A free society requires a free press.
The New School’s administration has thrice rebuffed requests made by editors of this newspaper to attend meetings of the board of trustees as neutral observers, stating that these meetings are “closed to the press and to the public.”
We at the Free Press are gravely concerned and disappointed at the board of trustees’ decision. We hold faithfully our responsibility as journalists to serve the university community with an avenue for transparency and to hold our administrative institutions accountable to their constituents.
As the highest governing authority of our university, the board decides on majorly significant issues such as when to raise tuition, when to build new buildings, what to invest in and divest from, and the general direction of our institution’s future.
The administration’s decision to deny information, access, and a voice to the community it exists to serve is a stain on the legacy of the founders of our university, and “safely neglects the conscience of its members,” as they wrote in 1918 when breaking away from the ossifying establishment to form The New School, guided by a vision to create “such a school [that] would become the center of the best thought in America, would lead in emancipating learning from the narrow trammels of lay boards of trustees, and would be a spiritual adventure of the utmost significance.”
The board of trustees has continually repudiated calls for transparency and accountability, refusing to listen to the voice of the students and faculty that constitute this community. Its meetings are held in secret. It does not publish any minutes, transcripts, summaries, or reports of its activities in or outside of these conclaves. There is no official mechanism for consultation or input from faculty or students. Today even Columbia University, from which The New School emerged, allows students and press to observe meetings of its board of trustees.
These acts and the current state of governance at the school reveal a contradiction to democracy and the progressive values espoused in its halls, courtyards and classrooms. The New School Free Press has in the past taken a leading role in calling for student representation to the university’s highest body. We now call on the board of trustees to open its doors to the members of the press who serve this community to aid in strengthening transparency and fair, accountable decision making.
Those who have nothing to fear have nothing to hide.
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