City - Thursday, December 11, 2008 14:20 - 7 Comments

The New School Hates Its President

Ah, the vote of no-confidence, that classic bureaucratic measure that doesn’t actually do anything but basically serves as a big fuck-you to guys in charge. Guys like Bob Kerrey, former Nebraska governor and current president of the New School. The senior faculty - tenured professors who face no risk in criticizing their superiors - almost unanimously voted for the no-confidence resolution, which they surely hope will prove to be the first step in Kerrey’s resignation.

The board of trustees would be responsible for firing Kerrey. Too bad it’s got its own troubles to deal with, like how New School students pretty much hate the board’s treasurer, Bob Millard. Not to mention the fact that Millard is the chairman of the executive committee of L-3 Communications, a military contractor that’s being sued by a former tortured Abu Ghraib prisoner. Oops!

Also, people are mad at Kerrey for deciding to take on the position of provost as well as president, after the last provost, Joseph Westphal, left to serve on Barack Obama’s presidential transition team. The lesson to take from all this is that everyone at the New School is involved in something else and nobody knows how to improve a school that is still primarily known as that place where they film Project Runway.

Photo from The New School