Maharishi University of Management invites all prospects to an event known as “Visitor’s Weekend”. I was busy on the visitor’s weekends and chose to just visit the university on my own time. The cost of my visit rang in at just over $1,000.00 USD in travel, food, and lodging. I stayed in Fairfield, off campus, for 3 – 4 days. This was one of three visits we made to the university, a total of nearly $3,000.00 USD gross.
My dear pet, a cat, accompanied my wife and I on the trip. For this reason, we had not much choice but to lodge off-campus. Maharishi University of Management explicitly does not allow cat’s. Therefore, when I expressed to university representatives that I was bringing my pet, they were unable to provide the three of us lodging. Rather, they suggested that my wife and I — with our pet in tow — might be able to “Crash on someone’s couch” for the visit.
Naturally, we don’t make a habit of traveling to small mysterious towns to board with strangers — or sleeping on couches for that matter — and ended up lodging at one of two hotels in the town that were willing to accept all three of us.
On my first day of visitation I was hard pressed to find people to give me a tour and get enrolled. The person I had been cooresponding with was not available, but one of the students who was working with the university was able to meet me in the parking lot just west of the golden domes.
We had a congenial chat on our walk to one of the classrooms in the sustainable living facility. After experiencing the class, she had other commitments and passed me off to another faculty member at a nearby presentation on Transcendental Meditation. This faculty member was busy though, so after the presentation I returned to the hotel to check in with my wife.
Needless to say, while I appriciated the time that members of the MUM community sacrificed in lieu of welcoming my pressence, something didn’t feel quite right. You should be able to visit an accredited universty and get the full scoop in one day or so, including some measure of enrollment. Rather, I spent much of my first visit bumbling arround the campus trying to figure out exactly what was going on.
Because the university lacks fundamental resources, such as management, they organize these “Visitors Weekends” to woo; put on a show; for prospective students. It’s very much reminiscent of “Moulon Rouge”, when Toulouse-Lautrec and the troupe pitch the show to the Duke of Monroth with an improvised plot about an evil maharajah attempting to woo an Indian courtesan who loves a poor sitar player with “Spectacular Spectacular.”
