Submitted by Mikhael P. Elliott, Sep 17, 2007 00:13

Annie Karni's September 12th article ("How Kerrey Gave New School Growth and Its Own Éclat") highlights not only Mr. Kerrey's seeming improvements at New School University but also a trend taking academic America by storm: Corporate Education.  Mr. Kerrey, and he is not alone in this, imagines that higher education is a kind of corporate venture, where the numbers, including the bottom line, spell success.  Unfortunately this is not always the case.

Karni's article makes mention of the New School's origins as the University in Exile, founded by liberal-minded academics who wanted to give others a place to participate as well as think 'the human condition'.  While Mr. Kerrey is fond of recalling those roots, his 'improvements' over the last several years have done much to threaten that very same institution, now known as the New School for Social Research.  While other divisions of the university have been given a much needed face-lift and increased funding, Mr. Kerrey has moved the New School for Social Research to a permanent home on several floors of an office building, reducing its already insufficient classroom and office space.  In this same move the students and faculty have lost three essential components to any legitimate graduate university: a genuinely quiet reading space, a conference room and a lounge or meeting area where students and faculty may interact.  They are now about to lose a forth: Mr. Kerrey has determined that a library is an unnecessary component of an academic experience.  The library now housed at the main building on 14th street and 5th avenue will have its holdings reduced by almost 90%, the majority of which will be put into storage in New Jersey, the minority of which will be thrown out.  The remaining 10% will be distributed where space can be found.  There are plans of building a new library in the 16-story building but will not be completed for many years.  In the interim the students and faculty of New School University, boasting eight divisions and almost 20,000 students, will go without a library.  It is a shame that 'Corporate Education' is so quick to forget the pillars of any education: books, quiet spaces to read them and common spaces to share them.  While Mr. Kerrey's 'improvements' at New School University seem impressive on paper, one has to wonder what kind of an education these numbers are receiving.

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