Art’s school Art Encinias remembers the class of 1970
Art
Encinias graduated from St. Michael’s High School in 1965 and from the College in Santa Fe in 1970. He went on to law school at the University of New Mexico and worked in the district attorney’s and then the attorney general’s office before becoming a judge in the First District Court in Santa Fe. Now retired, he hosts The Santa Fe Hometown Project, a weekly radio show on KTRC Talk 1260AM, and volunteers at the Palace of the Governors photo archives. Pasatiempo: You enrolled at St. Michael’s College and graduated from the College of Santa Fe. What was it like when you first arrived?
Art Encinias: It was a natural transition to go to St. Michael’s College at the time. I still have my freshman beanie. I don’t think anybody does the beanie tradition anymore. When I showed up, they’d begun a building program in about 1963, and by the time I got there they’d built Benildus [Hall], the administration building, which was called St. Joseph Hall, and La Salle Hall. My first general social sciences class was held in the old gymnasium. The little theater was still there at the time. My classes were held in Benildus Hall, but the professors’ offices were all in the barracks, and the student union was also in the barracks. Pasa: What was your major?
Encinias: I’m embarrassed about that. I came in to register and looked for the shortest line: English literature. I didn’t go straight through because I dropped out in 1966 to volunteer for the draft. My eyesight was way too poor, so I was rejected. I was broke, so I held a number of jobs when I went back to school.
Pasa: You were there when the college changed its name and began admitting female students. What was that like?
Encinias: I came in and it was a men’s college. I left to enlist in the military, came back, and it was the coed College of Santa Fe. They changed the name from St. Michael’s College, which is a saintly name, with almost all Christian Brothers teachers. In 1966, when I came back, it was College of Santa Fe. I assumed it meant it was no longer controlled by the church. It sure felt like a secular college. There were townies and there were boarders who were largely Eastern. That was pretty different. Pasa: Was there a divide between townies and boarders?
Encinias: There was the general out-of-town division — “You’re not from here and we are.” And the girls seemed to be attracted to them. They were exotic. So there was a lot of conflict over that. Pasa: Over competition for girls?
Encinias: Not just competition — a lot of fights. It could be kind of fierce. Pasa: Did you care when athletics were eliminated in the 1980s?
Encinias: No. It was in the late ‘60s when the teams were actually noteworthy and winning. Most of the people I ran with didn’t care. No one really cared about the Fighting Knights. By the time I left the college, people were coming for theater. Pasa: Why do you think the College of Santa Fe closed?
Encinias: I heard there were financial problems. When I first showed up, the tuition was $180 per semester. At some point they went to a cost per credit hour and that got expensive. That’s why it took me so long to graduate, because I had to eke it out and take classes when I could afford them.