Provost Tim Marshall’s April 7 spring Town Hall drew a large crowd to Tishman Auditorium, including one student dressed as a clown.
Chris Crews, a graduate social research and politics student at the New School for Social Research, sported a polka-dotted jumpsuit, face paint, and a rainbow afro. As other attendees arrived, Crews blew party horns and handed out a one-page Cool Manifesto, explaining that the university’s recent rebranding has highlighted a divide between the New School community and its administration.
“We are what makes the New School cool!” he announced.
Crews is perhaps the most visible opponent of the school’s new visual identity program, or ‘rebranding.’ His campaign urges community members to remember what makes the New School reputable, or “cool.”
The campaign includes a petition which asks the university to stop the rebranding, provide financial transparency in terms of what was spent on the new visual identity, release the source code for the identity to the community and to foster open community dialogue between students, faculty and staff, the Board of Trustees, the President and the Provost.
The campaign also includes a set of requests for the University Student Senate to endorse the petition and provide $3,500 for an open design contest.
“It is against the spirit and history of The New School, not to mention a colossal waste of our (student) money!” Crews said in an announcement sent to New School community members via email and Facebook on April 2.
Crews said he was l planning an open forum to discuss the future of the campaign, at which community members could discuss what the re-branding really means for the university and its community.
Crews said he was concerned that The New School had strayed from a reputable and robust history of social engagement. Housing some of the first African American history and culture, women’s studies and music and politics courses, he said, the school is well known for bringing culture and curriculum together in radical ways.
Many of these academic programs, such as African American history, were jettisoned in the ‘80s and ‘90s, Crews said.
“In the process of rebranding and remaking our identity, those aren’t the things that we’re bringing back,” said Crews. “We’re focusing more on preparing people to be good business workers and to design for corporate Fifth Avenue sort of interests.”
Crews suggested that the rebranding brings light to the underlying disconnect between administrative priorities and community interests.
“Ultimately, it doesn’t matter if you like the Neue font or not,” said Crews. “The point is the process that created it, questions about the money that was spent. Maybe it was all Trustee money and we didn’t spend a penny. Great, but how come that’s what we spent the money on?”
Crews created a website for the campaign where New Schoolers can sign the petition, take a “New School Cool quiz” and learn more about the university’s history. Check it out at http://www.thenewschool.cool/sign-petition/
NiQyira is currently an Arts in Context major at the New School. She joined The Free Press in Fall 2013 and enjoys writing for all four of its sections. NiQyira aims to pursue a career in photo journalism, traveling while using photography and writing to explore other cultures. She would like to write for a magazine like National Geographic one day. NiQyira's hobbies include being the sweatiest girl in the gym, wandering the city with a camera, watching cartoons, writing and eating too much peanut butter.
