Leadership Update
A Message from Joel Towers, President and University Professor
Dear New School Community,
I am writing to let you know about an important change that will be occurring at The New School this summer.
After four years, Dr. Renée T. White, Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs, will step down from her role on June 30. I am immensely grateful to Renée for her tireless work to further strengthen the university’s outstanding curriculum, learning, and reputation, and for her partnership and support over the past year as I settled into my role. Renée will remain on The New School faculty as Professor of Sociology, following a well-deserved sabbatical next year during which she will serve as Special Advisor to the President.
During her tenure as Provost, which began during the COVID-19 pandemic, Renée has overseen numerous important institutional developments at The New School. She was brought in to lead a greatly expanded Provost’s Office that includes Academic Affairs, Enrollment Management, Faculty Affairs, Institutional Research and Decision Support, Student Success, and oversight of our five colleges. Her work during this time has been centered around building a Provost’s Office with an abiding commitment to advancing curriculum and learning, research, faculty development, faculty affairs, academic planning, and to supporting the student experience. She also developed new strategic processes and systems to further support this work, and made critical hires, which have greatly contributed to our success, including several Vice Provosts and Executive Deans.
This multi-year undertaking has been foundational to the university’s far-reaching Middle States re-accreditation effort and work to deepen our assessment processes. It has also paved the way for new campus initiatives, including Spark, which recognizes our community’s creativity, innovation, and dedication; the recently launched Provost’s Faculty Fellows program that fosters enhanced partnerships with our faculty and promotes models of shared governance; and the Provost’s Investment Fund, which supports a wide array of initiatives across campus. In addition, Renée has led the critical work to enhance our students’ experience and increase retention through a comprehensive first-year program for new students joining the university and the launch of the annual Retention Summit. She also began a professional development workshop for Parsons School of Design students called The Business of Art.
Renée has worked to create a community of care that champions transformational initiatives for students, faculty, and staff. This includes leading a thoughtful and inclusive community-based approach to the university’s strategic planning process, which culminated in the creation of the Community Strategic Priorities that guide our planning work today. Deeply committed to The New School’s values of social justice and inclusion, Renée has been instrumental in advancing the university’s Mellon Initiative for Inclusive Faculty Excellence, a far-reaching program funded by the Mellon Foundation that aims to increase demographic and intellectual diversity at the doctoral, post-doctoral, and professorship levels.
Renée has brought her humanistic approach and perspective to creating and developing external partnerships, sponsorships, and strategic programming. She launched The Moment Is Now, an impactful speaker series focused on exploring and addressing the changing landscape of art, politics, race, and culture in higher education and the world. Through this and other series, she has brought several luminaries to the university such as anthropologist and educator Dr. Johnnetta B. Cole; Tracie D. Hall, author and former head of the American Library Association; celebrated musician and frequent artistic collaborator with Lincoln Center Nona Hendryx; and Bill T. Jones, acclaimed choreographer, dancer, and founder of the Bill T. Jones / Arnie Zane Dance Company. Throughout her time as Provost, Renée has hosted monthly open office hours during the academic year that included a reading group crafted as a space for engaging in conversation with students, faculty, and staff around community building. Collectively, this programming has been tied intentionally and deeply to the changing environment of higher education.
An industry leader, Renée founded and continues to lead the NYC Provost Group and Women Leaders in Higher Education, a national networking organization, and she also serves on numerous boards, including the Ms. Foundation for Women. In June 2024, Renée’s accomplishments in higher education were recognized when she was named to City & State New York’s 2024 Trailblazers in Higher Education list. Before stepping into the role of Provost at The New School, Renée’s long list of achievements includes serving as Provost and Professor of Sociology at Wheaton College in Massachusetts for five years and publishing five critically acclaimed books, including most recently the co-edited volume Afrofuturism in Black Panther: Gender, Identity, and the Re-Making of Blackness. And her work on Afrofuturism continues, having been interviewed last year by music journalist and cultural critic Touré for TheGrio podcast Afrofuturism: From Black Panther to P-Funk, and with an appearance in Jonathan Gayles’ forthcoming documentary Wakanda and the Black Imagination.
Renée has been a well-respected and trusted member of this community and has contributed meaningfully to the life of the university. Throughout my leadership transition and early days as President, she has been generous with her time and her knowledge of The New School, and I have benefited greatly from both. I will miss Renée’s partnership and dedication, as I know many of our faculty, staff, and students will.
While there is never an ideal time for this kind of change, we are moving ahead in a carefully considered way to ensure a well-planned transition. I look forward to sharing more about the academic leadership plan soon. In the meantime, Renée has nurtured an exceptional group of leaders for all of the areas she oversees. We will continue to rely on them, and we will ensure that they and their teams are well supported during this transitional period.