President Kerrey
(message emailed from USS to all students on Friday 5/11/09)
Subject: USS :: regarding President Kerrey’s departure
Fellow students,
Yesterday, President Kerrey announced he will leave the New School at the end of his current term in 2011. University Student Senate welcomes this announcement because we welcome an orderly and constructive process for Presidential transition.
USS understands that some students want President Kerrey to stay, some want President Kerrey to leave earlier than 2011, and that there is controversy about President Kerrey’s statements that he was not leaving because of the immense protests against him by the faculty and students. However, this announcement gives the students a unique and historic opportunity to work alongside the trustees, faculty and deans to choose an inspiring new President and Provost and to restructure the whole administration. At this point there are many options, and we will all have an amazing opportunity to make a brand-new New School. USS awaits details of the student involvement in this historic process.
This is not to say there is nothing left to do. We still need a library, student center, students on the Board, improvements in the financial aid system, LGBT and minority programs, a process for Socially Responsible Investing, administrative restructuring to reduce bureaucracy, and other things. USS has plans for all these goals and more (see www.newschoolsenate.org) and we believe the changes in the President’s and Provost’s Offices give the students a unique opportunity to achieve our goals.
These things are about choices. They are not a question of overall budget — they are a question of will. You might think the President and Provost don’t affect you, but they do. Each and every one of their choices affect your department, your space, your bank account, and your future; and the students now have an opportunity to make a new New School as never before.
Finally, USS thanks all of you who voted, who protested (whatever your position), who got involved, and who stood for what they felt was right. The combined actions of the campus wide community over the past year have helped to demonstrate how committed New School faculty, students, and staff are to making this university what it is. These commitments provide the groundwork necessary to achieve a university environment demonstrative of the unique, dynamic, provocative and progressive institutional values upon which it was founded.
While not everyone has the same opinion about yesterday’s events, we think everyone can agree that they are a step in the right direction. The results are now up to all of us as a community of learning.
UNIVERSITY STUDENT SENATE
Peter Ian Cummings (President), Dan Schulman (Vice President), Elizabeth Loran (Treasurer); SENATORS: Sarah Cunningham, Barb Teed, Atlee McFellin, Slim Lopez, Ida Benedetto, Dan Schulman, Heather Sheridan, Yoni Sunshine, Ben Fox, Jason Mellow
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Hey! Click here to read USS’s all-campus statement on the first building occupation.