[Pen-l] New School Sit-In Ends

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

http://insidehighered.com/news/2008/12/22/newschool.

New School Sit-In Ends

Early Friday morning, student protesters at the New School vacated the 
dining hall they had occupied for more than 30 hours after President Bob 
Kerrey agreed to an updated list of demands. Kerrey and other top 
administrators do not, however, plan to resign, as the protesters had 
initially sought. Instead, among a handful of concessions, the 
university agreed to give students representation in the selection of a 
new provost and to establish a “socially responsible investing” 
committee for its endowment.

Frustrations at the New School have been growing, and came to a head 
December 11, when faculty members passed a vote of no confidence in 
Kerrey — the former governor of and senator from Nebraska who has been 
the university’s president since 2001 — and James Murtha, the executive 
vice president. Prior to the vote, Kerrey had announced that he would 
serve as the interim provost in addition to president after the fifth 
provost of his term was abruptly dismissed.

Faculty argued in their motion that the constant turnover had made it 
“virtually impossible for faculty to be properly involved in thoughtful 
and effective academic planning.” They also noted that the dismissal of 
the latest provost appeared “to be part of a larger pattern, 
characterized by unilateral, impulsive, and sometimes secret 
decision-making” in which they said Kerrey and Murtha sought to subvert 
the oversight of deans and the faculty.

A group of students — more than 100, according to the student sources, 
or about 50 according to the university — began a sit-in protest 
December 17 in the dining hall of a graduate faculty building. Citing 
the high turnover rate in the provost’s office and the earlier faculty 
no-confidence vote, the students’ list of grievances argued that 
Kerrey’s administration had treated the university “as a profit-making 
venture at whose altar the requirements of scholarship are routinely 
sacrificed.” In addition to demands for further funding for student 
initiatives and study spaces, the protesters called for the immediate 
resignation of Kerrey and Murtha.

The sit-in took a turn for the worse the next night, when some 
protesters attempted to take over other parts of the building. That 
evening there were clashes between protesters and New York City police, 
who had been called in by Kerrey to reinforce campus security officers. 
Throughout the second night of the sit-in, university officials met with 
students and listened to their demands. In the interest of communicating 
more openly, Kerrey even started an official blog.

At 3 a.m. on December 19, the sit-in ended peacefully after Kerrey and 
the students reached a formal resolution. As a result of the agreement, 
students involved in the protest were granted “total amnesty” from 
criminal and university disciplinary action. Kerrey also agreed to give 
students “voting representation” on the search committee for a new 
provost and recommended that a student representative be added to the 
university’s Board of Trustees. Whether such a student representative 
would be a voting member was not stipulated. In response to student 
concern regarding the university’s investments, Kerrey recommended to 
his investment committee that it establish a subcommittee focused on 
“socially responsible investing.”

In matters more directly related to students, Kerrey agreed to give the 
University Student Senate the ability to distribute e-mails more freely 
to the student body without restrictive administrative oversight. 
Currently, the president has to approve all outgoing messages sent to 
the entire student body from the Student Senate. In addition, new 
library and study space will also be made available to students at the 
beginning of spring semester as a result of the agreement.

Though the protesters were unable to get Kerrey and Murtha to resign, 
many still viewed the sit-in as a success.

“We’ve accomplished a strong victory,” said Chris Crews, protester and a 
first-year master’s student in politics. “Going in at the beginning, we 
knew it was going to be tough to have the president, vice president and 
a few key board members resign in a matter of days. Still, the goal was 
to get some concrete changes made, and we’re walking out having made them.”

Kerry also expressed some optimism about the resolution with students.

“We believe that the agreement reached is reasonable and will improve 
the shared governance of the university,” he said in a statement.

As the university is closing for the holidays this Wednesday, further 
discussions on the exact nature of the student representation to be 
added as oversight and the action of the Board of Trustees on Kerrey’s 
recommendations will have to wait until the new year. Crews pointed out 
that students involved in the protest would be watching during this 
process to ensure that their concerns would be heard by the administration.

Caroline Oyama, university spokeswoman, said faculty — including those 
who voted no confidence in Kerrey — would also be part of discussions 
moving forward as these students’ demands are implemented. For the 
moment, however, she said all was quiet on campus.

“Right now, I think everybody’s gone home to sleep,” she said the 
morning after the sit-in disbanded.

— David Moltz
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