A mass of students, employees, faculty and community neighbors rallied outside of the University Center. A student organizer with a pink megaphone stood on a plastic crate. The crowd chanted in unison, “The People, United, Will Never Be Defeated!” and “D.V.Z., Cut Your Fees!” More than 150 people attended the action, according to organizers.

On May Day at noon, student organizers protested against the administration’s increasing tuition and fees next academic year. The protesters included organizers from Campus Action Network, SENS-UAW members and other New School students. All eyes turned to top administrators at the New School, particularly President David Van Zandt, as well as his eventual replacement.

Van Zandt announced he would not renew his contract at the New School on Jan. 22, and will conclude his presidency after the 2019-2020 academic year. May Day organizers echoed sentiments expressed at a an April 18 town hall session with the presidential search committee, namely, removing the position of president entirely. Many organizers argued for a democratically-run university.

Tyler Munro, a first-year at Lang studying philosophy and culture studies, organizes with the Campus Action Network. Munro spoke about the disappointment and failed promises of the New School.

“I think the administration puts on a facade of progressivism but behind that they’ve let down the students, the faculty and the workers in as many ways as imaginable,” he said.

“If you look back at the original founding documents of the university, they called for no president and as little amount of money going to the administration as possible. And they want all the money to go to research and education. That vision has been lost,” Munro said.

More than 100 years after its publication, the document from which the New School originated continues to be cited by organizers. “Proposal for an Independent School of Social Sciences” (1917), states that to meet the needs of this “New School,” they must, “Eliminate presidents and deans and the usual administration retinue and cut the overhead expenses to the minimum.”

The increased fees include a University Services increase of $410, bringing the total to $600 a year, an international student fee of $90 per semester, a one-time orientation fee, and a tuition hike of 3.8 percent. The Student Health Services fee, which was $370 during the 2018-2019 academic year, has been folded into the University Services Fee. The university described these fee increases as “comparable to and, in many cases, below the averages for peer institutions” in an email regarding fee clarification sent by the office of Student Success on Friday, April 26.

Students, faculty, organizers and student employees gathered in front of the University Center around 11:45 a.m., with SENS-UAW signs and cloth banners.

Organizers marched to President David Van Zandt’s office at 66 W 12th St. The group of students marched loudly down and across Fifth Avenue, chanting, banging on tambourines and drums and strumming guitars.

President Van Zandt wasn’t in his office, and the rally moved to protest at the Financial Services office.

The presidential search committee is co-chaired by head of the Board of Trustees, Joseph R. Gromek and Linda Rappaport, another trustee and partner at law firm Shearman and Sterling LLP. The committee aims to have a sketched-out profile of their desired candidate completed by mid-May, when they’ll begin advertising the position in higher education publications, including the Chronicle of Higher Education and Inside Higher Ed, according to university spokesperson Amy Malsin.

Over the summer, the committee will review resumes and interview candidates with a deadline of choosing and recommending candidates to the Board of Trustees in Fall 2019.

“Our desires are to conclude the process in the Fall,” said Gromek in an interview with the New School Free Press. “The potential start date for the next president is when President Van Zandt’s term concludes in the end of June in 2020.” Just like President Van Zandt, who started his first term in January 2011, Gromek added, it’s possible that the new president’s start-date could be mid-year.

“I think, ultimately, we believe that this university should be run by a horizontal democratic institution of students, faculty, and workers, because that’s who know the university, that’s who is the university, not the trustees, not the President, not the corporate donors,” said Aaron Jones, a second year Lang student and organizer of the event.

When asked where Jones believes the money as a result of the upcharges is going to he responded with, “some damn murals in Bushwick,” referring to The New School’s recent advertising with posters throughout the city, with phrases such as “Code a Feminist Manifesto.”

Laura Auricchio, vice provost for Curriculum and Learning at Parsons co-chaired the search committee for the new Parsons Dean, and called this presidential search a “different beast” in an interview with the Free Press. Auricchio acknowledged that many elements that the Parsons dean search committee implemented have been replicated by the presidential search committee. Those elements include anti-bias measures and hosting listening sessions.

Auricchio will leave the New School this year, as she has been appointed the first female dean of Fordham College at Lincoln Center. She’ll start August 1, 2019. She spent 17 years at the New School, according to a May 2 email sent to faculty and staff from Provost Tim Marshall.

Search and recruitment firm Spencer Stuart will conduct the search, interviewing and vetting process, which they will begin after all of the town hall sessions take place. “They will be key in helping us build a broad group of resumes,” Rappaport said. “They are giving us information about the best practices.”

Arya Vaghayenegar is a P.h.D Sociology student at NSSR, New School employee and SENS-UAW union representative. Vaghayenegar said that the SENS-UAW and the Graduate Faculty Student Senate (GFSS), the student governing body at NSSR, are working together to organize against how administration is operating.

“We called for the joint meeting and so far we have done ground work trying to inform the students. And besides that, we are filing a grievance for the international fee because we think it is discriminatory against a specific section of students at The New School,” Vaghayenegar said.

Vaghayenegar said that SENS-UAW and the GFSS have written a joint petition against the fee hikes, which they will send to faculty at the New School to co-sign.

SENS-UAW and the GFSS organized a response to the increased tuition and fees at the town hall listening session for the presidential search held at Arnhold Hall on April 18.

Munro, and other student organizers, said on May 1 that organizing democratically with students, faculty, and other staff and employees is how they plan to put pressure on the university.

“Today we tell the administration that we are not going to go on without a fight. From here, we escalate,” Munro said.

Emma Tucker and Martin Kaff contributed reporting