First submitted on Dec 23, 2007 to the Austrian journal Cybernetics and Systems, this paper was too long to suit the editorial staff also there was difficulty obtaining suitable format for the four figure pages, so that Warfield withdrew the manuscript and sent it instead to Klir's journal J. of General Systems. Here again the paper ran into publishing delays. Although George Klir was ready to publish the article there were continued delays waiting on final approval from reviewers, which eventually never came. Warfield intended this paper and another paper "Shortcomings of Economics" to appear as companion pieces and wished to distribute them to colleagues as a pair, in a timely manner during the 2008 economic crisis, objectives which were rapidly dissolving. Finally on 9 Jan 2009 after formal withdrawal of publication from Klir's journal, the article was sent as a PDF file to George Mason University library where it was added to the Warfield Digital Collection.

ABSTRACT BY THE AUTHOR: "An interactive systems science program should be initiated in higher education, rigorously based in the traditional concept of science set forth long ago by Aristotle and summarized in modern times by Charles Sanders Peirce. The program should be housed in its own facility but organically connected to a university through an interaction budget, with strong administrative contractual support, based on a new-resource strategy. A model program is described which can serve as a basis for a contractual arrangement. The program is identifiable as The Horizons College, focusing upon system design. The College provides services to respondents who bring “nitrogen situations” to the College, where these situations become the object of actions using The Work Program of Complexity, which is the action face of a well-defined version of systems science. A twelve-point framework outlines the program, which is sufficient to lay a sound basis for initiation and continuation of a systems science program in higher education, in spite of the numerous challenges that are faced by this proposal."

BACKGRUND AND HISTORY OF THE PAPER This title of this manuscript is brand new but it holds themes from Warfield’s unpublished Wandwaver Solution written in 1996, themes which Warfield hoped to rekindle in an ambitious four-part series titled Obstacles written between April 2006 and February 2007.* But when he submitted the Obstacles series to George Klir’s Journal of General Systems, only the first article in the series was published. The last three papers of the four-part series were not published, Warfield having withdrawn them after a long wait because nobody seemed willing to review them. Warfield gave up writing on the topic for a time, but eventually decided to try again. He condensed and rewrote Parts 2,3, and 4 of of his "Obstacles" series, to produce this NEW MANUSCRIPT submitted to George Klir on Jan 28, 2008. This 2008 paper differed in several ways from the original Obstacles papers, hence the new title of Creating an Interactive Systems Science Program in Higher Education. In his NEW paper (in filename Creating with a pdf.wpd) he is still trying to promote a different pattern of education in colleges and universities and trying to explain why it is so necessary.

George Klir sent Warfield’s manuscript to three referees. One reviewer did not respond, one review was highly favorable, the other reviewer was unknowledgeable, but requested so many petty revisions as to make the paper unduly long, and also delay its publication. Warfield was unwilling to rewrite the paper. He did not want to rewrite the paper to accommodate an incompetent intellect just to get it published. However he did want to publish it, because this is the third time he has submitted versions of this paper, none of which have been accepted by reviewers. He hoped George might have some influence. He sent George a lengthy "Response to the Reviewer's Critique" also he sent an email manuscript to George Klir titled “Some Personal Experiences in Academia” reciting some of his own life history as evidence of need for the proposals put forth in his paper. After some more delays and some back and forth email with George Klir who seemed agreeable to publication, Warfield decided to revise the paper again. His final draft of the paper, dated 30 June 2008 tried to accommodate reviewer’s comments. George accepted the paper pending referee's final look at the paper. The article was to appear in International Journal of General Systems, George Klir's journal. An archive hard copy of the publication-ready manuscript was sent to GMU Library September 3, 2008, the manuscript was marked "pending, to appear 2008 in J. Gen. Syst." However there was a continued delay in publication. There was no message yes or no from George, just nothing. The journal failed to publish it. There was not even a promise of a date to appear.

In late December 2008 Warfield contacted George Klir again and withdrew the paper, having become convinced that the systems community could not approve the proposals outlined in the manuscript and was reluctant to publish it because of its controversial content. I remember clearly Warfield's remarks about the situation. Not only do I remember, I grabbed a pencil and wrote down what he said so I could be sure it is right. Warfield fumed, not so much because the referee had referred to Warfield as "arrogant" but because the referee had missed the point entirely. "The education in this country is going to pot, while foreign countries are racing ahead. My work is being used in places like China and Taiwan but disdained in the U.S. People don't know what Science is any more. Don't know the history of science, don't understand the concept of science and will not endorse true science."

Throughout his endeavors to preserve his own paper as he had written it, John's sympathies and respect were always for George Klir, the editor caught in the middle.  John himself had been an editor, of two journals.   I have seen John Warfield caught between referee and author in his own editing experience, and I remember him saying  "… YOU CAN'T GO AGAINST YOUR REFEREES.  AN EDITOR HAS TO RESPECT THE REFEREE.  THAT IS WHAT A PEER REVIEW MEANS." 

Early in 2009, he sent the paper to the Special Collections & Archives Department, George Mason University Libraries. It was mailed as one of eleven PDF files, on a disk sent to GMU on 9 January 2009, and is now available only on the GMU internet site.

*The four titles in the year 2007 “Obstacles” series were: 1.Obstacles to systems science programs in higher education: overview Published Feb 2007 2. Obstacles to Systems Science Programs in Higher Education II: Thematic Vulnerability- 3. Obstacles to Systems Science Programs in Higher Education III: Virtual Conspiracies 4. Obstacles to Systems Science Programs in Higher Education IV: Orthogonal Extension r.w. June 23, 2012, (this is an update of a note written in 2007-2008).