University for Anthroposophic Studies

As a response to many requests of students and patients around the world and the opportunity to establish a Long Distance Learning Program online for Anthroposophical Health studies (offered by San Francisco State University in California, Scuola di Luca in Florence and Stella Maris in Bologna in Italy, and the Leidse Hogeschool in the Netherlands) and an independent  Department for Anthroposophical Medicine with its own Chair at San Francisco State University, the need was felt to establish a legal body to coordinate all these activities and assist in future endeavors, the University for Anthroposophic Studies was established and the group of people who made that first step have been captured in this picture (in Cologne, Germany in 2004).

Initial group of Anthroposophists and friends who founded the University for Anthroposophic Studies (2004)

For the establishing of the independent Department for Anthroposophic Health Studies at San Francisco State University the Regence of the University requested an one-time 1.000.000 US$ donation. Then, as is common among anthroposophists in the USA, an infighting started and quite a few reasoned: “If Robert Gorter receives 1.000.000 US$ to establish a Department at a large State University, why not me?” At the end, Robert Gorter had to make the decision to reject the offer by the Regence of the California State University system, and continue lecturing as a “regular” faculty member of the Department for Holostic Health Studies and Human Resources.

In the spring of 2014, the idea to establish a Department at SFSU again came up and Robert Gorter and his friends will consider again: this time without the “support” of the Anthroposophical Society of Northern America.