New College Independent Alumni/ae Association

The alumni discussion list recently witnessed an 
important lesson in social conflict — basic 101 
activism and social change stuff.

Frustrated in holding the trustees accountable, some 
alumni were easy prey for mobilizing resentment. 
Feeling powerless to take action against the trustees, 
that resentment was redirected internally by an agent
provocateur.

Whether Toni Riss was a witting agent or unwitting pawn 

of the trustee mouthpiece Kathy Voutyras, the discord 

sown was the same. Recognizing this vulnerability to our 

unity in holding the culprits who destroyed our school 

and the credibility of our degrees accountable, is a 

lesson we can and should learn.

In this March 5 article in the Bohemian, New College trustee Jane Swan faults the school’s rapid growth for the financial disaster—indicating that if the trustees had a few more years to build an endowment, things might be peachy. What Swan neglects to mention, however, is that the neglect to build an endowment in the past, combined with ill-thought-out real estate investments and whimsically-added programs that hemorrhaged funds, were all decisions made by the trustees themselves. How a professional adviser to the wealthy like Northern Trust VP Jane Swan could fail to understand basic economics is beyond me.