California Institute of Integral Studies

Has anyone heard of this school if so care to share your thoughts? I saw this school the other day while surfing, not sure if its worth investigating further though.

 

Well, it's regionally accredited. There is more information about the school here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Institute_of_Integral_Studies

The school's web site is located here: http://www.ciis.edu/

The DL offerings include transformative studies and transformative leadership. Looks very New Age.

 

I depends on what you're looking for.

It's RA. It has an 'alternative' reputation and is probably too trendy for its own good - rather politicized and a bit like a 60's timewarp. It's expensive. It doesn't offer very much DL, mostly classroom-based programs in San Francisco. At the present time it operates out of two or three leased floors in a down-market office building that it shares with an architectural firm, I believe. It's within walking distance of the SF Public Library and the Asian Art Museum. I live in the area and have visited CIIS a number of times. (They have a rather obscure bookstore.)

Their distance learning programs are here:

http://www.ciis.edu/online/

What follows is adapted and updated from a post I made about CIIS several years ago...

CIIS was founded by a then-Stanford professor named Frederic Spiegelberg. Spiegleberg was in contact with Sri Aurobindo's ashram in Pondicherry, who sent out Dr. Haridas Chaudhuri to San Francisco. Together they founded the Cultural Integration Fellowship in 1951. Interest kind of exploded in the late 60's, and in 1968 the CIF started offering degrees under the name California Institute of Asian Studies. Those were kind of the golden years in a way, when CIAS was still just state-approved. It operated out of a large Victorian house and an fascinating group of people hung out there, like Alan Watts (who left his papers and books to the CIIS library). CIAS maintained a fairly high academic standard and became WASC-accredited in 1981. It moved to a succession of new and larger accomodations, changed its name and added programs.

But it also seemed to lose its focus. It became less and less an Asian religion/philosophy school and kind of embraced everything hip and trendy. It became rather politicized. Today it has little connection to Vedanta and has something of the air of a 60's timewarp.

Academics suffered and financial problems grew. This has led to kind of an inner struggle for CIIS' soul. One faction wants CIIS to pursue higher academic research standards and become a more serious graduate school that can stand alongside Berkeley. Another group insists that if CIIS is to survive, it needs to become financially sound, and that means expanding popular high-demand vocational programs in business and clinical psychology. And a third faction wants CIIS to remain defiantly alternative, producing shamans, left-political activists and psychedelicists.

Eventually WASC came down pretty hard, putting CIIS on warning and telling them that they had serious deficiencies that needed to be addressed ASAP. To its credit, the CIIS administration hid nothing, making all the documents available to the CIIS community. Apparently adaquate progress was made for WASC to relent, since CIIS remains accredited and isn't on warning or probation or anything. Finances apparently are stabilized and the school's in the black. But to my eyes the lack of focus still exists and the "flakiness factor" remains uncomfortably high.

My favorite offerings at CIIS are their masters and doctoral programs in Asian and Comparative Studies. They are closest to the spirit of the old CIAS and I've actually given some thought to enrolling in them.

http://www.ciis.edu/catalog/asiancompstud.htm

In that area, I get the impression that CIIS is rather practitioner-oriented. It might be weaker on historical background, textual hermeneutics and philosophical analysis than Berkeley or Stanford, but probably stronger if you want to be taught by committed practitioners and want to combine experiential practice along with your seminar-room intellectualizing. Perhaps it's a little bit like the difference between a secular religion department and a Christian seminary.

There's an inner distance that's expected in the one that may be inappropriate in the other. Of course, there's nothing like a statement of faith required at CIIS. That whole idea is totally alien to what they are all about. It's people getting their hands (or souls or karma or something) dirty and not sitting back and dryly describing and analyzing stuff from an emotional distance. They are also pretty free about integrating things like art and music with whatever they are doing. Learning and doing are... integrated and mutually reinforcing at CIIS, I guess.

This kind of stuff probably rubs off on where you are apt to find graduates. Stanford and Berkeley religious studies graduates are apt to be found in university faculty clubs. CIIS graduates are more apt to congregate in the religious groups themselves.

So I'd guess that much the same thing is true of the DL programs in 'Transformative Studies'. I'd expect to find their graduates in organizations actually working for transformative social or personal change of some sort, more than I'd expect to find them teaching in college classrooms. There's more than a hint that the CIIS DL programs are kind of a finishing school for political/social activists.

I don't know if any of what I just wrote is valuable or even comprehensible, but you asked for an impression. You just got mine.

 

For entertainment purposes, I vote for that option.

 

As I understand it, this is a groovy school and if you can pay the money and if you can get your butt into the classroom often enough then it will yield a degree that will probably do what you want it to do.

 

Whatever that might be. I can't imagine there is a lot of demand for these programs.

 

I wouldn't necessarily say that........

 

OK, there's four potential students...

Perhaps they are the alumni?

 

Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Bill.

 

That's actually the Somatic Psychology Department.

 

While I do think that CIIS programs are oftentimes too trendy, I don't believe that the school really deserves to be laughed off the board.

Here's CIIS' degree programs:

http://www.ciis.edu/academics/degrees.html

While some of it isn't my personal cup of tea, I don't see anything that's completely indefensible. The Psy.D. is APA-accredited and license-qualifying. The school's openness to learning from traditional psychologies and practices make this program particularly interesting.

Somatic psychology might elicit some smiles. But human beings are typically delivered shrink-wrapped from the manufacturer with bodies attached. Those of us who are skeptical about the existence of disincarnate souls might even say that we are bodies, behaving in various ways. Those interested in the martial arts should remember that they are traditional expressions of somatic psychology.

I've given some thought to enrolling in CIIS' Asian and comparative philosophy-and-religion program. Perhaps the biggest reason why I haven't actually done that is cost. And to tell the truth, at this point in my life (my 50's) I'm not sure if I'm interested in putting out the tremendous effort necessary to earn a doctorate simply for personal interest. There are probably better ways for me to engage with the subject than that.

But I do like CIIS for several reasons.

First, I would require a program that would consider accepting me as a student. Berkeley and Stanford are looking for a few exceptional young academic careerists who are aiming towards university teaching. (Stanford's religious studies program only accepts 5-10% of its applicants each year.)

Second, CIIS has a stronger South Asian emphasis than Stanford does. (At Stanford the Asian religions emphasis is more East Asian.) CIIS's pretty-decent collection of Asian and comparative class-descriptions is here:

http://www.ciis.edu/catalog/asiancompstudcourses.htm

CIIS is probably less likely than Berkeley and Stanford to show its students off at conferences and to introduce them around to the kind of high-powered professors who might end up offering them teaching jobs. But CIIS might be more in tune with some of the local practice groups right here in the Bay Area, more apt to use the local teachers, clerics and leaders as adjuncts. It's not prestigious in any conventional sense, but not all of us need that.

(Bruce just wishes that the Boston PD (and his wife) would let him dress like those CIIS-friendly San Franciscans in the picture. Lol!)

 

Hi Makana,

I applied to their MFT program (on campus). Both of my supervisors went to the B&M in San Francisco, and they wrote my recommendations. I went to the on-campus interview and the school seemed awesome. They have a meditation room and Zen Garden, and the classes seem very holistic in nature.

My direct supervisor now has her license as an MFT, and my other supervisor has almost completed her hours. The school looks great. I've spoken with many alumni, and they say the education is excellent and that they love the faculty. It is *pricey* - about $20k per year, just for tuition.

I was accepted! I applied when I had high hopes of attending B&M but see that it no longer fits with my financial constraints. I think that the online program is just as pricey. (?)

Kindly,
Fairyrealm

 

I don't know about the dress standards of the Boston PD, but I want to be in the squadroom when he tries the group hug!

 

Just having a bit of fun; I actually like academic programs which are unique or go against the grain....it makes things interesting.

You should have seen how I looked when I was on the drug unit in the late 80's!

 

This program IS on probation with the American Psychological Association, which is a very serious action in the rare instances that APA takes it.

http://www.apa.org/ed/accreditation/clinpsyal.html

Furthermore, "regional accreditation" for a doctoral program in psychology is virtually MEANINGLESS. The important accreditation is APA accreditation. If a doctoral program makes a big deal of its regional accreditation, be very wary because they aren't being truthful with you.

 

Not so fast and with all due respect...

A doctoral program in psychology that is not accredited by the APA is not MEANINGLESS! Perhaps you are referring to a doctorate that qualifies you to obtain licensure in the practice of psychology and call yourself a "psychologist." Then your statement would have partial truth. This is because some states do not require APA programmatic approval to sit for psychology boards.

I have one of those "MEANINGLESS" Ph.D.'s in psychology that are only regionally accredited and not intended for doctoral level licensure. Harvard and many other schools also offer those "MEANINGLESS" Ph.D.'s (http://www.gsas.harvard.edu/prospective_students/psychology.php).

 

I have a friend currently enrolled at CIIS. He has also studied at Oberlin and at New School University.

He says there's no question the academics are more rigorous at Oberlin and NSU, but CIIS is really aimed in a different place; they are very personal growth focused, and many of their programs are taught in cohort groups, with the idea that you stay with your cohort throughout the program (whether online or on campus.)

The programs are definitely on the holistic/new age side, but much of the focus in psychology is soundly rooted in the same materials that are taught at other, more conservative programs. Among the humanistic psychology community, it apparently has a pretty good reputation.

 

I'm curious about what the APA's concerns are. Program content? Administration? Finances?

That's probably true in many states. But California psychology licensing law does things a little differently. Section 2914 of the California Business and Professions Code actually spits right into the APA's eye: "No educational institution shall be denied recognition as an accredited academic institution solely because its program is not accredited by any professional organization of psychologists."

http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=bpc&group=02001-03000&file=2900-2919

I don't think that CIIS makes a big deal of its regional accreditation. They might put a bit more emphasis on it than Stanford does, but as a small institute in a state filled with superficially similar state-approved schools, there's probably some justification in their making their RA status known. Keep in mind that CIIS is more than just a psych-school. (And it doesn't offer any DL psychology programs anyway.)

 

My wife has been taking an on-going non-degree course from CIIS's Steven Goodman that has met every two weeks for about five years. It is the highlight of her intellectual list. (Here's a really nice interview with Goodman: http://www.inquiringmind.com/Articles/WisdomCrazy.html

CIIS is the west coast 'home' of Robert Thurman, probably the world's leading authority on Tibetan Buddhism, full time professor of Indo-Tibetan Studies at Columbia. He teaches there a month or two most years.

They have had some significant financial problems in recent years, but they fill a very important need in the world of Asian studies.