are interdependent upon each other, other species, and the living, breathing planet.

I believe more outdoor and indoor spaces attentive to the natural environment, repaired outdoor recreation and parks, quiet paths in the forest to breath, pray, meditate, read, reflect, play music, write poetry, generate new ideas, theories, and questions, experiment with nature, observe and connect with our original source and ancestral land, and express gratitude is needed. We don't need more human free kiosks. We need organic community building out of the linear tech classroom, much more than stadiums, e-sports betting, gaming, and corporate and franchise options for dining and entertainment.

Student and community wellbeing through time spent in the Woods is critical for mental health and community wellbeing. Because students are addicted to their screens, overstressed with economic pressures, and numbing on devices (or through substances), does not rationally imply that morally we should destroy the woods due to insufficient student market demand.

A healthier option is to encourage our students to take a walk in the woods on a particularly stressful and gorgeous day, encounter a neighbor and her dog, a bear cub and its mom, a family of owls taking care of each other, as all living beings should with theirs and other species. White men with guns and fraternities on campus are statistically much more dangerous than any injury or death that could occur in a wooded area with an occasional bear and downed tree. I've traveled over bombed roads still laden with mines in Mozambique. I feel safe in the woods.

Students are safe, and more importantly, through walking meditation, forest bathing, device free walks and classes outside with peers, their social skills, presencing capacity, sense of connection to self, soul, body, community, mother nature, each other, and their professors will heighten, and their overwhelmed nervous systems will calm. Their dopamine addictions may cause resistance, but we can do hard things. What is really driving the demolition is dark ideology, dark politics, dark money, and Neville Chamberlain style administrative response to fascism.

Being outside clears the head of stress and worry, unproductive pressures to perform, and enhances focus for artistic, athletic, and scholarly pursuits. As an undergrad, I competed in the Los Angeles marathon and ran outside more days than not, on and off campus. Being outside and unplugged with wise elders, community leaders, other species, and our outdoor playground that attracts so many well and wise people to Western North Carolina, is a competitive advantage as a university we cannot afford to lose.

Escaping to the woods and forests, our natural environment in tue Woods and by the French Broad river, is where I write my most important work - by pen and manuscript - no WiFi signal needed...Being in nature helps me and other faculty to unwind, changing up the classroom environment on occasion - even if only one time a semester, helping us to be fully present with students to educate, inspire, and attend to their holistic needs.

Being outside and unplugged with peers or reading alone aids their retentive learning of new ideas, concepts, ways of thinking, knowing, observing, experiencing and understanding - not just as a productivity perk to enhance their academic performance and boost grades (which in my classes still matter as lower level classes are book heavy, thinking, reading and writing intensive, conversation, action and team based, and 100 percent AI-proof).

Outside we can read a book, exercise, play, discuss ideas, ask questions, engage in team building exercises, meet a new friend, as well as our professor, in a much more nervous system soothing environment. Forest bathing is a scientificly backed treatment for the anxiety and depression that students are facing, that too many of us are facing under uncertain times.

We know this is a political decision requiring political action and courage to do the right thing.

Please save the Woods, thanks!"

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My opinions do not reflect those of my employer and I’m not representing the university in this email. I’m simply exercising free speech and my right to express ethical humanistic concerns as an ethical humanist and community leader.

Susan Clark Muntean, Ph.D., MBA c.828-216-5011
 
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