President Search

March 5, 2019

A Message from the Co-Chairs of the President Search Committee of the Board of Trustees

To The New School community,

As a follow-up to our message to the university community on February 19, we are writing to share updates about the search for the next president of The New School. In addition to our regular email updates, today we are launching a special website that will serve as a primary resource for information related to the search. We hope you will visit this website regularly for updates. 

As we noted in our previous message, the Board identified three essential early steps to ensure a strong search process. These include appointing the Search Committee, selecting a search firm with significant experience in searches for higher education presidents, and developing means to invite community engagement. Last week, we met with the co-chairs of the Faculty, Student, and Staff Senates to discuss all of these steps and make some initial decisions with their input. 

Search Committee 

The composition of the Search Committee will be broad-based to reflect the breadth of our community. In addition to seven Trustees, the Committee will include two faculty members, two staff members, and two student representatives — a recommendation made by the co-chairs of the Faculty, Student, and Staff Senates in our meeting. The Senates are working to help identify Search Committee members from their constituencies, and we look forward to announcing the full Committee membership shortly. The Search Committee will guide the process of selecting the university’s next president by working with our executive search firm to evaluate candidates, bringing the views of their constituencies to bear, and recommending candidates to the Board of Trustees.

Executive Search Firm

We have been interviewing leading firms in the area of higher education presidential searches and expect to make a selection next week. Our goal is to identify an executive search firm that can promote The New School’s distinctive vision and unique character, help us to attract a broad and diverse pool of outstanding candidates, and help us to design and run a rigorous process that includes significant opportunities for community input.

Community Engagement

One of the most important aspects of the Search Committee’s work will be to help gather opinions and insight from members of The New School community. These efforts will help us understand the range of perspectives on the opportunities and challenges facing The New School, and what individuals across the university see as the essential and ideal experience, skills, and character we should seek in our next president. Our conversation with the Senate leaders helped to stimulate thinking about town hall listening sessions and different survey methods, and we will continue these discussions with the Search Committee and search firm to arrive at a range of options. You can expect an update on this and other aspects of the search soon.

Thank you in advance for your participation in this important endeavor.

On behalf of the Board of Trustees,