A Message from Joseph R. Gromek, Chair, Board of Trustees
Dear Members of The New School Community,
I write to follow up on President Van Zandt’s announcement that he will conclude his presidency at the end of the 2019-20 academic year. While the Board would have welcomed David’s continued service as the university’s president, we know that he weighed this decision carefully, and we respect his personal sense of the right time for change.
We applaud David’s successful leadership of the university since January 2011. By every major measure, the university has become stronger, more distinctive, and more prominent, starting with the articulation and amplification of its powerful and differentiated vision. Stemming from that vision, the university has become academically more integrated and is attracting and enrolling a strong student body well matched to our academic strengths and character. To better serve these students, our physical campus and facilities have grown and been redesigned to foster collaboration and a sense of community. The endowment and fundraising have reached all-time highs, and the university operates to a high standard for responsible financial stewardship in a challenging environment for higher education. To make a New School education more widely accessible, we have taken critical steps to expand programming and reach new student populations through Open Campus and growing global partnerships.
David appropriately attributes the university’s successes to the students, faculty, staff, and senior leadership. It is the collective effort of many that defines our excellence. But we also recognize that much of the university’s success stems from David’s leadership: his capacity to establish a clear set of priorities and goals guided by a vision, to steer through complexity, to make bold and sometimes difficult decisions, and to support new ideas. We are grateful for David’s continued commitment over the next 18 months, and the Board fully supports the priorities and goals he will be advancing for the university.
The Board will begin the process to search for the next President of The New School shortly. My fellow Trustee Linda Rappaport and I will co-chair this process. At the outset, we are committed to appointing a broad, diverse committee that includes representation from across the university, and to designing an inclusive process that invites input from the community. The Board will engage an experienced global search firm to aid in the process.
Let me close by again thanking David on behalf of the Board of Trustees for his outstanding contribution to The New School. We look forward to working with him during his remaining tenure and to working with his successor to continue to build on the remarkable legacy and exciting future of The New School.