Some In-Flight Turbulence at The New School at Teeeeejirrrrr

Dec

19

Some In-Flight Turbulence at The New School

I work at The New School, a liberal arts university in Manhattan comprised of eight separate schools unified as one university. Arguably the most famous of them is the Parsons School of Design. There has been some controversy of late- basically at time of writing what has happened so far in a super-condensed form:

The newly hired provost Joe Westphal left his position after roughly three months on the job. Mr. Bob Kerrey, the university president announced that he would assume the role of interim provost until one could be found.
The full-time faculty held a meeting and voted no confidence in Mr. Kerrey along with James Murtha, the executive VP.
A flurry of communications between the two parties, mostly through third party media worsened and escalated the situation to some degree.
Mr. Kerrey then met the faculty face to face in a meeting that was off limits to students (presumably for the sake of airing out grievances on a straightforward manner and not to involve student issues).
Some students then occupied the cafeteria and neighboring study facility at the “GF” building on 65 Fifth Avenue.
A video was released of a small fracas between one member of TNS security and a student. This happened around noon on 18 Dec 2008, into the second day of the student occupation.
Bob Kerrey canceled the student senate meeting which was due to have met in that very building on 8PM that night.
Students occupied some parts of the ‘main’ building at 55 West 13th Street for a period of several hours starting from roughly 10PM on 18 Dec 2008.
At some point near midnight, Bob Kerrey left the 55 West 13th street building and was chased down the street by a large group of student protesters to his apartment building a few blocks away.
The students who occupied the 55 West 13th eventually left early in the morning of the 19th after some of their demands were met. The students holed up in 65 Fifth Avenue are still there.

If you’re a parent and you’re reading this, I just wanted to express some of my opinions about the situation so far. If you’re a parent of a New School student, thank you for putting your trust in the school and its staff. I’m not a faculty member, and what I do for the university is akin to that of a ‘digital janitor’. There are a lot of dedicated and hard working staff trying to make sure that students get the best services and support that we can provide.

Even though in my job I don’t work with students directly, to see them thriving in their studies is one of the reasons I really love my job and don’t dread coming in to work every day. Working for their benefit is a hell of a lot better than in some previous jobs I have held in the corporate world. However, seeing things unfolding the way they are concerns me quite a bit. We seem to be headed down a darker path. For now since my involvement in this situation is very much peripheral, I’ll only comment on things that I know about.

To the parents in particular- The 65 Fifth Avenue building is not a run-down rat pit. It is a bit dated in appearance perhaps, but is not at risk of falling apart and reports of that being the case are just overblown. On the flip side, it is due to be demolished and replaced with a bigger building. To me, the student’s cause regarding this building would be more than appropriate if the building was due to be replaced by a smaller one.
The manner in how Mr. Kerrey was chased down the street was simply not cool. It devalues and cheapens to some degree the initial student cause. Try not to do that in the future, guys and gals.
Canceling the student senate meeting despite the fact it was being held in the same building that the occupation was happening in was probably a bad idea. The administration let a very good opportunity to engage in impromptu dialog slide on that one.
At the same time, when students refuse to even talk to Mr. Kerrey unless he resigns. It’s setting an unexpectedly difficult obstacle into the situation and to me is acting in bad faith. It seems that this and the above issue are riding hand-in-hand.
The security staff are not a bunch of thugs. They are full time staff with a vested interest in good relations from all sides. My job gives me a unique angle in what they do, and some of them are pretty upset at how things are going down. Read: Some staff are sympathetic to some of the student demands but feel that things are not being handled in the best manner, in particular the lack of direct dialogue.
Take another look at the video of the security guard/student fracas. I think both sides are at fault here. Both sides instigated each other, as some students got some ‘soccer diving for the referee’ in while the security staff should have kept his cool. Emotions running high, being spit on, or otherwise is not a good excuse for what happened.
Mr. Kerrey is being scapegoated here, and rather unfairly so. If I were a student, I would be rather concerned if he resigned as the school would be not only out a provost, but a president as well. If there is anything to be learned from history, a vacuum at the top of leadership does no good to anyone.
Lastly, there seems to be some animosity between some of the individual schools. I’ve only been here for little over a year, but have noticed some tension/rivalry between Lang and Parsons students. If this is what it takes to get the student body to act as one community unit, then so be it.

I hope that both sides can cool off and reach a point where they can talk directly to one another without having to resort to press releases or manifesto updates to communicate.