Tensions have risen between Lang faculty and university administrators this semester over changes to how academic advising is run in the wake of a long-serving administrator leaving the college in July.
In e-mails and in open meetings, faculty have expressed their frustrations to the central administration over how the university is implementing the twenty-month old plan to house more of advising under the control of the central administration rather than within Lang college.
The university is in the midst of a complex bureaucratic reshuffling, dubbed “centralization,” that was first outlined in a February, 2014 strategic plan. In President Van Zandt’s vision of the school, central administrators have more to say over students’ academic careers than those in the college so students could, for example, take music theory classes in Mannes as easily as they take literary theory classes at Lang. But while the plan is nothing new, Lang’s faculty advisors have complained that the way the broader university has taken control hasn’t been effective and left them handling a backlog of hundreds of student e-mails.
The issue of advising has been a significant one for the Lang Faculty Council, which devoted part of its September meeting to discussing ways the university is handling it, according to the meeting’s agenda.
“I think whatever we did was disregarded and ignored,” Rob Buchanan, an assistant professor and critic of the university’s shift, told the Free Press. Buchanan added that a sub-committee of faculty across the university had submitted their own plans but hadn’t heard anything back from administrators.
The contrast between the old and new ways of advising is perhaps most stark in the July departure of Jon White, previously the Associate Dean of Student Affairs at Lang.
“My vision for the New School was not their vision for The New School,” White told the Free Press during a recent interview.
Before these changes, seven staff members reported to White, who then reported to the Lang Dean Stephanie Browner, White said. The program was structured so White’s staff handled students by their year, and Jon directed the program. For instance, the adviser for first-years also oversaw peer advising,the third-year adviser handled the study-abroad program, and the senior adviser looked after internships. “This particular model enabled advising practices to be informed by co-curricular programs, and likewise co-curricular engagements to be informed by advising knowledge,” Jon explained.
But now that has all changed. Some of advising is run out of 2 West 13th Street, at Parsons instead of 64 West 11th Street. According to Jon White, the Lang advising staff is overseen by Leah Weich, Director of Academic Advising and Student Support. But now, “all administrative staff,” White said, reports to Antoinette Curl, Senior Director of Academic Advising. Curl reports to Michelle Reyla, the Vice President for Student Success, followed by her supervisor, the Chief Success & Enrollment Officer, Donald Reznick.
“All administrative staff had their reporting structure (and associated funding) centralized,” Jon White said in a follow up e-mail.
But administrators have downplayed changes.
“The structure is still the same, they [academic advisors] report to me,” Curl told the Free Press. “The associate dean of students position is a little bit different than it was before…It’s not necessarily a new system. Academic advising is still happening in the same ways it happened before.”
Curl said Lang students are still assigned a primary faculty advisor, who helps them understand the Lang curriculum.
Nonetheless, faculty advisers protested the change and raised questions about what the new structure would look like, how many professional advisers Lang would retain, and what kind of faculty inclusion would relate both directly and indirectly to academic advising, according to an email summarizing the meeting that was reviewed by the Free Press.
The effect is that advising for Lang students has been moved to the central administration. This plan aims to increase Lang’s retention rates and to improve student success post-graduation according to March 12th, 2015 powerpoint presentation by Curl that was presented to Lang faculty, and was later obtained by the Free Press.
“We will become a more student‐centered university; academically rigorous and focused on outcomes; with strong, integrated support services, especially advising and career services,” according to the strategic plan, which was approved by the board of trustees.
While faculty expressed frustration that their input on advising hasn’t been heard, Curl said that she had listened to their complaints.
Students have also expressed concerns about advising.
The NSFP conducted an anonymous unscientific poll to suss out student reaction. “Some faculty advisers have been extremely unhelpful,” one respondent said. “One even messaged me to tell me that they won’t be advising this semester, even though the school keeps sending me e-mails to meet with them if I want. Other advisers have been more helpful over e-mail and in person, but it is very unlikely that there will be someone who knows you as a student, tracks your academic progress and develops a relationship with you.”
A reason for this could be because after the restructuring two advisers, Candace Sumner-Robinson and Molly Rottman, both left The New School earlier this semester. They have since been replaced. Due to the understaffing, when the school year started, three advisers were doing the work of six, according to an internal e-mail that was reviewed by the Free Press.
Curl acknowledged that the university is still in the process of implementing the changes to advising, including the widespread adoption of Successlink, a career services program, and Starfish, an appointment calendar program.
“Students shouldn’t notice any big changes right away,” Curl said in the follow-up e-mail, “but over time, they’ll see incremental improvements that will benefit their experiences with advising.”
Though the loss of Jon White is still felt amongst students.
“I’ve been exclusively seeing Jon White because of the complex nature of my program,” A triple major BA/BFA student said in response to the Free Press poll. “Nobody has been able to help me out as much as he had,” another student explained.
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