THE NEW SCHOOL – 2008-2009 ANNUAL REPORT

President’s Message

Seeing innovative ideas put into action—particularly those that reflect the university’s commitment to civic engagement, interdisciplinary education, and internationalism—is one of the most exciting things about being part of The New School.

I was particularly proud in the 2008–2009 academic year when The Fortune Society held a groundbreaking ceremony for 114 units of green and affordable low-income housing and service space in West Harlem. The project was based on a design by a team of students from Milano The New School for Management and Urban Policy and Parsons The New School for Design, which had taken first place in JPMorgan Chase’s 13th annual Community Development Competition in 2006.

In 2008–2009, The New School’s India China Institute announced a new initiative, generously supported by a $525,000 grant from the Ford Foundation, to develop a trilateral curriculum with the University of Calcutta and Yunnan University. The first course of the program, India China Interactions, was launched simultaneously in fall 2009 in New York City; Kolkata, India; and Kunming, China, after leading faculty members from the three partner universities collaborated for more than a year to develop a cross-disciplinary syllabus for each location.

In fall 2008, The New School launched exciting undergraduate degree programs in Environmental Studies. At the end of the academic year, eight students from the program applied their coursework in the field, partnering with organizations from New York to Anchorage to promote sustainability and green living. See the two videos about Environmental Studies students in action at right.

By almost every measure of student and faculty achievement, 2008–2009 was an exceptional year. These achievements were all the more remarkable because of the uncertainty caused by turbulence in the financial markets. Through these difficult and challenging economic times, we have remained strong and continued to thrive.

Our strength is due in large part to the quality of our faculty. In 2002, we made a decision to increase the number of full-time faculty teaching our degree-seeking students. Since then, we have recruited more than 215 full-time faculty members to join the New School community. This increase, though dramatic in itself, coincides with even more significant changes: the extension of tenure throughout the university, the development of a faculty handbook, the formation of a university-wide faculty senate, and the strengthening of the Office of the Provost, with a clear delineation of the provost’s responsibility to implement faculty hiring university-wide.

We have expanded our full-time faculty with scholars from top universities who are passionate about their research, writing, and teaching. They join an already impressive teaching staff, who in 2008–2009 published many important books and articles and received awards and grants that took them to Germany, Japan, India, China, Greece, Mexico, and Sri Lanka to share their work.

These are just a few of the countless exceptional achievements of 2008–2009. None of them would have been possible without the support of the New School community—students, parents, faculty, administration, and friends. For that I thank you all.

As many of you know, my term as president is drawing to a close. I am exceedingly proud of the ways in which we have collaborated on the transformation of The New School and I look forward to working with the board of trustees as they select a successor to guide its future.

Bob Kerrey
President
The New School