A Message from President Joel Towers: A Question for the Community
Across The New School, a busy summer session is concluding as we turn toward the excitement of a new academic year. This coming weekend the Class of 2028 will move into our residence halls. Faculty are putting the finishing touches on syllabi, and staff across the university are doing incredible work to welcome students and their families to campus. I can’t thank them all enough. The week that follows will highlight orientation events and welcome celebrations. On Monday August 26th classes for all students will begin in New York and Paris.
I have spent my first days as president jumping fully into the flow of preparations for the fall semester and, at the same time, immediately engaging with faculty and staff colleagues in the ongoing work to ensure a resilient and flourishing university long into the future. Many of you have written to me, and it has been inspiring to hear your hope and enthusiasm for The New School and the opportunities ahead.
Since my term began (and even before), I have been asked many questions about plans and ambitions. One question in particular has been repeated in so many different contexts that I want to share my thoughts on it with you today. It is a question that is being considered in universities everywhere and, I think, provides The New School with an opportunity to chart a new way forward. The question takes several forms but essentially asks: “What will you do if we have more protests this fall like we had last spring?” Well, I would begin by broadening this to ask, “What will we do?” This is a question for our whole community. Personally, I have twenty years of experience in The New School, and across that time we have never had a shortage of protests. The informed and passionate expression of ideas, critique, and dissent are part of who we are. They are fundamental to learning and democracy. Sometimes those ideas are expressed through protest.
Perhaps a reframing of the question might be more productive. How can The New School move forward in this moment? To be clear, we return to campus without much change in the external conditions that drove the protests last spring. There is no ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Hostages are still being held. Violence, destruction, and death continue across the region and appear to be escalating. International efforts to build the conditions for peace are agonizingly slow. As much as we wish it were otherwise, this is reality. And that reality will be filtered through a national and global context of political polarization in a social media landscape that further amplifies intolerant public discourse while diminishing the incentive for shared understanding. We, however, have a choice. What we do on our campus this fall, how we seek to make change in the world, and how we go forward as a university community, will speak volumes about our capacity to engage with the challenges of our time, grounded in a commitment to equity, inclusion, and social justice for all members of The New School. I have a deep and abiding faith that this university will find our way forward together. I believe we will call on our shared humanity and emerge stronger and more resilient precisely because of our differences, and an unwavering respect for others. We must not allow our community to be torn asunder because the world around us is on fire.
What does this mean for protest in the fall? I begin with a bright red line drawn from Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964: No member of our university community will “be excluded from participation in [our programs], denied the benefits of [campus activities], or be subject to discrimination… based on race, color, or national origin.” In the years that followed the passage of that landmark legislation, religion, gender, age, and disability were added as protected groups. Step back in time for a moment and consider how transformative this is. Consider how completely in alignment these values are with our university’s founding mission, with the University in Exile, and our ongoing dedication to the safety of scholars around the world. Remember that in February of 1964 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was speaking in our auditorium on 12th Street. In his exchange with the audience following his talk, he addressed the profound importance of protecting the full integrity of the Civil Rights Act that was still, at that time, being negotiated in Congress.
We proudly uphold The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the laws and regulations that have developed based on its principles. You will find its values woven throughout the many university documents, Codes of Conduct, and Handbooks that define the explicit and implicit community standards and agreements we make when coming together on our campus for study or work—documents that we regularly update over time to meet the expansion of rights and the support of our community. When we hold each other accountable to these values and principles, we are holding our community together.
We must speak with each other, hear each other, and in the process reaffirm our commitment to deep learning, critique, and mutual respect. To support this work, I am calling for a series of townhalls and scheduled forums beginning the first week of classes. These meetings aim to remind us of our unwavering commitment to dialogue, shared humanity, and the role of education in remaking the world. The gatherings will be augmented by many other conversations occurring in the colleges and among student, faculty, and staff groups, as well as the ongoing work of the Advisory Committee on Investor Responsibility (ACIR) and a free course on “Socially Responsible Investing: History, Theory, and Practice” taught by Professor Teresa Ghilarducci that will take place during the mid-winter recess.
Finally, as we start a new semester, I want to make clear that we cannot accept, and will not tolerate, violence, vandalism, discrimination, bullying, harassment, doxing or other forms of intimidation as articulated in our policies and codes of conduct. Nor will we accept the occupation of our buildings as a form of protest. All these actions are violations of our community standards and agreements, and they violate various laws and regulations. Furthermore, blocking entryways or circulation routes in buildings is a threat to physical safety. Building occupations prevent students, faculty, and staff from the pursuit of their education and their work free of discrimination or intimidation. Our spaces are a shared resource for all members of our community. They house seminars, lectures, studios, debates, performances, readings, and exhibitions. They are spaces of learning and must remain open to all. Violations of our community standards and agreements will result in discipline, suspension, or expulsion for students and suspension or termination for faculty and staff. If laws are broken, appropriate legal action will be pursued. Please make sure you are familiar with our standards and agreements on the student conduct & community standards page of our website, the faculty handbook, or the employee code of conduct.
I have no illusions that this will be easy. Passions are high precisely because the issues are so urgent. I believe in this community’s paramount dedication to learning, research, creative practice and the collective desire to understand and repair this beautiful and broken world through acts both large and small. The New School stands ready to offer alternatives and solutions. Together we will find new ways forward that build on the legacy of The New School which inspires us all.