New Information

Dear Friends,

All the Students of The New School received this email today:

December 20, 2008

A NOTE TO THE NEW SCHOOL COMMUNITY
The Subcommittee of the Board of Trustees of The New School appointed last week by Chair Julien Studley met with the University Deans, and separately with the Officers of the University, on December 18, 2008 to listen to their reflections on the sentiments of the faculty on recent events and University governance. President Kerrey has also met a number of times with the Deans over the last two weeks, and he also met with both the Faculty Senate and the General Faculty.

It is obvious to the President, the Deans, and to us that there has been a major breakdown in communication and lack of confidence in governance at the University.

President Kerrey has already taken certain actions, which the Deans, the Officers of the University, and the Trustees support as first steps. President Kerrey has reversed his decision to assume the responsibilities of chief academic officer during the search for a new provost; he has agreed with the Deans to set up a process to select an interim provost that will include on a search committee representatives of the Deans, faculty, and students, and the process for searching and selecting a new provost is under active discussion; he is working with the Deans to establish a process for the building of a stronger Provost's Office with increased authorities to ensure the appropriate balance of responsibilities and the appropriate separation of authority between the Offices of the Provost and the Executive Vice President; and he has asked the Chairman of the Board of Trustees to begin a process to consider adding non-voting student and faculty representation to the Board of Trustees. In addition, in order to improve communication with the faculty, the President has announced that he will attend the Faculty Senate meetings in the spring and will establish a series of regular meetings between himself and the General Faculty to begin early in the new year.

These various processes will be reviewed by us, the Trustees, the President, the Deans, and the Officers of the University. We are prepared to meet with faculty, senior divisional and university administrators and students during this period, as changes to the University are implemented. The President has also suggested setting up an independent, confidential process for the presentation of concerns at the University without fear of intimidation. We will continue to meet with the Deans and the Officers of the University, as appropriate.


The Subcommittee of Trustees:
Richard Kauffman, Chair
Franci Blassberg
Steven Bloom
William Havemeyer
William Zabel

-This represents another victory for the students, and you can be sure that we will apply all necessary pressure to make sure it is carried out. Furthermore, we continue to encourage the Trustees to show Mr. Kerrey and Mr. Murtha (who, by the way was noticeably intoxicated on Thursday night/Friday morning and encouraging the Security Guards and Police to take violent action against the Occupation) the door. We do not feel that they are able to run our University without their favorite tactic, intimidation.

Resolutely,
The New School in Exile