On December 6, 2024, MIU celebrated 90 faculty and staff members who have served the university for 30 years or longer. Many have worked for more than 40 years, and topping the list was Dr. Robert Keith Wallace, MIU’s founding president and current Chair of the Department of Physiology and Health, who has served for 52 years.
The day included three events: a banquet, an awards ceremony following the banquet, and a special concert that evening in the Golden Dome by the twice-Grammy-Award-nominated vocalist Chandrika Tandon.
MIU President Dr. Tony Nader gave the keynote address at the awards ceremony. Each honoree received a Lifetime Achievement Award, a medallion, a copy of Dr. Nader’s new book, and a substantial cash honorarium.
“I see this as recognition for the highest level of what humanity can be,” President Nader said. “You will always be remembered as a symbol of the highest values that humanity can give. You truly deserve this award. Thank you for being here.”
The Lifetime Achievement Awards banquet was held in the main dining room in the Argiro Student Center.
“It took a special group to comprehend inestimable significance of the life-changing knowledge we received from Maharishi at the founding of the university,” said President Emeritus Dr. John Hagelin at the banquet. “It takes a special heart, a special mind. You gave and have given for decades. What you have done is so important for the history of education, for the history of the world. Everything you do is precious. You have created the community we know as MIU. You’ve built it. You deserve all credit for it.”
The event was inspired last spring by the Board of Trustees Personnel Committee, co-chaired by Dr. Laura Wege and Josie Fauerso, who spent months helping plan and fundraise for it.
“What an absolute joy it was to help plan these special events for you, the heroes that have been working and teaching at the greatest university in the world,” Laura Wege said. “You are precious not only to MIU, you are precious to the whole world. We love all of you here, and we are so deeply grateful that you chose the path you did in life.”
The awards ceremony included short talks from four representative long-term faculty and staff members.
Anne Dow, chair of the Mathematics department, recalled her first visit to MIU, for the historic Taste of Utopia Assembly, which brought together 8,000 TM and TM-Sidhi program participants for three weeks to create a global wave of harmony and which Maharishi attended. “I was invited suddenly, along with the other mathematicians, physiologists, and scientists at MIU, to attend a special meeting with Maharshi,” Anne said. “At that meeting, Maharshi explained that chemistry was the study of nature from the viewpoint of structure. And mathematics was the study of nature from the viewpoint of orderliness. And it was at that moment that I realized that I was going to quit my tenured faculty position at University of Queensland and get here within one year, whatever it took.”
Anne also recalled the academic projects Maharishi gave the faculty. “We had project after project where each department worked together to go deep, deep, deeper into their discipline and to the source of their discipline in the field of pure consciousness,” she said. “Our growth of consciousness and growth in our disciplines was phenomenal.”
Matt Jaffey, a programmer systems analyst in the IT department, applied to work at MIU in 1980, only to learn that there were no open positions. “After several attempts, I gave up and found another job, in Chicago,” Matt said. “Then, a day before I was to start it, I got a call with a job offer from MIU. I think of this as nature’s organizing to give me an opportunity to choose between a salaried position at a prestigious organization affiliated with the University of Chicago and working in the kitchen in the pot room. . . . But I knew that this was the best place to go to continue my own spiritual evolution.”
Matt took time out to get a degree in computer science at MIU and was then hired by the Computer Services department, where he has worked ever since. “Throughout the years, I have been grateful that MIU provided me with an opportunity to work in a job that has been such a dharmic match for me. And it has been very satisfying to provide my services to so many staff and faculty, many of whom I count as long-time friends in our spiritual adventure in this haven created under Maharishi’s guidance to promote Consciousness-Based education.”
Ruthann Bollinger, who works in the Accounting Services department, remembers moving to MIU from Houston, Texas, with her late husband Robert. “Now, with no disrespect to downtown Houston, the contrast in moving to the MIU campus was quite dramatic. I felt that we had arrived in some heavenly place. We hardly knew anyone here at that time, but I felt that everyone who walked by me on the sidewalk looked like a saint. Everyone who spoke to me sounded like a saint. Everyone greeted us with so much friendliness and appreciation and support. And all of that only grew over time and transformed our experiences and our lives here, both inside and out. Our decision to work at MIU was the best possible decision we could have made thirty years ago. I can’t imagine having been anywhere else or having done anything else other than working for Maharshi in this holy place.”
Ken West, a lecturer in photography in the Cinematic Arts and New Media department, also served as the director of MIU printing services and later as treasurer. He attended MIU during its first year, 1973–74, when it occupied a rented motel complex in Santa Barbara, California. In 1974 MIU relocated to Fairfield, Iowa, and Ken returned in August 1977 to work on staff. On his first night in Fairfield, as he looked across the campus, the light shining out from hundreds of residential hall windows reminded him of an ancient Indian text that advised surrounding oneself with people on the same spiritual path — people pursuing the highest goal in life, higher states of consciousness. “So that evening when I looked out on the sparkling lights, each light a place where a meditator was living, I knew that this was my home for the rest of my life — a place where I could serve Maharishi and his goal of bringing world peace to all mankind. Here we are 47 years later. A life worth living.”
Josie Fauerso, who was among the first university trustees, also addressed the award recipients. “In the future,” she said, “your grandchildren and great-grandchildren will hear your stories of coming to the heartland of America, to a neglected campus, and turning it into a haven of enlightenment. An accredited university educating people from more than a hundred countries all over the world. And a beacon light of Maharishi’s Vedic knowledge right here in America. And this is a life worth living.”
Lifetime Achievement Award Recipients
Robert Keith Wallace • Susan Tracy • Craig Pearson • Melissa Pearson • Ken West • Cathy Gorini • Jim Shrosbree • Isabelle Levi • Michael Lerom • Brad Mylett • Tom Brooks • Harry Bright • Bill Goldstein • Craig Shaw • Vicki Alexander Herriott • Scott Herriott • Mike Shay • Tom Hirsch • Chris Jones • Ken Daley • Tom Egenes • Greg Guthrie • Elaine Guthrie • Sandy Nidich • Carolyn King • Robert Schneider • Anne Dow • Jim Karpen • Dennis Heaton • Dale Divoky • Rachel Goodman • Mike Davis • Sue Brown • Sandra Rosania • Nick Rosania • Martin Schmidt • Jane Schmidt-Wilk • James Bedinger • Linda Bedinger • Jonathan Worcester • Randy Bales • Bill Graff • Paul Morehead • Dolores Johnson • Sam James • Matthew Beaufort • Julie Beaufort • George Collum • Terry Fairchild • Fred Travis • Andy Cozzens • Marc Bouttenot • Gerry Geer • Richard Thompson • Keith Levi • Clyde Ruby • Jane Aikens • Jim Fairchild • David Fisher • Joanie Romes • Kris Wood • Sherri Shields • Rosemary Spivak • Michael Spivak • John Runkle • Susan Runkle • Lyle Nelson • Maxwell Rainforth • Rhoda Orme-Johnson • Bill Sands • Kit Healy • Dan Wasielewski • Ruthann Bollinger • Matt Jaffey • Sam Boothby • Ken Cavanaugh • Steve McLaskey • John Salerno • Shepley Hansen • Jerry Dee Lawley • David Goodman • Bruce McCollum • Bill Christensen • Arla Rabalais
You can view the photo album here and the individual award recipient photos here.
David Lynch was one of the outstanding creative geniuses of the past half century. He was one of the most effective advocates of Transcendental Meditation we’ve ever seen. And he was a great friend to MIU.
During his career, David was widely regarded as the world’s greatest living filmmaker. But he poured his creativity into many other forms — painting, drawing, photography, printmaking, sculpture, woodworking, and music composition. His life and visionary work showed that consciousness is truly a field of all possibilities.
He had an extraordinary gift for communicating the benefits of TM practice. His words were always fresh, vivid, and compelling. In his best-selling 2006 book Catching the Big Fish, he wrote:
If you have a golf-ball-sized consciousness, when you read a book, you’ll have a golf-ball-sized understanding; when you look out a window, a golf-ball-sized awareness; when you wake up in the morning, a golf-ball-sized wakefulness; and as you go about your day, a golf-ball-sized inner happiness.
But if you can expand that consciousness, make it grow, then when you read that book, you’ll have more understanding; when you look out, more awareness; when you wake up, more wakefulness; and as you go about your day, more inner happiness.
You can catch ideas at a deeper level. And creativity really flows. It makes life more like a fantastic game.
He spoke on college campuses across America, Europe, and the Middle East on the theme of “Meditation, Creativity, and Peace.” In 2012 he released a film with that title, documenting his European and Middle Eastern tours from 2007 to 2009, when he visited sixteen countries to speak with students, accept national awards, and encourage TM practice as a technique for boosting creativity and securing peace.
Countless people have said that it was David Lynch who inspired them to learn to meditate.
David prided himself on never missing a meditation. In Catching the Big Fish, he talks about his TM instruction in 1973, describing his first meditation experience this way:
I sat down, closed my eyes, started this mantra, and it was as if I were in an elevator and the cable had been cut. Boom! I fell into bliss — pure bliss. And I was just in there. . . . It seemed so familiar, but also so new and powerful. After that, I said the word “unique” should be reserved for this experience.
It takes you to an ocean of pure consciousness, pure knowingness. But it’s familiar; it’s you. And right away a sense of happiness emerges — not a goofball happiness, but a thick beauty.
After David had been meditating for a couple of years — but long before he became famous — he went with a friend to hear Maharishi speak at a large venue in Los Angeles. As he stood in a long line of people waiting to get in, Maharishi arrived, emerged from his car, and walked past them. David recalls all sound seeming to fall away during those moments. A short while later, a man came out of the building and motioned for David and his friend to follow him. He took them into the building and guided them down a series of long hallways, then opened a door and — to David’s amazement — led them out onto the main floor of the theatre right in front of the stage, gesturing for them to sit in two somehow empty front-row seats in an otherwise packed auditorium. A few moments later a woman approached them and asked, “Who are you?” “I’m nobody,” David replied. “Well, you must be somebody,” the woman responded, “because you’re sitting in the VIP section.”
David Lynch Weekends at MIU
Between 2006 and 2009, David came to MIU each spring for an annual series of David Lynch Weekends, intended to attract prospective students interested in creativity and the arts.
In 2009, the event attracted 200 guests from 27 states and countries as far as Italy. Besides question-and-answer sessions with David Lynch, the weekend included musical entertainment by MIU students, an introduction to the TM program by Bob Roth, a taste of the activities of the David Lynch Foundation around the world as documented by DLF.TV, and a presentation by Dr. John Hagelin on “The Cosmos Within: Exploring the Limits of Human Potential.” The capstone event was a concert featuring music legend Donovan, blues singer/songwriter Laura Dawn, and James McCartney, son of the famed Sir Paul McCartney, making his US debut.
David Lynch academic programs at MIU
David generously lent his name to the David Lynch MA in Film program in 2013, when it launched. Over the next three years, he invited each class of film students to his home in Los Angeles for a wide-open discussion in his personal studio. Students spent several more days visiting other filmmakers and significant people in the industry.
Amine Kouider, chair of the Department of Cinematic Arts and New Media and an award-winning filmmaker, was in one of those classes. “David greeted us in his studio with coffee and donuts and then happily answered every question we had. We all felt it was a privilege and gift to be with him.”
In 2016, the MA in Film transitioned into the David Lynch MFA in Screenwriting within the David Lynch Graduate School of Cinematic Arts. David met remotely each semester with each new cohort of students for an hour of live Q&A, a tradition that continued until last semester.
“David’s commitment to our programs was unwavering.”
— Amine Kouider
“David Lynch was a beacon of consciousness and creativity,” Amine said. “David’s commitment to our programs was unwavering. He delighted in meeting with our students and sharing his wisdom and experience. His motto for us was ‘meditate and create.'”
Reflections from Stuart Tanner, program founder
Stuart Tanner, assistant professor of Cinematic Arts & New Media at MIU and an acclaimed documentary film producer and director, created MIU’s original David Lynch MA in Film program along with professor Gurdy Leete and Joanna Plafsky, and he worked with David Lynch at its inception.
“We had scholarship funding for the best applicants during the first years of the program,” Stuart recalls. “Students submitted their films as part of the scholarship application. David wanted to be personally involved in reviewing those films and awarding the scholarships.
“We went through all of them together, all sorts of different kinds of films — music videos, animations, dramas, experimental films. We talked about each them, discussing their merits, back and forth. It was not like I was talking with the foremost avant-garde surrealist cult filmmaker in the world. We were just two buddies talking about these films. It was a unique and fantastic experience and a lot of fun.”
“My conversations with him were always like that,” Stuart said. “He was always easy with you. It was always one hundred percent authenticity with David. He was a committed, kind, insightful, brilliant filmmaker. The humanity was always there. You could talk with him about anything — film, art, anything — and what you always got back was thoughtful, penetrating, and laced with humor and universality. I don’t think there’s anyone David couldn’t reach. He was unique.”
“When we’d visit him in Los Angeles at his home studio, those couple of hours were a powerful experience for everybody,” Stuart said. “The way he handled the students was incredible to watch.”
Reflections from Daniel Nearing, program director
“For more than half a century, David Lynch has been ‘Catching the Big Fish’ of ideas from the depths of his consciousness,” said Daniel Nearing, the current Director of the David Lynch MFA in Screenwriting program. “He is a giant of American and international cinema, yet no matter the medium — film, painting, drawing, music — he has shown us what it means to live The Art Life with unflinching integrity and heart.”
“He has also been in recent years the most vocal, influential proponent in the world for the Transcendental Meditation technique,” Nearing added. “He insisted that TM be a part of our curriculum from the start, and as a consequence has forged a generation of screenwriting voices in alignment with the source of his own magnificent visions.”
In a recent email to the MFA students, he referred to the class’s latest conversation with David: “As we spoke with him that last time, Alexandra (class of 2025) shared that her father had recently died and asked David if he had thoughts on an afterlife. David held court, as only David could do, with wisdom, intellectual agility, and grace. Let’s hear this again from him and take it to heart. He’s there now.” And then he shared this video clip from that Zoom call.
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Quotations from David Lynch: David Lynch, Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity (New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin, 2006), 28 and 4.
Everyone is invited to join in celebrating the work of four artists in the 2025 Thesis Exhibition, the apex of MIU’S two-and-a-half-year Low-Residency MFA program in Visual Art, held in the Wege Center for the Arts.
There will be an artists’ reception on Thursday night, January 16, from 6:30 to 8:30 in the Wege Center.
Featuring painting, collage, installation, and sculpture, the exhibition presents a showcase of each artist’s thesis work.
Four MFA students are exhibiting their work: Niloofar Monfared, Eva Sainte Rose, Cortys Winston-Sandefur, and Sam Foster.
- Niloofar Monfared, a newbie visual artist from Iran, now based in Iowa. Her work currently is focused on drawing, collage, and painting. In addition to her MFA from MIU, she holds a BA in Consciousness and Sustainability from MIU.
- Eva Sainte Rose, a multidisciplinary artist in Los Angeles. Her focuses include painting, collage, video, and motion graphics. Her work has been featured in the following digital art collectives and online magazines: Mundane Magazine, Feltzine, Post Vision, Tax Collection, Friday Magazine, Jawbreaker Zine, Lithium Magazine, and Ok Whatever.
- Cotys Winston-Sandefur, born and raised in Oakland, California. She has exhibited her work nationally at venues like Oak Park Art Gallery in Chicago, the Consulate General of Mexico in Los Angeles, and the Manetti Shrem Museum of Art in Davis, California.
- Sam Foster, originally from Lawrence, Kansas, received his BFA from the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design (MIAD) in 2012, where he studied painting and experimental film. He currently lives in Lockhart, Texas, just south of Austin, where he has been a long-time member of Spellerberg Projects, an artist-headed studio and gallery.
by Niloofar Monfared
Banner image at the top: Angel-2000, by Eva Sainte Rose.
Learn more about the Low-Residency MFA in Visual Art – now accepting applications for the Summer 2025 entry.
The Low-Res MFA in Visual Art is supported by a grant from the Wege Foundation.
Additional reporting by Susan Metrican.