On Nov. 9, the Parsons School of Design Faculty and Staff councils ratified by an overwhelming majority a letter to the university Provost, describing the resignation of Dean of Academic Planning Nadine Bourgeois — a New School employee of 35 years — as “forced,” and calling for an open dialogue with administrators.
261 staff and faculty voted to ratify the letter, while 32 voted against it and 38 abstained.
The letter details the reasons behind the Oct. 20 resolution of no confidence in the leadership of Parsons Executive Dean Rachel Schreiber, which passed with an overwhelming majority. Staff and faculty were notified of Bourgeois’s resignation in a three-sentence email on Oct. 18. By Oct. 20, the university had offered to rehire her.
While staff and faculty note the “forced” resignation of Bourgeois was the catalyst of the vote of no confidence, they also pointed to patterns in Schreiber’s actions as executive dean.
The letter highlighted “an ongoing accumulation of damaging administrative actions that our community deems unacceptable, and a more general failure of leadership, together have produced disruptive, unstable, and untenable working conditions at our college.”
Staff and faculty claim that during the Oct. 20 meeting Schreiber has expressed plans to take over as dean of academic planning, an expansive role that some do not feel she has the time or historical knowledge to perform. Schreiber came to Parsons in 2019, after serving four years as chief academic officer at the San Francisco Art Institute.
“This response forms an example of leadership that has failed to understand our systems, procedures, and needs; failed to value transparency, candor, and dialogue; and failed to inspire collective insight, vision, or direction,” the Parsons councils’ letter states.
The letter also presented increased concerns about Schreiber’s leadership and the administration’s treatment of faculty and staff during the pandemic.
“We are a community that has pulled together and worked tirelessly through the difficult period of the pandemic, the movement for racial justice, and demands for the university to uphold and embody its [Equity, Inclusion and Social Justice] commitments,” the letter states. “We have done so in the face of personal vulnerability, financial precarities, and wanton institutional disregard for our wellbeing. … Morale is at rock bottom.”