HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM PAM AND SANTALOPE

Join the Occupation and Student Study-in going on RIGHT NOW at the Graduate Faculty student center on 65 5th Ave, NY! It'll be fun, and it will make a concrete difference! http://www.newschoolinexile.com

An Open Letter: Come Occupy a Building with Us…Now Dear Friends, We are writing to you from the inside of the New School Graduate Faculty Building on 65 5th Ave. We are occupying it. Right now. Literally. Students of the New School University, along with our partners from other universities and groups – like NYU, Hunter College, City College of NY, CUNY Graduate Center, and Borough of Manhattan Community College, have organically risen up to demand the resignation of President Bob Kerrey, Executive Vice President James Murtha, and Board Member/torturer Robert B. Millard (he multi-tasks). We have come together to prevent our study spaces from being flattened by corporate bulldozers, to have a say in who runs this school, to demand that the money we spend on this institution be used to facilitate the creation of a better society, not to build bigger buildings or invest in companies that make war. We have come here not only to make demands, but also to live them. Our presence makes it clear that this school is ours, and yours, if you are with us. The outside doors have been closed now, so we can't exactly invite you in…sorry… We know you wanted a piece of the action, but we'll be around for quite some time. Join us at 7 AM tomorrow when the doors open again, or come now to stand outside with a sign in solidarity. You are cordially invited to join us in any way you can. We are not going anywhere. In the meantime, check out our Web site: www.newschoolinexile.com. We have all night to make things interesting, and the website will continue to be updated. Stay tuned for the musical pieces, doctoral dissertations, and creative finger-paintings that seem to be the natural result of 150 students locked into a building together for a night. We are here, making decisions collectively, doing teach-ins, listening to music, studying, singing. We've got an upright bassist, guitarists and vocalists (If anyone can volunteer a drum-set we'll be well on our way…). We'll be here until this university changes, or until the party gets boring (but it doesn't seem likely that will happen). We're not going anywhere. We hope to see you soon, and if you really can't wait a few hours – what the hell – occupy your own universities or work spaces. Come use your voice to declare loudly that this school and this world are yours. Come use your mind to think up a better world. Come use your body to create it, one all-nighter in the university cafeteria at a time. Come stand in solidarity with the students, faculty, and staff of this university. Come to write letters of support to the people of the village of Thanh Phong whose parents were murdered by the current President of the New School during his service in Vietnam. Come join the struggle with the people of Iraq who are being tortured and killed by a company funded by this university and represented on the New School Board of Trustees. Come here to join the uprisings and outpouring of passionate resistance currently taking place all over this country, and all over the worlds – from factory workers in Chicago to students in Greece. Come for yourself. Come for all of us. In solidarity, The New School in Exile ~ Demands of the Occupation ~ • The removal of Bob Kerrey as president of our university • The removal of James Murtha as executive vice president of our university • Students, faculty, and staff elect the president, EVP, and Provost. • Students are part of the interim committee to hire a provost. • The removal of Robert B. Millard as treasurer of the board of trustees. • Intelligible transparency and disclosure of the university budget and investments. • The creation of a committee on socially responsible investments. • The immediate suspension of capital improvement projects like the tearing down of 65 fifth Ave. • Instead, money towards the creation of an autonomous student space. • Instead, money towards scholarships and reducing tuition. • Instead, money for the library and student life generally. http://www.newschoolinexile.com   New York Times - City Room Blog December 19, 2008, 8:54 am New School Students End Dining Hall Sit-In By Colin Moynihan AND Marc Santora Updated, 12:25 p.m. | Student protesters who had occupied a dining hall at the New School, at 65 Fifth Avenue, said that they ended their sit-in around 3:30 a.m. on Friday, more than 30 hours after it began. Kevin Dugan, one of the students inside the cafeteria and the senior news editor at the The New School Free Press, said in a phone call that the students decided to leave after the university’s embattled president, Bob Kerrey, agreed to four demands: amnesty for students participating in the demonstration; student participation in selecting a new provost; creation of a committee on socially responsible investment, with student representation; and the replacement in other New School buildings of space that will be lost because of the demolition of 65 Fifth Avenue, including a library and a 7,000 square foot reading room. At the beginning of the protest, students had said they would not leave the cafeteria unless Mr. Kerrey and other administrators resigned. But as the occupation grew in size and stretched into a second day, a new consensus seemed to emerge, with some students saying it was it unlikely that Mr. Kerrey would agree to such stipulations and instead advocating goals that they said had a better chance of success. According to Mr. Dugan, student mediators announced around 2:30 a.m. that Mr. Kerrey had agreed to the four terms. Those inside the cafeteria held a lengthy discussion before voting to leave, he said, emerging onto side streets whooping in jubilation. Early this morning approximately 50 demonstrators quietly and peacefully vacated the New School cafeteria at 65 Fifth Avenue. Senior staff worked through the day and night yesterday, talking to student representatives, listening to their demands, and closely monitoring the situation. An agreement was reached to make changes in university policies to accommodate some of the concerns raised by students. The New School said in a statement that the agreement contained the following provisions: To grant amnesty for the participants involved in the occupation and the events related to it. To find a suitable replacement for the library and study space that will be lost with the closing of 65 Fifth Avenue. It was expressed to the students that this was already in the works, as we are completing work on new library and study room facilities at 55 West 13th Street. The construction of this new space will be completed in time for the start of the spring semester. To include student participation in the selection of the Provost. To establish a committee on Socially Responsible Investing for the University’s endowment. The statement added: We believe that the agreement reached is reasonable and will improve the shared governance of our university. Today, 65 Fifth Avenue will resume normal operation for our students, staff and faculty.