Why We Protest

New School SDS believes in the founding principles of the New School University and wishes to work towards the progressive, participatory education model proposed by the University's founders in 1919 and since supported by many faculty members. We are concerned that the current University Administration does not share this commitment, despite their rhetoric, and has in many ways been actively working to dismantle our school's core values.

Behind Closed Doors
This corruption is evident in the way power is structured in the
University. The Board of Trustees, a collection of around fifty mostly white and mostly male representatives of this nation's upper class, has complete oversight over the University's resources and operation. They justify this through the fact they donate money to the University, however, their combined gifts provide for less than 10% of its operating costs. (Students provide almost 85%, a greater amount than almost every other University.)

Since the majority of the Trustees are busy running corporate ventures, power is concentrated amongst the eight or so members of the executive board; the Chairman, the Treasurer and several Vice Chairmen. Of these, all are rich white male capitalists, but we are most interested in those with proven links to one of the most unscrupulous War Profiteers in the Defense Industry.

The company now known as L3 Communications was created, as the Loral Corporation, by an unknown Wall Street accountant called Bernard Schwartz in 1972. The small Bronx communications company Schwartz had bought was on the verge of bankruptcy, but by entering the Defense Industry at the height of the Cold War, Loral was able to start becoming incredibly profitable.

Over the next 23 years, through a mixture of hostile takeovers (Loral acquired over 40 other defense firms) and unscrupulous business practices (Loral was indicted by the State Department for selling the same missiles to the US and China), Loral was able to grow 2000%, raising its net worth from $7 million to almost $15 billion. When the Cold War drew to a close and rival Lockheed Martin offered to buy out Loral, Bernard Schwartz retired a multi-millionaire. Schwartz now has an institute named after him at New School and sits on the Board of Trustees.

The story does not end there, however, as two former Loral executives, unhappy with working under Lockheed Martin and predicting great profits from future wars, made a bid to create a new independent company. In order to do this, they enlisted the support of George Walker, second cousin to GW Bush and Global Investments Manager for Lehman Brothers. Lehman Brothers bought a 65% stake in the company, and as L3 Communications began profiting immensely from the War on Terror (its share prices have tripled since 9/11) Walker's investment paid off. He was able to buy his way onto the Board of several prestigious institutions, including the New School, where he serves as Vice Chair.

It is not these people, but another, less infamous character that we believe is the most significant figure in linking the New School with war. Not many people have heard of Robert B. Millard, but after the former CEO of L3 died he became one of its most powerful officers. As Non-Executive Chairman and Chairman of the Board, he represents Lehman's majority stake in the company, and has ultimate oversight over its corporate activity. And what does this activity involve?

War All The Time
It would take months to describe all of L3's subsidiaries, so I will list only a few. Most notorious is the Titan Group, who by the time it was acquired by L3 in 2005 had already made a name for itself as the fifth-biggest beneficiary of the Iraq War. As well as providing training and weapons systems, it had an exclusive contract to provide all of the Military's 'translators' and 'interrogation experts' – in other words, its torture artists. Several employees were involved in the infamous scandal of Abu Grahib, where Iraqi civilians were tortured through electrocution and sexual abuse in a manner so shocking that the US Military ended its contract with Titan, and that Lockheed Martin canceled its plans to acquire the company. L3, however, had no reservations about buying them out, and went so far as to sue the US Army to win the contract back.

Military Professional Resources Inc., another L3 Subsidiary, is a private military contractor that apparently has 12,000 ex-special forces working for it, as well as former officers ranking as high as Army Chief of Staff. In Iraq, the organization is responsible for training the Iraqi Security Forces, but is said to engage in special operations also. The division was said to have orchestrated, through its training and management of the Croatian Army and its border management for Serbia, the biggest incidences of Ethnic Cleansing in Europe since the Holocaust. The Mercenary organization lost a contract with Columbia to assist in the War on Drugs for being too violent - interesting when one considers how violent the Columbian Government is itself. MPRI also assists the US Army with Recruitment and ROTC programs, helping it lure youths to their death in foreign, pointless wars.

A third subdivision, C3ISR, is responsible for more traditional manufacturing and intelligence work. "After 9/11, the growing defense budget kept our factories pretty busy," states Company President Michael Strianese, and nobody in the company will deny that they need perpetual war to keep up their profit margins. Fear of terrorist attack helps L3 make billions out of the new Department of Homeland Security, while fear of nuclear rogue states and China means L3 gets all the funding it needs to produce more missiles and even satellite weaponry. L3's dozens of lobbyist firms (employing hundreds of influential lawyers, former officers and ex-politicians) work to convince American politicians are reminded of the dangers of peace, while L3 executives speak to the media about the benefits on the war economy. L3 Communications has even infiltrated the University system; its Chairman Robert Millard now serves on the Board of Trustees of New School as treasurer, with complete control over the New School's operating budget and finances.

The Puppet Government
People wonder why they haven't heard of Millard, Walker or Schwartz. But it makes sense that they would not publicly run the University themselves, or speak at events advocating war, free trade, or anti-welfare policies. It is no coincidence that the year Millard became Treasurer, the University found a President that was a foremost proponent of War and Capitalism. For the Trustees had hired Robert Kerrey, the honorable Senator from Nebraska, to speak for them.

Bob Kerrey had been a huge supporter of War in Iraq. In 1998, back when Bush was the relatively anonymous Governor of Texas, he wrote and campaigned for a bill called the 'Iraq Liberation Act', which changed US policy in Iraq to 'institute regime change'. The bill was passed into law, and was used by the Bush Administration as it made the case for occupation in 2003. In addition to this, within months of taking up his position at New School, he served on the 9/11 Commission, where he made the case for an aggressive and militaristic foreign policy to deal with perceived threats. As his tenure continued, Kerrey took more liberties in exploiting his position, bringing in politicians like McCain and Gingrich to speak against the will of the most of the University.

Meanwhile, new University policies and departments began to rapidly undermine its credibility as a progressive institution. The administration viciously fought against attempts to unionize part-time faculty or institute better conditions for dorm construction workers. As it attempts to keep a 'green' image, it secretly flaunts EPA and New York State environmental regulations. Several new institutes, such as the India China Institute and Schwartz Center for Economic Policy were established with the implicit purpose of pushing neo-liberal and destructively globalizing agendas for wealthy governments. Most shocking of all, the University physically became a part of the Military-Industrial Complex, as it secured a contract to do research for the Defense Department.

The Parsons Institute for Information Mapping, a department specializing in such research and founded shortly after Kerrey arrived, is symbolic of the New School's greater involvement in the war machine. Mostly mapping and intelligence, the research ties in not only with Kerrey's specialty (as one of the leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee,) but also with the work that L3 does. Kerrey proudly presents the New School's work to 'prepare our war fighters for battle' at private conferences and seminars. And yet it is still secret, in that nobody outside the New School's upper administration was told that it was occurring. In exchange for his salary of over half a million dollars, Kerrey has successfully implemented his superiors' plans. The University, once a genuinely progressive institution, now maintains only a façade of liberalism to hide its corporate and unethical true nature.

A Full Circle
And so the University becomes a tool of government oppression both at home and abroad. The endowment, a large sum of money that schools maintain, is invested in questionable companies instead of in scholarships - the University refuses to even to talk about its investments with its students. And yet we, by giving half a decade of our lives and hundreds of thousands of dollars, are making what will likely be the most substantial investment of our lives. For many of us, debts incurred as students will shape the very course of our lives, restricting our opportunities for self-determination and forcing us into jobs, environments and even social relationships we don't want. And yet, we have near to no control over how our money is spent. Were the students given oversight, it is almost definite that we would reject war research, labor exploitation and environmental hypocrisy. We would ensure divestment from unethical companies, while democratizing the university to suit its original principles.

And it is not just Millard that stands in our way, as we effectively call for a complete reanalysis of the way the University works. However, by severing him from our school, we will send a message to the elite that we, the university community, are unwilling to tolerate those who put profit before progress. We are unable to stand by as injustice is perpetrated towards laborers on campus, or civilians abroad - in fact, that we will resist to our highest capacity.