New College Independent Alumni/ae Association

GW Schulz’ current article in the SF Bay Guardian on PR flacks got us thinking about the dumb-as-a-post performance so far by New College spokeswoman Kathy Voutyras. As director of the alumni affairs office, we understand she has a role in the school’s public communications, but as apologist for all the administration’s misdeeds, she would seem to fall considerably short of the industry standards in deceptive practices. And with ready-made flacks like New College marketing director Eduardo Waller and public information officer Adam Cornford on hand to guide her, why is the hoof-in-mouth Voutyras still the public face of the untrustworthy trustees?

At one point, it looked like Singer Associates up-and-comer Keith Jackson might fill the thankless task of defending the indefensible Hamilton/Henry/Gabel cabal, but Jackson imploded as part of the PHLUTE scandal before he could get out of the starting gate. Which leaves our lonely Ms. Voutyras dangling out there like our own little version of Katherine Harris.

Someone should write a play.

I was just browsing CIIS as a comparable sized and focused private school 

in SF, and was shocked at the disparities. For roughly the same tuition as 

at New College, CIIS delivers much more in student services. With a ready-built

market for both, all New College has to do is manage itself like a college.

Students and alumni, perhaps taking a page from their activism coursework,

have initiated a petition on the Care2 web site asking for Gabel’s resignation, 

claiming he and Hamilton “are responsible for the gross mismanagement of the 

college to the point of bankruptcy,” and that they interfered with administrative 

affairs in violation of a WASC mandate. Between Dec. 15 and Dec. 18, 129 people 

signed the petition, ahead of its goal of 100.

—San Francisco Business Times Dec. 24 story by Sarah Duxbury

I feel that New College isn’t a place but rather was a time when people came together to attempt to make the world a better place. As it appears to no longer be serving this function, maybe New College can continue to create environments (through us) for contributions to the larger world. The present and future acts of those that made up the more substantial aspects of New College will determine NC’s legacy and whether it will have any lasting or sustainable humanitarian value in the consensus reality world.

There is a world beyond the cult of New College–in which we are all forced to exist, financially and socially. For those of us who found New College more than a mirage, a utopic fantasia of “good will and good works”—New College will continue to evolve and morph through us, through human effort, and the capacity to link in the larger world. The crumbling of the institution, is in fact, the crumbling of the illusion which by its nature disappeared and began to swallow up the more substantial aspect of the New College Community. Ahh. The problem with utopic worlds. The illusion and fantasy of what New College could be as opposed to what New College in fact was —broke down the infrastructure. As if a place of learning could simply exist in fantasy and imagination without any real world considerations such as the processes of managing, organizing, structuring–those processes that are necessary for survival.

Basically the New College (historic leadership) have laid claim to their fantasy while those of us forced out are now challenged to take what was a viable learning product and make our way in the world with the unique and radical learning processes that we were able to cultivate despite attempts to constantly cut the community off from legitimization through political, financial, and social institutions that would have assured New College’s longevity. And yes, now the leaders have laid claim to their half of New College, the underside of fantasy, the wasteland, the nothing. Any learning at this point is thin.

So I encourage you to start building the possibility of a conference–invite a larger audience—challenge the community to use the experience to learn, to think, to continue radical processes of reflection that goes way beyond the the domain of any single institution. As thinking is the domain of people. And this is what we desperately need right now. Thinking people….. beyond nationalism, beyond ism’s, beyond the New Collegisms. The we/them that collapses thought. In a sense at this point in time New College has become a we/them, a name, a memory, empty borders, fantasy. There are always spaces within collapse to move through, but sometimes they are narrow. Still it is encumbent on some of us to find those narrow spaces and move through them to secure the freedom of thinking of “people” on safer ground. A ground which safeguards and protects thoughts and minds rather than blowing them out and blowing them away.

—Anonymous

While the New College website is currently recruiting for its Spring 2008 programs — including defunct programs on the recently closed Santa Rosa campus — the San Francisco Bay Guardian today has a story about the nightmare taking place right now for students in San Francisco, who’ve had to drop out due to bouncing financial aid checks. We think it’s about time the New College board of trustees leveled with students, alumni, faculty, and the public at large. If the school is dying, as the Guardian article suggests, it is unconscionable that the trustees would allow students to register. The fact the trustees of this so-called progressive institution have mostly been in hiding since summer, reveals both their lack of ethical standards as well as their collective cowardice.

Last summer I spoke of the benefit of discussing strategy in advance of mobilizing against the old guard at our alma mater. Consistent with the sequential formula Research, Education, Organizing, Action, strategy involves pooling all available information in order to develop a plan of attack.

Dividing tasks according to skill and interest allows everyone to contribute without neglecting crucial work. These basic tasks are typically research, communications, security, and infrastructure.

Within this framework, someone could, say, check legal records on our adversaries, someone else could raise funds, another develop an outreach database, another do tech support, and another cultivate media relations.

In the present conflict, most of this has been done haphazardly, albeit not without some success. While it’s OK to learn from our mistakes, we shouldn’t continue to practice them as though there were no lessons to be learned.

Given our lack of resources and energy, though, I have to admit we’ve done pretty well. Maybe by our showing how activism is done, and then telling students what we showed them, we can pass on some skills and knowledge about politics that they can use later.

All School Council

December 14th, 2007

3-6pm, Rm 4

End of the Semester Report

Where are we now?

Where are we going?

The Student Council invites all members of the New College Community
to come together for an end of term gathering to recognize each other
after a severely troublesome semester, to discover where we are in
terms of the WASC report and the steps we are going to take to
respond. We could all use clarification on important issues such
as: financial aid, registration, class schedules, enrollment, the
WASC report, structural re-organization, new president…

[Note that alumni/ae are NOT invited to participate.--H.H.]

[please forward, print and distribute to NC channels of communication]

All School Council

Over the weekend, over 50 staff, faculty, students and friends gathered to begin to envision New College’s future.

As a community, we are seeking structures that allow us to progress in a meaningful and participatory way.

We invite everyone to continue this envisioning with us during the All School Council, where we intend to address the impending layoffs and effective alternatives.

The future is in our hands.  Lets come together and make it.

Friday Dec 7^th

3-6pm

777 Valencia Street - Room 4

Hello New College Folks,

I bear good tidings from the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) today.  Thanks to our hard-working Reimbursement Team, New College’s Financial Aid Office has had 66 student files accepted so far this semester and the acceptance rate and speed has increased dramatically in the past week.  Per our Payment Analyst at the DOE:

“Good Morning:

“Although I cannot tell you specific dollar amounts, I can tell you the following records that were submitted to us

“Submitted       Approved

   14                   0

     3                   3

    64                63

“The majority of the packages submitted to us are being approved by us.  The College needs to submit more packages for us to review.  The majority of the packages submitted so far have been law school students.“

Also, “I’m sorry that the College has not processed your financial aid yet.  I think they are beginning to process a lot more students now.  As long as the packages are all in order, they are approved right away.

“I hope you’ll be able to receive your financial aid soon.“

This is extremely good news, because the “normal” period for HCM2 file review is 30 days, but it is at the Payment Analyst’s discretion whether the DOE takes longer or requests more verification.  Also, keep in mind that we must submit 6 clean submissions in a row before the Feds can cut us any more procedural slack.  As of last Friday, the DOE said “They have now submitted a new package of approximately 64 students.  We will look at that package and see if we can pay on those files.“  A week later, the Feds approved 63 out of 64.  This can only mean that our Payment Analyst has taken mercy upon us and is expediting New College’s Financial Aid files and for that I am extremely thankful.

~Quanyin