Mid-peninsula Free University

Infobox University
name = Midpeninsula Free University


image_size =
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motto =
established = 1965
closed = 1971
type =
students = 1,200 (in 1969) [cite news |title=The Shadow Schools |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,941678-3,00.html |work=TIME |date=1969-06-06]
city = Palo Alto
state = California
country = USA
coor =
former_names =
free_label =
free =
nickname = Do-Your-Thing U

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The Midpeninsula Free University (MFU) was a free university that emerged in Palo Alto, California out of the burgeoning counterculture scene of there in the 1960s and 1970s [cite book |last=Markoff |first=John |authorlink=John Markoff |title=What the Dormouse Said |date=2005-04-25 |publisher=Viking |location=New York |language=English |isbn=0670033820 |oclc=57068812 |pages=336 ] . It offered classes on everything from intentional communities and "To Be Gentle", to sand-casting candles and "The Art of Giving Away Bread", [cite news |title=The Semester That Might Have Been... |url=http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=145311 |work=The Harvard Crimson |date=1968-01-26 ] to Maoist political theory and alternative education.

History

Midpeninsula Free University was formed as a reaction to the growing influence of the military-industrial complex on American universities.cite news |first=Michael |last=Learmonth |title=Political Animal |url=http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/04.29.99/cover/trounstine-9917.html |work=Metro Active |date=1999-04-29 ] The school opened in Menlo Park in 1965. [cite news |first=Blair |last=Tindall |title=Psychedelic Palo Alto |url=http://www.paloaltoonline.com/weekly/morgue/cover/2000_Mar_8.COVER08.html |work=Palo Alto Weekly |date=2000-03-08 ]

The university organized a debate in 1967 between LSD proponent Timothy Leary and Black Panther Eldridge Cleaver. [cite book |last=McClanahan |first=Ed |authorlink=Ed McClanahan |title=Famous People I Have Known |origyear=1985 |year=2003 |month=10 |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |location=Lexington |isbn=081319069X |oclc=52554217 |pages=232 |chapter=Chapter One: Introducing . . . Jimmy Sacca? |chapterurl=http://www.kentuckypress.com/081319069Xexcerpt.cfm |quote=In 1967 Timothy Leary met Ken Kesey in my living room. (This cosmic confluence was sponsored by the Mid-Peninsula Free University of Palo Alto, California, an institution of higher-and higher, and higher-learning, of which I was, at the time, the Department of Creative Writing.) ] In 1968, it was one of the targets of a series of small local bombings. [cite news |first=Diane |last=Sussman |title=The tumultuous '60s |url=http://www.paloaltoonline.com/news_features/centennial/1960SA.php |work=Palo Alto Weekly |date=1994-04-13 ]

In 1969, Jim Warren volunteered to produce the university's course catalog and newsletter, "The Free You" [cite news |first=Carol |last=Blitzer |title=Stanford Weekend Acres |url=http://www.paloaltoonline.com/weekly/morgue/2002/2002_06_14.stanfordacres14.html |work=Palo Alto Weekly |date=2002-06-14 |quote=Midpeninsula Free University (MFU), which sponsored a variety of classes . . . and published a semi-annual catalog, "The Free You." ] , and was thus elected the MFU's General Secretary. Sometime thereafter, Larry Tesler began helping with the publication production using an IBM Selectric Composer and quickly realized that computers could be used to make publishing much easier. It was through that experience that Tesler would later go on to develop cut, copy and paste functionality at Xerox PARC.

By the 1970s, a rift had developed in the university between the Pacifists and the more militant Maoist newcomers. [cite news |first=Bill |last=D'Agostino |title=Running to stand still |url=http://www.paloaltoonline.com/weekly/morgue/2003/2003_08_22.bob22.html |work=Palo Alto Weekly |date=2003-08-22 ] Phil Trounstine started working with the Venceremos Organization to take over the Midpeninsula Free University with the aim of turning it into a recruitment forum. [cite web |first=Jim |last=Martin |title=America's Al-Qaeda: The SLA-Venceremos Connection |url=http://www.flatlandbooks.com/venceremos.html |date=2003 ] The university's enrollment dwindled to 70 by 1971 and the program closed its doors.

People

*Robert Cullenbine
*Vic Lovell
*Larry Tesler
*Phil Trounstine
*Jim Warren [cite news |first=Rebecca Fairley |last=Raney |title=A Utopian With a Twinkle and an Idea: Online Democracy |url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C01E6D71330F937A15751C0A9669C8B63&pagewanted=all |work=New York Times |date=2000-02-24 ]

References

External links

* [http://www.studioargento.com/optical/copy.html Excerpt from a letter from M.C. Escher]
* [http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/Home.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=RecordDetails&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=EJ050137&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=eric_accno&objectId=0900000b800c1440 Counter Culture as Technoversity]
* [http://www.transterrestrial.com/archives/004290.html Chuck Divine's comments on MFU]
* [http://www.schoolofeverything.com/about/freeu The School of Everything on the Free U]