In prior administrations, the president’s office has been relatively off-limits to New School students—an unchartered territory that could seemingly be infiltrated by appointment-only. Located on the eighth floor of Alvin Johnson/J.M. Kaplan Hall, decked out with a bookshelf containing a growing collection of books and a sunlit terrace scattered with benches, the president’s office is a lesser known area to students. Interim President Donna Shalala has opened the palace gates to students in efforts to change that.

Shalala spoke with The New School Free Press on Oct. 23 and quoted three reasons that brought her to The New School this August. “First of all, it’s an important institution not just in New York, but in the country. Second, it’s progressive tradition. And third, I missed students,” she said. 

Only two months into her role, Shalala has hosted groups of students each week in her office to share their qualms about the current state of the university over snacks and a skyline view of Greenwich Village. Some of the ideas students have shared so far include installing outdoor heaters in the Lang Courtyard, adding more seating in communal spaces, more charging outlets, and better water stations. 

How do students get this opportunity to chat? Shalala said she would ride the elevator and invite students to her office for some light conversation. There are no formalities and it’s a standing invite, open to any and all students who express interest. 

“I’m sort of a chameleon. I have to feel the institution. I’m running around…all over the place and trying to get a better feel for it,” she said. Shalala’s way of engaging with students is crucial to her “short-term strategy” to improve life at The New School, and she insists that “if [a suggestion] looks like something we can do, we’re going to do it.”

But Shalala’s entry to The New School isn’t her first brush with a top administrative position. Most recently in 2018, Shalala was elected to Congress from Florida’s 27th congressional district, and she served just one term in the House before being defeated in an upset during the 2020 election. From 1993 to 2001, she was the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services for the Clinton administration. Before this, Shalala was the second woman in the country to run a major research university when she served as the chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Here, she earned herself the title “Queen of PC,” for giving “first priority to what is politically correct by liberal standards.” A title that may be outdated but possibly resonant amongst New School students today. 

“If they hire a president, the president’s got to be responsible,” she said. Yet Shalala’s illustrious career hasn’t been without controversy. 

Before joining The New School, she spent nearly 14 years as the president of the University of Miami from 2001 to 2015. A janitorial strike in April 2006 sparked outrage and drew criticism from students, faculty, union leaders, and members of the clergy alike, labeling Shalala a “union-buster” for failing to pressure the “university’s cleaning contractor to grant union recognition,” The New York Times reported at the time. After a “sit-in, hunger strikes and a nine-week walkout, janitors at the University of Miami decided…to return to work.” 

Reflecting back, Shalala told The Free Press: “It was our contractor. It wasn’t us. And finally, I had to kick the contractor and bring in our own labor expert from New York who was more pro-labor and get it settled.” 

“Normally you wouldn’t get involved in a contractor dispute, but it was not going well, and I decided that whatever the rules were, I was gonna break them and we were going to get it settled,” Shalala added. “I learned a lot out of that: Even though you’re not responsible sometimes you just have to step up and hit someone over the head,” she said.

Shalala’s start at The New School came immediately after the abrupt stepping down of Dwight McBride, who faced intense backlash for his administration’s handling of the part-time faculty (PTF) strike during the fall semester of 2022. The New School’s PTF strike was recognized as the longest adjunct strike in U.S. history, becoming a key pointer in the national labor discussions. Shalala accepted an interim president position at The New School, knowing its history. 

“I have always thought of myself as pro-labor,” she said. “I grew up in a working-class neighborhood in Cleveland, in which my family members were members of unions.” She recalled herself being a member of the PSC-CUNY faculty and staff union when she began her teaching career as a political science professor at Baruch College.

As contract negotiations with Student Employees at The New School (SENS-UAW) continue and a National Labor Relations Board decision on the New Student Workers Union’s (NewSWU) pre-election hearing nears, Shalala’s approach to things is simple — “I wish that we could do it faster.” 

“I want to get that behind us.” she said. “But I’ve got no problem with students organizing. If I was a student today, I’d be right there with them.” 

Nevertheless, she is aware that “unions have their own interest in their own sense of timing. I simply have to respect that but I’m ready. Or my negotiators are ready.”

Shalala’s long-term strategy is focused on managing enrollment and allocating more funding towards financial aid and scholarships. She has already hired a new Assistant Vice Provost for Financial Aid and Scholarships (Sarah Fevig, who you may have met through posters plastered across the university inviting students to meet with her in the Lang Courtyard), replenished the Petrie Fund, which is used to provide one-time emergency funding to students, and refocused annual funding towards financial aid.

Despite Shalala’s goals, The New School’s community has reason to be wary of any president after a tenuous academic year under her predecessor. Nonetheless, Shalala is convinced that she is up to the task. “I’ve managed [universities] and led them through the eyes of students,” she said. “I was undaunted by what [The New School] said the challenges were, which was some kind of a deficit, though no one fully explained it to me,” referring to the $50 million dollar deficit that The New School is currently facing.

“No one else around here is impatient. I am impatient. I want to get it done, so that students can get more resources,” she said.

While Shalala brings an unforeseen flair and charisma to the Office of the President at The New School, she hopes that the university community will embrace her unconventional methods. 

“Even though I have a different style, stay with me for a while,” she said. “See what I can do. Judge me not by the plans, but by the execution.”

Additional reporting by Cav Scott and Bianca Rodriguez-Mora.