New College Independent Alumni/ae Association

Inside Higher Ed

Having read all relevant official documents as well as correspondence from many alumni, it is clear that the myth of New College is largely a fantasy. Indeed, by what right can New College claim to be San Francisco’s most progressive school given its well-documented history of actively opposing every effort by faculty and students over the decades to have democratic governance?

Granted some good academic work happened there — as it does elsewhere — but after reading the testimonies of former faculty and students, I can only conclude that it happened despite the institution, not because of it.

As you read the preceding testimonies and those that follow, try to examine them with an open mind and an appreciation of the difference between the school’s rhetoric and reality. If, together, we can accomplish this much, then we can begin unmaking the myth of New College, and perhaps, in turn, bring to an end the cruel hoax foisted on the idealistic scholars who once labored there. This false notion — built on the sacrifice of human dignity and respect — deserves to be dismantled.

As a faculty member at New College for the past five years, I have grown weary of the incessant blaming of all of New College’s woes on “activists”; “disgruntled former employees”; WASC (and more recently) the “Bush Department of Education”; or NC’s the “transitional leadership team” — anyone, it seems but the former administration, Board of Trustees and the famed “Historic Leadership.” New College’s problems did not begin in the past six months — the school has been horribly mismanaged. Instead of accountable and transparent governance structures New College has been ruled by a system of nepotism, favors and loyalty. Any opening of the books (as small groups of faculty members have consistently called for over the years) would reveal not only ludicrous financial schemes but hugely inequitable distribution of New College’s scant financial resources as well.

Most disturbing to me is the scapegoating of students. I believe it is unethical to invite students to a school that purports an activist agenda, to take their money and then to refuse to give them any voice. How is it possible that a school with New College’s mission doesn’t have any form of student governance? The answer I frequently hear to this is that students are apathetic except in times of crises. However, in my experience students who have tried to organize a governance structure are met with a lack of support from the administration. (Indeed when a proposal for a structure for student governance was approved by members of a task force that came together in the wake of the Leary debacle, the decision was struck from the minutes by one of New College’s former academic vice-presidents.)

Activists (student and other) did not start their efforts to create change within New College by going to the WASC or the media. They, like many faculty members who have worked on the Faculty Council, the Graduate Council, the Academic Affairs Workgroup; the Finance Committee (and all of the committees that emerge prior to WASC visits only to have their work totally discarded once WASC has left) — tried every avenue available to them only to be met with closed doors, unanswered emails and letters and broken promises.

As a teacher and adviser I have always encouraged students to focus on their own scholarship and community activism and have consistently been saddened and appalled that New College’s endless misfeasance (and malfeasance) gives students such cause to be distracted from their very important work. I wish nothing more than that all of New College’s students had had the support of a functional, ethical and financially sustainable institution in order to do there very important work in the world.

The constant focus on an external “enemy” which in New College’s case manifests as WASC and/or the DOE or on the “misguided” activist enemy within is as much a legacy of the left as is COINTELPRO. If progressive communities cannot make room for multiple voices and yes, even dissent, how can we even begin to expect or demand that of the right. New College has been many things to many people over the years, and for those who have dissented (many of whom were tuition paying students or poorly paid workers) it has often been an oppressive and retributive environment.

—Anonymous

PS During a visit to a classroom at another local small college several weeks ago the program director came into the class to announce that WASC would be visiting the following week. She encouraged students to speak with WASC and to be sure to express any concerns they had. Later that same day a librarian (who had come to the class to share with students the very comprehensive research resources of the institution) again suggested that students speak with WASC. Having spent years at New College and having been personally asked by my New College’s top administration to keep students away during a WASC visit, I was shocked that an institution would actually support students to openly express their needs and concerns.