Some faculty at The New School have begun to lose faith in the administration. After Interim President Donna E. Shalala decided to call the New York City Police Department (NYPD) to clear the Gaza Solidarity Encampment, many have called for a change in the school’s governance.
Over 200 staff and faculty across the university held a meeting after students were arrested to cast a vote of no confidence in Shalala, the Faculty Senate, and the Board of Trustees. The vote of no confidence in President Shalala and the Board of Trustees passed with an overwhelming majority of 94%, according to the resolution. Since the vote, many faculty have continued concerns over the lasting police presence on campus and how the university handled the arrests.
Since May 3, NYPD officers and cars have been seen outside campus facilities, including the University Center, Kerrey Hall, and Parsons School of Design. In a university-wide message sent May 5, TNS said, “While the New York Police Department may be on the street outside our buildings, they will not enter any university building without our consent.”
A professor the New School Free Press granted anonymity to in the First-Year department at Parsons said she was unsettled by Sunday night’s message.
“It was very unsettling to read this very short, abrupt little statement … I did hear other faculty talking about that email and had the same reaction…we were really shocked that that was the only communication they would give out,” she said.
Another Parsons faculty member the New School Free Press granted anonymity noted his hesitancy in trusting university leadership to keep the NYPD out of campus facilities.
“They said they weren’t going to arrest students, and then they arrest students. So, they might say that they’re not going to come in, but I don’t trust them anymore,” he said.
In a statement to the Free Press about the NYPD presence outside campus facilities, the university said, “Once you have exited a university building and are out on the street, you are no longer on our campus. We don’t have any control over whether the NYPD chooses to post officers on the street.”
The Parsons professor continued, saying he was disappointed in the communication the university sent to the faculty regarding the initial decision to call the NYPD onto campus.
“I don’t understand what happened between earlier in the week and Thursday evening,” he said.
This sentiment was shared amongst other faculty members. In a statement to the Free Press, Professor Simon Critchley who teaches philosophy at the New School for Social Research, said it was a disgrace to call the NYPD.
“In response to peaceful student protests, the university does not call the cops to arrest its own students,” Critchley said.
Many faculty members have even expressed that the encampment had been a productive place of learning and felt it had a positive impact on the community.
Dianca Potts, a professor at Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts said, “It made me realize what’s possible in terms of community and how students and faculty and staff can coexist and share space in our buildings.”
She added, “Despite what people might be thinking, who are outside of the community, or what university leadership or the interim president is trying to say about what was happening, it was welcoming.”
Potts also added that the administration’s response to student activism had compromised the very core of the university’s founding principles. The New School states it’s “committed to fostering an equitable, inclusive, and socially just environment for our community.”
“It’s a reason many members of the community joined the school,” Potts highlighted.
“Once you’re here, you’re New School forever, it’s a little glitch that gets embedded into you now, wherever we go, [we] will still keep carrying that light with us,” she said.
“But leadership really needs to recognize that they are cannibalizing the best of what we are,” she added.
Yesterday, faculty members held a rally to protect our students outside Alvin Johnson/J.M. Kaplan Hall at 66 W 12th St. The rally is considered a cross-institutional campaign in partnership with NYU, Columbia, FIT, CUNY, and other institutions that have faced administrative crackdowns on on-campus demonstrations.
The announcement for the rally said that it is not affiliated with any group, and the main goal is to support students and, “to let the presidents and boards know their treatment of our students is UNACCEPTABLE. Our goal is to make visible that we are talking to each other and standing together, and to take control over the narrative.”