Students at the New School have occupied the Graduate Faculty building in protest of administrative mismanagement, especially a lack of transparency and adequate funding. An excerpt from their statement:
The university is being treated as a profit-making venture at whose altar the requirements of scholarship are routinely sacrificed. We have been systematically stripped of the most basic resources necessary for academic excellence, including adequate funding, spaces in which to study and engage with each other, and a working library. We demand more opportunities for student funding, and we are willing to work for them. We need public spaces in which to foster a public sphere and an academic community. The absence of a serious library and its related resources for reserach is absolutely unacceptable and should not even be an issue of contention in an academic institution.(Thanks Fiona)
Academic planning and budgeting should be directed by individuals with a deep understanding and commitment to academic excellence and free inquiry.
We do not have adequate resources and we are not told why.
We have no hand and no say in our fates or the collective fate of our institution.
We desire meaningful and inclusive education that sees us as more than cash cows and treats us with respect as serious scholars, artists, musicians, designers, philosophers, writers, and most importantly, future educators. We are tired of being told by an out of touch administration what our needs are, and we are no longer willing to idly sit by while our education and our futures are gambled away. We want a university that is known for the quality of its students and faculty, not for its logo or the crimes of its leadership. It is time for change. We desire a better world, and we are willing to fight to achieve it.
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