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Neil GordonSpeaks!!New CommitteeScours NS SpaceSummerizeYourself
Opinions.................10News.................................4Sports....................9
ALL THE NEWS YOU NEED TODAY, FOR THE NEXT FOUR MONTHS
Issue 14, April 27—September 7, 2009
Copyright © 2009
FREE PRESS
NEW SCHOOL
A Pre-PackedAfternoon
Arts & Culture........7
Axed Adjuncts Acuse Admins of “Union-Busting”
Part-time aculty joined by supporters
Marie Dormuth, New School Unit Chairperson o the UAW, at the April 22 rally on 12th street: ‘We make the money around here!’
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ELISA DELJANIN
BUSINESS MANAGER
It was the most estive protest o the semester. No participants werearrested, and there was even a live jazz band.At 12 p.m. on Thursday, April23, about 75 students, aculty, andmembers o various unions gath-ered in ront o 66 W. 12th Streetto rally in support o the ParsonsFine Arts Faculty as well as the ACT-UAW Local 7902, the ad- junct aculty union or The NewSchool and New York University.Participants called or the rein-statement o the nine Fine Artsaculty members who receivednotice by e-mail on March 10 thattheir contracts would not be re-newed. By 12:15 p.m., police hadset up barricades lining the side- walk, keeping the participantsrom marching in circles.Nonetheless, protesters were un-daunted. Chants o “Union bust-ing’s got to go!” went on or veminutes beore the crowd quieteddown to allow Marie Dormuth,The New School Unit Chairpersono the UAW, to speak.“We make the money aroundhere,” Dormuth said. “And the stu-dents pay the money!”On April 22, Interim ProvostTim Marshall wrote in a press re-lease that the nine aculty mem- bers “will be oered alternateteaching assignments appropriatetheir expertise” instead o beinglet go. This is what is known asa “look-around” where the Par-sons administration will perorma search or the proessors withinthe school, giving them spots toteach.“This intention was not madeclear in the original memo that was sent out, which ollowed amore standardized protocol,”Marshall said in the press releaseissued by The New School. Eventhough most o the participants inthe protest had seen the release,they still claimed the university was engaged in union-busting.“Curricular changes had to besubmitted early last Fall, so thepattern o opacity has been con-sistent rom top to bottom at leastsince then,” said Peter Drake who was let go ater a career o teach-ing in Fine Arts or 22 years,about the lack o communication. Among New School aculty, thetop-down model has remained aprimary point o contention withthe administration since late last year.“Adjunct aculty is entrusted withthe prime objectives o this univer-sity,” said Shelley Silver, an adjunctproessor in the MFA Program o Photography and Related Mediaat Parsons. “They are the univer-sity.”
Is Protest CommitteeUseless?Students Ask
On April 10, when students occu-pied the 65 Fith Avenue building,Doris Suarez declined to convenethe Standing Advisory Committeeon Speech Activities and Expres-sion.At 9:10 a.m. that morning, Su-arez, the Vice President Secretary o the committee, sent an e-mailto the committee saying that they would not convene. “At this time Isee no need to convene the com-mittee since the matter is moreor less now out o the university’shands and the guidelines haveclearly been violated,” said the e-mail. Suarez’s decision has since been scrutinized by students andaculty alike who now question thepurpose and ecacy o such com-mittees.The committee, according to itslist o guidelines posted on TheNew School website, was designedto meet in the event o a demon-stration on campus in order “toensure that the rights o all partso the community
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includingthose o demonstrators—are re-spected.”In late February, President BobKerrey appointed the commit-tee to revise the school’s policy on demonstrations in university acilities. It consists o three NewSchool students, two aculty mem- bers, two administrators, and twopeople rom the public.The guidelines state that therights o the school’s community include “protecting health andsaety o all members o the uni- versity community, preventingdamage or risk o damage to uni- versity property, [and] preservingthe underlying conditions or reeexpression.”Lang sophomore and committeemember Agnes Karoluk said thatKerrey “acted on impulse,” andthat “calling the NYPD was a hor-rible decision.”Suarez said that calling the police was an appropriate response. “You would call the police i it was yourown house,” said Suarez. “Whocould have known they were stu-dents? They had masks and blackpaint all over their aces.” She saidthe occupation in December wasdierent because “we knew ev-eryone in that building was a stu-dent.”Karoluk said that Suarez hadtold her, prior to April 10, that thecommittee would convene “whenan action or a protest or an occu-pation was taking place or more
CONTINUED ON PAGE 5
Parsons Sophomore Mia Lindquist wearing shirt o her owndesign in Washington Square
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Parsons Student Finds Fashion Success
Daring clothing nds an audience
LILLY O’DONNELL
REPORTER
Twenty-year-old Parsons designstudent Mia Lindquist is already more successul than most artschool graduates will ever be. LastNovember her homemade web-site, www.peeps.org, was eaturedin the Teen Vogue blog and morerecently in the AOL Style Blog.“Some pretty important people,”such as the editor o
Daily Candy
,have been contacting her abouteaturing her designs.Mia designed and sold pursesin L.A. when she was in the thirdgrade, starting her website eventhough “online shopping wasn’treally big back then [in the mid-’90s].” Her art dealer stepatherand painter/art teacher mother were supportive o their daugh-ter’s growing talent. They boughther a dress orm when she was stillin elementary school with whichshe taught hersel to make cloth-ing, beginning with home-madeHalloween costumes, her avoriteo which was the buttery that di- verged rom the traditional wire-ramed wings and included a capeinstead.Designing became more thana hobby or Mia in tenth grade, when she learned to update the website hersel and began receiv-ing orders or her designs. Her business is currently a one-womanoperation but she is going to ex-pand ater the end o this semester by having her clothing actory-made so that she can take more or-ders. “Ater school I would just liketo become more known, probably show at ashion week,” she said.Her current designs retain thelicense o the costumes that shestarted on, but most are restrainedenough to be worn every day, withthe exception o a ew that seem to be more about art than wearablity.The “bat wing romper” is a hugedrape o brightly colored abric with a graphic print, and the pieceis topped o with a rufed collarin case the volume and boldnessdon’t make enough o an impact.The bat wing romper is denitely wild but since the bottom is ashort and simple shape (shortshorts attached to the swoopingsleeves) the piece as a whole man-ages to be “playul and un but alsoeminine.”
ERIC KILLELEA
SPORTS EDITOR
ALEXANDRA SHARRY
STAFF WRITER
EDITORIAL
The Opinions expressed heirein are thoseof individual writers and not of the NewSchool Free Press. Please send any lettersand submissions to freepress@newschool.edu. The New School Free Press doesnot publish unsigned letters. Letters &sumbissions will be edited for length andclarity. The New School Free Press is notresponsible for unpublished letters orsumbissions.
PRESSEDITOR IN CHIEF:
Elisabeth Garber-PaulKate Hanselman
MANAGING EDITOR:
Josh KurpCosette Bruhns
BUSINESS MANAGER:
Elisa Deljanin
ART DIRECTOR:
Cynthia Laplaige
DESIGN EDITOR:
Tiara Hines
NEWS EDITOR:
Kevin Dugan Aidan Gardiner
NEWS DEPUTY:
Elisa Deljanin
ARTS
&
CULTURE EDITOR:
Joe VeixKristina Monllos
ARTS
&
CULTURE DEPUTY:
Kyle McGovernJosh Anderson
OPINIONS EDITOR:
Robb MaynardSam Denlinger
SPORTS EDITOR:
Eric Killelea
WEB EDITOR:
Rachel Whelan
PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR:
Jika Gonzalez, Garret Hurley
PHOTOGRAPHERS:
Sam Lewis, Tyler Magyar
DISTRIBUTION MANAGER:
Justine Harrison
COPY EDITORS:
Kate Hanselman, Max Waterman
STAFF WRITERS:
Claudia Acevedo, Helen Buyniski,Samantha Paul, Alexandra Sharry, Ashley Wanamaker
REPORTERS:
Berlice Bassas, Misha Beiser,Bianca Brady, Tarnisha Carter,Jasmine Johnson, Jordan Katz,Noah Klein, Charlie Leveridge, Ty- ler Magyar, Lazaro Medina, Corey Mullee, Ryan O’Connell, Lilly O’Donnell, Max Quinn, Carly Roye,Stephen Tompkins, Max Waterman
FACULTY ADVISORS:
Rob Buchanan, Heather Chaplin,Sean Elder, Andrew Meier, SarahSafan
When
it comes to growing pains in the new millennium, The NewSchool has certainly had its share. The words and actions o certainmembers o the student and aculty bodies raised many questions, butthere has been one clear theme: what will be the uture o The NewSchool?On one hand, we have a socially radical legacy that must be respected.It’s the reason many o us came here in the rst place, and to lose ourstatus as a welcoming entity or persecuted and marginalized intellec-tuals would mean losing the spiriton which we were ounded. To cutunding or traditional programssuch as art history and social re-search seems to undermine theirimportance in our education.However, to pretend that wecan unction on the same modelthat our ounders established isludicrous. Picture Greenwich Vil-lage in 1919, when John Dewey rst started a school or continuing education, or the Village in 1939 when the University in Exile rescued independently thinking scholarsrom their ate at the hands o the Nazis. The neighborhood—and the world—was an entirely dierent place.Today, at this turning point in our history, we should consider thelegacy o our generation o New Schoolers. How will the New SchoolCommunity o 2059 see us? Will we be remembered as activists ght-ing to protect the ideals o our institution, or instigators unable tocome to terms with impending change?We should all also remember that the reason or direct action is to bring about dialogue, and that, when the opportunity arises or lessdrastic tactics—and potential progress—we must embrace it. When 19students broke into 65 5th Ave. on April 10, it was an ungracious way to start dialogue, but let’s ace it, that’s what it got us. Now let’s moveorward.The administrationneeds to be open mindedto the concerns o the stu-dents and aculty. Now wethe students must be opento the concerns o the ad-ministration. We havedierent visions, but arethey mutually exclusive?Business cannot super-sede academia, but neither can academia supersede business. The twomust work in tandem to reach our common goal. It doesn’t help whenPresident Bob Kerrey equates his own students with the 9/11 hijack-ers, nor does it help when students call Kerrey a ascist. Let’s stop thegrandstanding and do something really brave: take a deep breath, lookeach other in the eye and negotiate or this school’s uture.
NEW SCHOOL FREEPRESS
Published by theEugene Lang College Literary Studies Department Eugene Lang College The New School or Liberal Arts65 W. 11th St. Room, 070 New York, NY 10011
The Business o Academia
NSFP CROSSWORD
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1. Rainy season7. Aster amily fower12. Fancy13. ___ and repeat14. “____ old Smoky”16. French anarchists17. Lunar pull?19. “__sick o this!”20. Do __ others...21. Personal lm?24. Skinny27. Ino slang29. Pillow covering30. Metal basin32. Manhattan ghting tournament34. German or substitute35. Latin dipthong36. Axis nation, abbr.37. Spanish “in”38. Shoeless kid’s ather40. New York and __
ACROSSDOWN
By Kate Hanselman
7 12
41. Sixth Greek letter43. Romp or play45. Egyptian goddess46. TV website47. Business abbr.48. “____ Johnny!”
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Will we be remembered asidealistic activists or stubborninstigators?
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1. Put one’s oot down2. Hawaiian or “righ- teousness”3. ___ Rooter4. “Bring ___!”5. “No way!”6. Make a mistake7. Rowling villain8. Incorrect contraction9. “....who lived ___shoe”10. Antidepressant,abbr.11. Positive guy15. German re dept.18. And so on, abbr.21. Truman’s wie22. Odysseus’ birth-place, multiplied23. Convert ___ .PST24. “...___ name is wom-an!”25. Meteorite collectorRobert26. Dolt, idiot27. Zappa’s kid28. Important way to be?29. Raise one’s lip in dis-gust31. Turkic-speaking per-son33. A spring fower35. Gordon Shumway39. German architectvan der ____42. Perscription abbr.44. Wind instrument
On April 10, when we stoppedcapitalizing on our time andlearned to live, or when we wast-ed our time walking a ew blocksin the opposite direction to get toschool, there was an air o apa-thy rom the students at Parsons. While an army o police tossedstudents into paddy wagons andthe news reported directly be-neath us, Parsons students in thelibrary had little interest in look-ing up rom their work. Thereare a lot o reasons or this but Ican only attribute a lack o inter-est rom Parsons specically to anelement so important yet lackingin The New School in Exile andtheir counterparts in the RadicalStudent Union’s cause: an inter-esting, well thought out, and en-gaging use o design. An example o how a cohe-sive design campaign can help acause, whether political or not,is the design o the Obama cam-paign. These student groups would probably not be able toenlist the services o Sol Sender,the designer o the Obama “O,” orthe two Chicago design rms whocollaborated in the process, but atleast they could try to learn a ewlessons about the impact o gooddesign.The typeace Gotham, the onto the Obama administration,designed by Hoeer and Frere-Jones, provides a great exampleo the way to use the implicit mes-sages within typography. The let-tering ound above the entranceto Port Authority Bus Terminal,liquor store signs, and other un-assuming and typically New Yorksignage inspired the design o Gotham. Proessionals with aneducation in typography or thene arts did not make these signs,hard working blue-collar Ameri-can cratsmen did, and or thesereasons Gotham is arguably
the
typeace or the common man.Ironically, the ont was originally commissioned or use in the mostrecent redesign o
GQ
magazine. Yet the combination o contempo-rary men’s ashion and the spirito hardworking Americans coulddenitely describe Barack Obamain a nutshell. What typeace would be tting or The New Schoolin Exile or the Radical StudentUnion?Maybe i these angry situation-ists had a more attractive andstronger image, Parsons students,like mysel, would pay more at-tention. With any successul de-sign campaign, there has to be anequally clear and concise message.Unortunately, all I hear and seerom my ellow students is a lot o noise.Ryan Quigley Senior, Parsons
LETTER TO THE EDITOR:
20
Re: Protest Aesthetics
2
April 27, 2009
New School Free Press
NEWS
April 27, 2009
New School Free Press
Seeking Facts Following Occupation
Uncovering what happened on April 10
It remains unclear what hap-pened on April 10. Debates have begun throughout The NewSchool community as to whetherthe occupation was a legitimateprotest or a criminal break-in,and whether the administration’sresponse was appropriate or agross overstep. At the USS orumon April 22, Interim Provost TimMarshall avoided oering any opinions, but said that he is help-ing to acilitate a process to sitthrough and weigh conicting ac-counts o the day’s events.“There’s actually two inquiries which we are now trying to bringtogether,” said Marshall. “One in-quiry is being launched by the Fac-ulty Senate and the other one now, by the Board o Trustees.”Marshall said that the inquiry is key to determining what stepsthe university will take next and whether it will condemn the ac-
On April 16 roughly 150 students marched rom Bob Kerrey’s house to 65 Fith Ave. as part o a demon-stration
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University Selects Senators
RYAN O’CONNELL
REPORTER
Between April 19 and 26, theNew School University StudentSenate held online elections, dur-ing which students elected sena-tors to represent their divisions orthe 2009-2010 session. Thirty ourcandidates ran or 17 open seats. Al-though polls closed on April 26, theresults will be announced on April28.The election comes at a crucialmoment in the New School’s histo-ry. With the recent upheaval stem-ming rom changes in the adminis-trative policy, the community may be more divided than ever. “Theact that there is so much unrest oncampus is emblematic o the sys-temic and structural inecienciesthat our school needs to change,” wrote current USS Vice President,and Senate candidate or EugeneLang College, Dan Schulman in ane-mail.With thirty our candidates on the ballot, students will be able to dra-matically shit the Senate in a newdirection. USS President Peter IanCummings wrote in an e-mail, “Onereally could not ask or a broaderrange o candidates, so I eel that voters have a solid choice. Due tothe obvious contrast between can-didates, whoever wins these elec-tions really does have policy sup-port rom the voters.”The diversity o the candidates isexemplied by their biographies onthe USS website. Pat Korte, ound-er o the Radical Student Union, writes, “For me, to be ‘radical’ is to‘go to the root’ o a problem. Indeed,i elected I will ensure that the USSnd solutions that go to the rootso the problems our university cur-rently aces.” Other candidates in-clude Chris Crews, rom the NewSchool or Social Research; KyleReaves, rom Lang; and Yotam Ma-rom, rom the New School or Gen-eral Studies. I elected, this slatecould recreate the USS as a orumor student activism.It is unclear, however, whetherradical politics will bring a ractureduniversity together or tear it urtherapart. Although they are the mostpublicized, the student activists o the New School do not representthe opinions o the entire student body. Many students are let unrep-resented and eel disconnected romthe radical politics that are sweep-ing the school. Schulman wrote in ae-mail: “We are never going to gainlegitimacy i we ignore those whose voices are silenced because they aretoo araid to speak out against theprogressive nature o another groupo students.”Unortunately, as o April 23,the USS reported that only 30% o the student body had voted. “Wehave been bombarding people withemails, putting up lots o signs, andgoing to lecture classes to encour-age people to vote,” said Cummings.“Hopeully that will get people out[to vote].”
Suspensions or 19 Protesters Lited
MISHA BEISER
REPORTER
With the sit-ins and protests o recent months, Linda Riemer, Se-nior Vice President or StudentServices, eels she’s been put in anawkward position. She says thatshe’s been diligent in ollowingthe policies o the Student Codeo Conduct and the NonacademicStudent Disciplinary Procedures, but says, “I don’t enjoy taking dis-ciplinary action and eel it only needs to be done or educationalreasons and to protect the com-munity’s health and well-being.“It’s painul to hear that studentsdon’t have trust in me or StudentServices because I
am
a strong ad- vocate or them,” she said.The students who occupied 655th Ave. on April 10 were initially suspended, but, according to In-terim Provost Tim Marshall, Re-imer played a crucial role in litingthe suspensions and allowing thestudents to complete their aca-demic work or the spring semes-ter.New School President Bob Ker-rey expressed condence in Re-imer’s ability to advocate on be-hal o the students. “She’s a very orceul and eective advocateand encouraged me to modiy thesuspension o the students whorecently protested,” Kerrey said.“She’s been the lead person to deal with the Student Senate, who has become a vital voice in terms o theadministration’s policy,” he added. An employee o the New Schoolor 19 years, Reimer has intro-duced many o the oces andprograms that enable studentsto unction in and out o NewSchool classrooms. When she waspromoted to Assistant Provost in1994, she introduced the StudentHealth Services Oce. In 2000, when she was promoted to VicePresident o Student Aairs andServices, she introduced an Oceo Disability Services.“These promotions all reectedthe university’s recognition that we needed more resources or thestudents,” Reimer said.Reimer sought to emphasize thatthe Oce o Student Services ad-dresses much more than the is-sue o protests. “When Parsons became part o the New Schoolin about 1970, there was a shit totraditional undergraduate-agedstudents that demanded servicesthe university didn’t originally o-er,” she said. “My role was to cre-ate a robust out-o-the-classroomexperience or these students.”From health services to activitiesand student organizations, she wants students to know they canturn to her or anything to en-hance their lie at the New School.Reimer said that any student,or group o students, should eelcomortable in voicing their con-cerns to her directly. “I encouragethem all to seek me out and giveme a chance to hear and under-stand their concerns,” she said.She hopes the remainder o theacademic year will be peaceul,and is condent that the univer-sity will unite and remain strong.“I think the aculty, sta, and stu-dents o the New School are allterric,” Reimer said. “We will getthrough this moment and thrivedespite this unpleasant moment.”tions by New School PresidentBob Kerrey, the students, or both.“We’ll be in a better position to re-spond and maybe even apologizeonce we have that inquiry,” saidMarshall.In a statement released to theNew School community on April11, the administration claimed thatthe occupiers carried “crowbars”and “mace,” among other things.However, according to the Man-hattan District Attorney’s oce,two hammers and a hook wereconscated rom Micah Murphy,New School or Social Researchstudent and occupier, but no oth-er tools or substances, includingcrowbars or mace, were recoveredrom any o the occupiers.In a later interview on April 22, when asked i the occupiers hadmace or crowbars, Kerrey admit-ted that, “It’s possible they didn’t.”Kerrey said that the initial listo merchandise the occupiers brought into the building was re-layed to him by the Assistant Di-rector o Security, Tim Sikorski,and not the arresting ocers whoconscated the property rom theprotesters. “There’s been a num- ber o modications o acts sincethen,” he added.At the April 22 orum, Miller saidthat Kerrey has begun revising hisaccount o April 10. “Some o [thedisputed acts] have actually beentaken o the table because BobKerrey met with aculty last Friday and changed his story yet again.”On April 14, the Economics Stu-dent Union o the New School orSocial Research posted a state-ment in reaction to April 10 on theoccupiers’ blog, The New SchoolReoccupied. “We protest againstthe President’s calling in o theNew York City Police Departmentin response to a peaceul demon-stration,” reads the statement, “hisescalation o the situation, and hisreusal to negotiate directly withthe occupiers.”Kerrey said that he had calledpolice initially according to rou-tine security protocol. “We havea very close relationship with thepolice,” he said. “They provide,probably, hal the security at TheNew School.”“They come or routine security,”he added. “But, they will not moveto remove individuals rom any building we have unless the uni- versity is the complainant.”Kerrey said that he asked theNYPD to remove the occupiers because he had no intention o ne-gotiating or terms. “They had de-clared their purpose was to get meto resign and I had no intent o do-ing so,” he said. “It seemed to methe appropriate thing to do was bethe complainant in this case.”Kerrey also said that allegationso police brutality are overblown.“I’m going to tell Ray Kelly, I thinkthey should take pepper spray outo their arsenal,” he said. “It’s oneo the most ineective and pro- vocative tools. ‘Oh my god, pepperspray!’ You could do more damageto yoursel with Right Guard.”On April 23, Marshall said hehoped the Faculty Senate andBoard o Trustees could reach anagreement on the process o a jointinquiry by the ollowing week. He was unable to say what that pro-cess might look like. “Everything’sup in the air at this point,” he said.Marshall reiterated that until theinquiry is complete, it would bedicult to judge anyone’s behavioron April 10. “Without that inor-mation, it’s very hard to put your-sel in the shoes o the president oranyone else making that call with-out actually knowing what inor-mation was ying,” he said.However, Marshall did say thepolice response was excessive.“The police response looked in-credible to me,” he said. “It seemedutterly excessive. I still don’t getthat.”On April 16, roughly 150 stu-dents marched rom 55 W. 13thStreet to Kerrey’s residence aspart o a demonstration against what they saw as police brutality on April 10. At Kerrey’s, protesterschanted, “Bob Kerrey’s got to go!”Kerrey has said, however, thathe has no intention o resigningunless the board o trustees votesor him to do so. “[The board was]explicit in what they wanted meto get done and I’ve been workingon it since,” said Kerrey. “I havethe condence in the board toproceed. The day that condenceends, that’s the day I’m gone.”“I would say [the board’s con-dence has] not altered,” addedKerrey. “My enthusiasm or themission has altered rom time totime.”
For ull transcripts o the Ker-rey and Marshall interviews visit
www.newschoolfreepress.com
Dean Neil Gordon and executive aculty discuss the events o April 10
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“‘Oh my god, pepperspray!’ You coulddo more damage to yourself with RightGuard.”
Admins vie or student trust
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AIDAN GARDINER
NEWS EDITOR
ELISA DELJANIN
BUSINESS MANAGER
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