A Call for Student Representation on the Board of Trustees

With tuition hikes in both private and public universities across the nation, the administration holds an obligation to its students not only to provide financial transparency, but also to directly include student voices in financial decisions.

Comprised of 48 members, the Board of Trustees oversees all of the university’s major financial decisions, from overseeing construction plans for the new building to keeping former-president Bob Kerrey on the New School’s payroll after his resignation.

Still, their process is unclear and secretive, leaving students uninformed about who the members of the Board of Trustees are, how they vote, what they vote for, when their meetings are held, and what issues they discuss. At the present, how administrators budget our tuition dollars remains murky at best.

Many other schools, including both small private colleges like our own and larger state schools, have at least one sitting student representative on their board. Cleveland State University, for instance, provides a desirable model with a board of nine trustees, two faculty representatives and two student representatives. Some schools, like Brandeis, have as many as three student representatives on their Board.

The lack of financial transparency and student involvement arouses speculation and rumors among both faculty and students, leading to unnecessary tension between the administration and other facets of The New School community.

The best way to prevent this lack of understanding and communication between the student body and administration would be to elect a student and faculty representative to the most influential and mysterious administrative body in the university — the Board of Trustees.

The New School, which prides itself on maintaining progressive and politically aware and active student body and faculty, cannot wait any longer to join the band of more democratic and transparent institutions that allow student members of the community representation at every tier of administrative decision-making.

In an interview with the Free Press last semester, Joseph Gromek, the Chairman of the Board of Trustees, said he supports the idea of some form of student involvement with the board, but expressed uncertainty about what capacity that would take.

We believe the answer is clear: finally electing a student representative to the Board of Trustees. We urge the current members of the board to implement this ideal model of democratic student participation, and moreover, maintain the political ethos of the university that they represent.