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New School for Social Research

A private New York City university founded in 1919 by Columbia professors who left over the First World War, whose University in Exile sheltered German scholars and whose wartime faculty entered government propaganda work.

Also known as
The New School, New School, New School University, New School for Social Research (New York), University in Exile, Graduate Faculty of Political and Social Science
Dates
1919
Location
New York, New York
Mentioned on
37 pages
Last edited

A private New York City university founded in 1919 by professors who had been dismissed or had resigned during the First World War, the New School for Social Research opened as an adult school of social science with money from the circle around The New Republic.1 Its Graduate Faculty, known from 1933 as the University in Exile, took in German and Central European scholars, and during the Second World War members of that faculty worked for the Office of Strategic Services, the Foreign Broadcast Intelligence Service and the Office of War Information.

Founding, 1917 to 1922

In 1917 Nicholas Murray Butler, president of Columbia University, dismissed Henry Dana and James McKeen Cattell for their outspoken opposition to the war. Charles Austin Beard and James Harvey Robinson resigned in protest, and Robinson then persuaded Herbert Croly, the first editor of the New Republic, to join them in founding a new school.1 The 1919 founding proposal rejected endowment. Beard wrote that "Endowment spells dry rot," and the founders planned to rely on tuition and annual gifts.1

Dorothy Payne Whitney, the Whitney heiress who had married Willard Straight and co-founded the New Republic with Croly, had discussed an independent social-science institute with Croly, Beard and Robinson from 1916. Her husband, then serving in Europe, warned her against the two men. She pledged $10,000 a year for ten years.2 The ten-year pledges reached nearly $300,000, much of it from Straight, and she paid largely for a renovated townhouse.3 A women's group that met to support the school included Mrs. Willard Straight, Mrs. Learned Hand and, later, Mrs. Thomas W. Lamont.4

The school did not rely on endowment. The Rockefeller Foundation, the Carnegie and the Rosenwald foundations turned down an early request for an endowment, and the school could not count on the Rockefellers, the Whitneys, the Goodyears or the Guggenheims.5 In 1922 the New Republic was short of money and its owners wanted the school closed so that Straight would support the magazine.5 Straight stayed on the board with Croly, Wesley Clair Mitchell, Caroline Bacon and Emily James Putnam.5 In April 1922 Alvin Johnson took over as director and wrote to Straight about the change.6

Dorothy Payne Whitney remained on the Board of Directors until 1930, after 1925 as Mrs. Leonard Elmhirst, and continued financial support for several years after 1929 through the William C. Whitney Foundation.7 A Cornell finding aid for her papers states that the school "was begun with the backing of the Whitney Estate in 1919."8 In 1969 Milton C. Rose, her son's attorney, told the FBI that the foundation was created by her and Willard Straight in memory of her father and that Michael Whitney Straight had been its president "since its inception in 1937."9

University in Exile, 1933

Johnson had co-edited the Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences from 1930 to 1935 and had corresponded with German-speaking scholars who contributed to it. After the Nazi seizure of power he set out to shelter them. In April 1933 he began to raise $60,000 a year for two years to support a faculty of fifteen scholars.10

Hiram J. Halle telephoned Johnson after a letter Johnson had written to Edwin R.A. Seligman reached him. In Johnson's account Halle asked how much had been pledged, Johnson answered "Twelve thousand," and Halle said: "I am prepared to guarantee the sixty thousand a year for two years, so that you can go ahead at once." Halle wanted his name kept out of the announcement so that other donors would not hold back, and Frank Altschul vouched for his credit.11 The school's own history states that after Johnson had raised only $10,000 he received the whole $60,000 from Halle.10 Rutkoff and Scott write that Halle "had pledged the entire sum that Johnson required" and that Johnson "had collected only between $7,000 and $15,000."12 Bessner writes that Johnson had collected $120,000 from Halle to fund fifteen professorships at $4,000 a year and raised further money through the Institute of International Education, and that Lederer, then in London, asked Speier to help, so that in the summer of 1933 Speier carried contracts between London and Berlin to prospective members.13

Halle hosted an annual fall barbecue on his Pound Ridge property for the University in Exile, its families and New School staff. His 1938 letter of invitation to Albert Einstein described the gathering as lunch on barbecued lamb in an old mill over a waterfall; Einstein declined, citing poor health. The New School Archives holds two silent 16mm home movies of the event, dated probably 1935 and 1937, donated in 2015 by Halle's great-nephew and the great-nephew's sister.14 The Institute for Advanced Study holds the bronze bust of Einstein that Jacob Epstein sculpted from life in 1933 at Cromer, Norfolk, for Halle, whom its catalogue calls "a close friend and financial supporter of Epstein"; it passed to Halle's nephew Joseph Halle Schaffner and then to the Institute.15

The first appointments were made with the Rockefeller Foundation. Johnson and the Foundation agreed on a dozen individuals to rescue, and the Foundation's Paris associate Tracy Kittredge wrote on the State Department's view of the question on March 29, 1933.16 The Emergency Committee in Aid of Displaced Foreign Scholars acted for the Foundation in these early cases and did not seek permanent United States posts for the men it supported.16 The school's history lists the original members as the agricultural economist Karl Brandt, the public finance specialist Gerhard Colm, Arthur Feiler, Eduard Heimann, Herman Kantorowicz, Emil Lederer, Hans Speier, Erich von Hornbostel, Max Wertheimer and Frieda Wunderlich. By October 1933 ten academics were teaching, and by 1935 six more had been added.10

The Emergency Committee was founded in May 1933 when Alfred E. Cohn, Bernard Flexner and Fred M. Stein approached Stephen Duggan of the Institute of International Education. Felix Warburg and Alan Gregg advised the organizers, and Livingston Farrand chaired it. The Committee made grants to host institutions rather than to scholars, and it made 335 grants from about 6,000 applicants. Edward R. Murrow was its assistant secretary until 1935.17 Duggan invited Johnson to lunch after the University in Exile was announced and told him of the Committee's plan.18 The Committee's records file Kurt Riezler, Speier, Max Ascoli, Colm, Arnold Brecht, Hans Simons, Hans Staudinger, Jacob Marschak, Adolph Lowe, Lederer and Wilhelm Reich under the heading "Non-Grantees," which the finding aid defines as applicants not aided through the Committee.17 The school's history lists Colm and Speier among its original members.10

Federal contacts

Peter M. Rutkoff and William B. Scott write that after 1947 Johnson acknowledged in private letters that he had been meeting regularly with FBI officials since the 1930s to report on the faculty, and that a Rockefeller Foundation memorandum of January 27, 1942 indicated that he had also monitored files of "enemy aliens" in the early 1940s for the federal district attorney.19 According to Sidney Hook, Johnson on at least one occasion "wanted to get rid of a Communist Party member" but "delegated it to Clara Mayer." The Graduate Faculty charter adopted an explicitly anticommunist clause in 1940, after difficulties with the State Department and immigration authorities.19 In early 1942 Johnson requested a meeting at which he and Staudinger appeared before a panel drawn from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Visa Division, Naval Intelligence and the Army, and Johnson had to defend himself against charges of heading a "Communist outfit."20 In the early 1950s the school's administration received "inquiries from congressional and Senate committees, the FBI, and numerous individuals."21 Johnson also sat on a wartime enemy alien hearing board whose cases had been "well prepared in advance by the FBI."11

Graduate Faculty and wartime government work

The Office of Strategic Services considered the New School "the best collection of German, left-leaning intellectuals in the United States." Over two hundred students who had studied at the University in Exile worked for the government during the war, and New School scholars were involved in more than twenty-five government-associated projects.22 Foreign nationals on the faculty could not work directly for Washington, so agencies used intermediaries at the Rockefeller Foundation to assign projects to them. The National Defense Commission asked the Graduate Faculty in the winter of 1939 to 1940 for analyses of Nazi successes. Organizations that used Graduate Faculty research included the Board of Economic Warfare, the Foreign Economic Administration, the National Economic and Social Planning Association and the Public Administration Committee of the Social Science Research Council.1322 The Graduate Faculty also produced a translation of Hitler's Mein Kampf in 1938 and 1939, which Bessner writes the OSS and the OWI used, possibly through Speier.13

The Research Project on Totalitarian Communication, led by Speier and the psychoanalyst Ernst Kris, was funded by the Rockefeller Foundation until 1943.23 The project ran from 1940 to 1944 in the school's finding aid.24 The preface of its 1944 book dates the start of work to April 1, 1941. The Rockefeller Foundation granted $15,960 in March 1941 and $19,000 in 1942, and Johnson housed the staff in New School rooms, which Bessner attributes to his wish to show the government and the intellectual community that he was not hiding a fifth column. Its research papers went to agencies in Washington, London and Ottawa.25 Its analysts studied radio broadcasts from totalitarian countries and coordinated their work with the British Broadcasting Corporation and United States agencies. Many of the researchers later held federal posts.23 The project's staff included Sidney Axelrad, Joe Carmichael, Rose M. Chayes, Henry Elkin, Erik Estorik, Jacob Goldstein, Hans Herma, George Hilton, Eleanor Horn, Gertrud Kurth, Stanley Lipkin, Janice Loeb, Rita Lowe, Margaret P. Mascret, Alexander Mintz, George A. Nelson Jr., Margaret Otis, Heinz Paechter, Thomas Rubinstein, Dorothy L. Sandler, Joseph Shor, Ursula Wasserman, Florence Weil and Howard B. White.26 The project's 1944 book, German Radio Propaganda, went to allied agencies, and the acting head of the British Political Warfare Mission in Washington called it "a magnificent piece of work."27

Exiles from the Graduate Faculty held wartime posts across the government. Bessner's list places Franz Borkenau, Joseph Bornstein, Leo Löwenthal and Heinz Paechter at the Office of War Information, and Felix Gilbert, Emil Gumbel, Arkadij Gurland, Hajo Holborn, Otto Kirchheimer, Herbert Marcuse, Franz Neumann and Sigmund Neumann at the Office of Strategic Services.28

Speier's wartime career ran from the project into the Foreign Broadcast Intelligence Service, where Goodwin Watson, head of its Analysis Division, offered him the post of Senior Political Analyst in February 1942; he became Principal Political Analyst in November 1942, and Bessner writes that Watson later "left the FBIS under pressure from enemies of the New Deal, and Speier became the FBIS's Acting Chief Analyst."2930 On May 22, 1944 he transferred to the Office of War Information's Overseas Operations Branch.30 A connection he made at the OWI with Leo Rosten brought him to the Rand Corporation, where he headed the Social Science Division from July 1948.3132 John Foster Dulles, a Rockefeller Foundation trustee, urged the Foundation after the war to continue work in this field in order to counter Soviet propaganda in Europe.23

Institute of World Affairs

The Institute of World Affairs was founded as an independent unit of the New School in 1943, taking over the collective research projects of the Graduate Faculty, and was redesignated the Research Division in 1953. It developed from a Study Group on Germany and from the Totalitarian Communication Project organized by Speier and Kris, and its studies included work done in conjunction with, or on the commission of, United States war offices, among them Germany's Position in European Postwar Reconstruction. Max Ascoli handled initial planning and fund-raising until Adolph Lowe became director of research in 1942.33 The records' abstract gives 1942 as the founding year.34 Funding for 1943 to 1951 is reported at $630,000, from Independent Aid, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Viking Fund, the Hebrew Technical Institute, the Rosenwald Foundation and individual donors.33 Bessner describes the Institute as "a research center funded by Doris Duke."35 Independent Aid, Inc. was the first charitable foundation established by Doris Duke; it was incorporated in Delaware in October 1934 and renamed the Doris Duke Foundation in October 1951.36

In October 1943 Albert Salomon asked Speier to join the Institute's council. Speier replied that he "would like to be helpful, if I am wanted," and later withdrew his declaration to serve "in principle" pending further information, writing to Lowe on February 25, 1944 that he did not want to be considered a member of the council.37 Bessner states that he came to believe he was being "used as a pawn in ridiculous faculty politics."37 In 1947 and 1948 he planned a Division of International Studies, which was elected on December 17, 1947 and never realized.38

Ecole Libre des Hautes Etudes

In 1941 Johnson facilitated the establishment of the Ecole Libre des Hautes Etudes at the New School, also called the Free French School. Between 1942 and 1946 it offered courses, mostly in French, in the social sciences and humanities. The Ecole Libre was recognized by the de Gaulle and Belgian governments as equivalent to a university degree. Its board included Henri Focillon, Jean Perrin, Paul van Zeeland, Jacques Maritain and Gustave Cohen. Some faculty held that the school should be scholarly and non-political, while others, supporters of the Free France movement led by Charles de Gaulle, held that it had an intrinsic relationship to that movement. The Ecole Libre was severed from the New School in June 1947.39

Faculty

Leo Strauss came to the school on a path that ran through the Rockefeller Foundation. The Foundation and Harold Laski of the London School of Economics recommended him to Johnson.40 Strauss taught at the New School from 1938 to 1948.41 Hannah Arendt was University Professor in Philosophy from 1967 to 1975. The school's archive holds her office files, including correspondence with Elizabeth Young-Bruehl from 1969 to 1975.42 The Rockefeller Foundation records list a grant in aid to Arendt under the New School.43

Riezler, a diplomat and philosopher, emigrated at the end of 1938 and held a Graduate Faculty post. The Editors' Note in the Spring 1956 issue of Social Research states that he was Professor of Philosophy from 1939 to 1952, when he became Professor Emeritus; Wayne C. Thompson writes that he retired in 1952, the Marbach authority record gives his New School affiliation as circa 1939 to 1954, and the Neue Deutsche Biographie has him returning to Rome in 1954.44454647 Johnson recorded Riezler as his last appointment: "With Riezler the roster was closed."48 The Institute of World Affairs finding aid lists him among the Study Group on Germany, attended by Eduard Heimann, Erich Hula, Karl Mayer, Albert Salomon, Strauss, Horace Kallen and Felix Kaufmann, and among the researchers associated with the University in Exile.33 The papers of Reuben Abel list him among the lecturers Abel attended, and the school's faculty vertical files hold a file for him.4950 Riezler and Strauss taught two courses together in the mid-1940s, one on Aristotle's De anima and Descartes's Passions of the Soul with Solomon Asch and one on Plato's Theaetetus with Alexandre Koyré, and Riezler published "Some Critical Remarks on Man's Science of Man" in Social Research in 1945.5152 Strauss's eulogy for Riezler appeared in Social Research in 1956 beside a memorial article by Theodor Heuss. His daughter Maria married the New School professor Howard B. D. White.475354 Ascoli joined the University in Exile in late 1933 after Johnson recruited him as one of two Rockefeller scholars, and he later edited The Reporter.55

Wilhelm Reich appears in the school's archive through a bound photocopy of his 1940 New School lectures, transcribed from the archive of the Orgone Institute.56 The NYPL files list a Reich file for 1939 and 1940 under non-grantees.17 An official of the school, whose name is redacted, told FBI agents in December 1941 that Reich had been an associate professor for two years, during 1939 and 1940, at about $1,500 a year, and that the connection ended after the spring term of 1941; the school, the official said, "makes no inquiry of their political views or background."57 The same official described Reich as conducting "a lecture in psychiatry" and said he "claims to have a cure-all for cancer," all of which the official "stated smacked of 'quack' tactics on subject's part."57 A Bureau memorandum of May 6, 1941 records that Reich's non-quota visa of August 11, 1939 was issued because his "New York Seminar for Vegetotherapy" was part of the New School; the immigration record gives his arrival as August 28, 1939 and his destination as the school at 66 West 12th Street, and the New York report names "Dr. Alvin Johnson, Director" as the destination.58 A Bureau summary of February 1957 (M. A. Jones to L. B. Nichols) condenses the 1941 interview to a statement that Reich entered the United States in 1939, taught psychology at the New School "until let out by the school because his teaching 'smacked of quack tactics,'" and was apprehended as a German alien on December 12, 1941.59 The school's archive also keeps a faculty vertical file for Gregory Bateson.60 Erich Fromm taught courses at the school from 1941 to 1959.61

Parapsychology listings and teaching, 1968 to 1994

The school appears in several parapsychology directories and reports in the CIA-held STARGATE record. A special report in the Princeton Alumni Weekly by Robert G. Jahn lists the New School among the colleges and universities in its survey of psychic research in the Western world.62 The 1975 survey New Psychic Frontiers by Walter Uphoff and Mary Jo Uphoff lists under the New School an entry naming Robert M. Brier, Martin Ebon, Gilbert Roller and others at 66 West 12th Street, New York 10011, in its chapter on research, investigation and teaching; the same survey places Brier at C.W. Post College in its philosophy department and Hans Holzer at the New York Institute of Technology.63 The Gilbert Roller of this entry is the Gilbert Roller who as a teenager took part in the early 1930s Bindelof séance circle: Rosemarie Pilkington, author of The Spirit of Dr. Bindelof, wrote in 2007 that she "knew Gil Roller for more than 30 years" and called the first part of her book an account of "Gil Roller's and the Bindelof group's extraordinary experiences."64

The school's Bulletin for spring 1975 lists "Experimental Parapsychology" (course 2750-0, Bob Brier, Wednesdays from February 5, $90), "Paramechanics: A Study of Paranormal Psychical Phenomena" (2755-3, Gilbert Roller, Tuesdays from February 4, $90), "The Challenge of Psychic Phenomena" (2760-3, Edith Wegman) and a parapsychology course by Parimal Das (5747-3). Roller's faculty biography reads that he conducted investigations into paranormal phenomena, particularly physical manifestations, and was a faculty member of F.I.T. and president of Hepworth Films Corp.; Parapsychology Review reported that Roller taught a course on telekinesis, poltergeists and ectoplasmia.65 Ebon's own lecture series "Parapsychology: From Magic to Science" ran from 1966 to 1968, and The Writer's Directory lists him as lecturer in the Division of Social Sciences in 1949 to 1950, 1955 to 1956 and 1967.66 The archive holds a file "Eileen J. Garrett Scholarship, 1975" and a file "Soviet Affairs Forum: Related Courses, 1964 January 29."67

The 1968 Journal of Parapsychology index lists the New School for Social Research, New York, at pages 171 to 173, within the pages (167-175) of the article "The Possible Effect of the Checker in Precognition" by Sara R. Feather and Robert Brier.68

The author biography of Gilbert Roller's 1975 book A Voice From Beyond states that he teaches a course in paramechanics at the New School for Social Research in New York City, which "comprises an inquiry into telekinesis, poltergeists, ectoplasm and thought photography." The same biography records a childhood poltergeist, his mother's séances and a teenage group of friends who "held séances regularly for about two years."69

A 1982 engineering article by Jahn in the Proceedings of the IEEE (February 1982) includes a roster of United States universities and colleges where parapsychology is pursued that names the New School for Social Research, and the same roster appears in a 1991 anthology compiled by Science Applications International Corporation.70 A conference program circulated by email in March 1994 lists Sheila Davis of the New School with a paper titled "Cerebral function, Jungian typology and language style: Toward a new theory."71

MKULTRA projects, 1962

The school's archive holds a folder of the records of president John R. Everett headed "Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), 1977-1978." The folder contains correspondence between Everett and the CIA about the release of MKULTRA details, including the release of universities' involvement, and "a report of two projects conducted at the New School in 1962 that received funding through MKUltra." The first attempted to discern relationships between body type and personality characteristics, and the second concerned graphology and psychopathologies. The description states that the researchers on at least one of them appear to have been unaware of CIA sponsorship.72 The description does not name the researchers or give subproject numbers. Two released subproject files, Subprojects 134 and 137, match the two descriptions and are set out on the Project MKUltra page.73

The copy of the two subproject files that the CIA sent the school on September 7, 1977 carries red insertions of the school's name on the Subproject 134 memorandum of May 29, 1961 and on the Subproject 137 memorandum of August 24, 1961, where the insertion reads "New School for Social Research, New York City." The agency's cover letter, signed by A. R. Cinquegrana of the Office of General Counsel, states that "the name of the School has been reinserted wherever it appears in the original documents."74 The investigators' names remain blacked out in that copy.75

The agency first notified the school by a letter from General Counsel Anthony A. Lapham that Everett's reply of August 16, 1977 calls "Your letter of August 12th." Everett wrote that it "came as quite a shock to me," that the relevant people at the school "know nothing about the matter," and that "some have left and others have died."76 The school's typed draft statement on the notification, undated, states that the school "chose not to notify either its own members or the public of its involvement pending its receipt of additional information from the CIA."77 Cinquegrana wrote on March 17, 1978 that "to date we have received no response from your institution."78

The graphology teacher Klara G. Roman taught at the school from 1948 until shortly before her death in 1962. Her Encyclopedia of the Written Word, a graphology lexicon, was edited after her death by Maurice Edwards and Rose Wolfson, and its acknowledgments thank "The Handwriting Institute and The Human Ecology Fund" and Daniel S. Anthony "of The New School for Social Research."79 Subproject 137, a $2,000 grant paid in 1961 for the manuscript of a graphology lexicon by an unnamed woman who died in 1962, has a curriculum vitae in the released file that lists the invention of a "Graphodyne"; Roman invented the graphodyne. The CIA copy does not name her. The Human Ecology Fund's 1961-1963 report, as tabulated by David H. Price, lists $2,000 to "Roman, Klara G."73 The first project, on body type and personality, matches Subproject 134, whose investigator is not named in the released file. Frank Haronian, the Subproject 134 investigator, received a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the New School for Social Research in 1963. He had been a school psychologist in the Somerville, New Jersey, school district since 1950, and later co-authored papers with A. Arthur Sugerman at the New Jersey Bureau of Research in Neurology and Psychiatry.80

On October 9, 1977, the New York Times reported that the list of 80 institutions given to Senate investigators "is still classified, but each of those institutions has been notified separately by the C.I.A." that it had hosted agency research, and that 26 colleges and universities had acknowledged the research publicly.81

Presidents

The finding aid for the school's presidential records lists Hans Simons (1950 to 1961), Henry David (1961 to 1963), Robert MacIver (1963 to 1964) and Everett (1964 to 1982).82 The school's history and the Adult Division records date Simons's retirement from the presidency to 1960, when he moved to a consultancy and directorship with the Ford Foundation.8384 The press releases for the appointment of Henry David fall between January 18 and March 19, 1961, and his inauguration was held on October 23, 1961.8586

Simons's presidency is also documented in the school's own files. His "Future of the New School," dated September 18, 1958, responds in a Publicity Office record to what the finding aid calls the "McGrath Report."87 The New School Associates records hold a presidential talk on "Hans Simon's report on India," dated January 28, 1960.88

Everett's tenure is described as one of the longest in the school's history, second only to Johnson's.89 The New School Archives' Everett records list Everett's presidency as 1964 to 1982 and describe the Everett papers' Britannica period as 1962 to 1964, before his New School appointment.90 The trustees elected Jonathan F. Fanton president in May 1982, to take office on September 1, 1982.91 The New York Times in 2000 described Fanton as "appointed in 1984" when he left the $250,000 post in September 1999 for the MacArthur Foundation, and on February 17, 2000 the school named Bob Kerrey, who said he had been planning to run for a third Senate term until the school approached him, as its seventh president, to start after he left the Senate in January 2001.92 A fact sheet captured by the Internet Archive on December 11, 2000 lists John L. Tishman as chairman of the board of trustees, Arnold H. Aronson, Michael E. Gellert and Nancy B. Peretsman as vice chairs and Philip Scaturro as treasurer, and names Scaturro as chancellor, Elizabeth Dickey as acting provost and James Murtha as executive vice president.93 Kerrey was installed at Carnegie Hall on February 20, 2001, with Tishman, "Chair of the Board of Trustees," giving remarks, and Tenet Healthcare's proxy statement of August 2001 gives him as "President of New School University in New York City since January 2001."94 On December 10, 2008 the faculty voted no confidence in him, which the Chronicle of Higher Education described as "nearly unanimous" with 74 votes in favor, two against and one abstention in a summary by Faculty Senate co-chair Jim Miller; the trustees met the same day and, in a university statement, unanimously expressed confidence in him. On June 30, 2008 the school had announced that Julien J. Studley, chairman and chief executive of Studley New Vista Associates, would succeed Scaturro as chairman of the board of trustees effective July 1, 2008; the release described Scaturro as having "served as Chairman since 2002" and said he "will continue to serve as a member of The New School's Board of Trustees."95 The amNewYork newspaper reported on December 23, 2008 that a majority of senior faculty approved a no-confidence measure "by a vote of 269 to 18" after a Faculty Senate meeting a week before the student occupation of the cafeteria at 65 Fifth Avenue.96 The same report lists among the occupation's demands the resignation of "Robert Millard, the treasurer of the board of trustees," along with Kerrey and the school's vice president James Murtha.97 David E. Van Zandt, dean and professor of law at the Northwestern University School of Law, was announced on August 26, 2010 as the eighth president and took office on January 1, 2011, with Kerrey remaining president until the end of 2010; Van Zandt's installation ceremony took place on September 15, 2011, and the archive's biographical note for Kerrey dates his presidency "from 2001 through 2010."9899 Dwight A. McBride was the ninth president from 2020 to 2023, Donna Shalala served as interim president from August 2023, and Joel Towers, a member of the school since 2004 and a former executive dean of Parsons School of Design, was appointed the tenth president effective August 1, 2024.100

In April and May 2013, after Kerrey's resignation as president emeritus in February of that year, Jeffrey Epstein's office arranged his dinner of April 23 and breakfast of May 5 through a scheduler whose signature reads "Scheduler/ Asst. to Bob Kerrey" at The New School, 80 Fifth Avenue, Room 806.101 A different scheduler with the same title and address handled the June 4 lunch and a September 2013 inquiry.102 A LinkedIn notice to Epstein dated July 30, 2013, reporting that Kerrey had accepted his invitation, lists Kerrey as "President at New School University".103

Trustees and finances

Scaturro was elected chairman of the board of trustees for a three-year term beginning in July 2002, succeeding Tishman, who had chaired the board since 1995. A 2002 release describes him as executive vice president and managing director of Allen and Company, as a trustee since 1989, as treasurer of the board since 1995 and as chancellor from 1999 to June 2002.104 He was chairman of the board in 2004, when Peggy Brim Bewkes, Eileen Naughton, Richard Reiss Jr. and Bernard L. Schwartz, chairman and chief executive of Loral Space & Communications, joined the Board of Trustees on September 1.105 On November 4, 2004 the school announced a $10 million grant from the Starr Foundation, the largest foundation gift in its history, to establish the India China Institute, led by Provost Arjun Appadurai and Graduate Faculty dean Benjamin Lee, and a $3.7 million gift from Schwartz for the Bernard Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis and the Irene and Bernard L. Schwartz Professorship of Economics and Policy. The announcement attributes the Schwartz gift to Schwartz and, in Kerrey's quoted remarks, to the Bernard and Irene Schwartz Foundation.106

On November 9, 2001, the school announced a gift of $1.1 million from Schwartz, then chairman and chief executive of Loral Space & Communications, for the Bernard L. Schwartz Lecture Series and Project in Markets, Equality and Democracy, a four-year project based at the Graduate Faculty's Center for Economic Policy Analysis.107 The November 4, 2004 release says the center had been established in September 2004 and would be renamed the Bernard Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis "in recognition of the Schwartz Foundation's gift," and that it would continue to sponsor the Irene and Bernard Schwartz Lecture.108

The same release describes the Starr Foundation as established in 1955 by Cornelius Vander Starr, an insurance entrepreneur who founded the American International family of insurance companies, now American International Group, and as holding assets of approximately $3.5 billion.109 The House Select Committee on U.S. National Security and Military/Commercial Concerns with the People's Republic of China deposed Schwartz on November 21, 1998 and reported that Schwartz, chairman and chief executive of Loral Space & Communications, Ltd., met directly with Commerce Secretary Ron Brown on at least four occasions after 1993.110

The school's fiscal 2022 Form 990 lists Linda E. Rappaport as chair, Elliot Stein, Franci J. Blassberg and Susan L. Foote as vice chairs, and McBride as president with reportable compensation of $815,044 and estimated other compensation of $604,206; the trustees listed include Beth Rudin DeWoody and Bevis Longstreth.111 The school's board page lists current trustees without titles, with Rappaport first and Towers as president ex officio; life trustees include Scaturro, who was the school's chancellor when Kerrey was named.92112 The school's federal filings, retrieved through the ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer summary data for EIN 13-3297197, show total revenue of $602,901,362 and total assets of $1,706,553,269 for the fiscal year ending June 2023. Contributions reported in that year were $35,451,892, down from $55,910,574 in fiscal 2022.113

Federal awards

USAspending.gov records list several federal awards to The New School. The largest defense award is an Air Force assistance award, FA95501410030, for $6,176,482 with a period of performance from December 15, 2013 to March 14, 2019, under the title "Dynamics of Sacred Values and Social Responsibilities in Governance and Conflict Management."114 The Minerva Research Initiative lists a project with the same title, 2014 to 2019, managed by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, with Jeremy Ginges of the school as principal investigator and Scott Atran, Richard Davis, Douglas Medin, John Alderdice, Adolf Tobena and Oscar Vilarroya as co-principal investigators.115 An earlier Defense Technical Information Center final report, "Mutual Influence of Moral Values, Mental Models and Social Dynamics on Intergroup Conflict," covering May 2010 to April 2013 under Air Force Office of Scientific Research contracts, names Atran as principal investigator with Medin, Ginges and Davis as co-investigators.116 A National Science Foundation award of $653,245 beginning May 1, 2016 carries the title "The Devoted Actor: Sacred Values, Identity Fusion and Intergroup Conflict."115 Other records include a 2009 Army award of $1,370,000 for "Northern Chicago Clinic EMR Development," a 2011 Defense Department award of $1,048,998 for a "Multi-Inclusion, Universal Client Electronic Health Record," a 2012 Defense Department award of $522,399 for "Design and Visualization Best Practice," and a 2009 Energy Department award of $1,903,000 for the school's green building.114

Epstein payments

Bank statements for Jeffrey Epstein's account at Deutsche Bank record payments to the school. The August 2015 statement lists an outgoing transfer on August 6 of $16,083.00 to a Bank of America account, with the beneficiary line "E NEW SCHOOL OPERATING ACCOUNT."117 The October 2016 statement lists a preauthorized debit dated October 27 of $17,030.00 described as "TUITION THE NEW SCHOOL."118 The May 2017 statement lists a preauthorized debit dated May 10 of $10,856.00 described as "TUITION THE NEW SCHOOL." The same statement page lists an outgoing transfer on May 11 of $3,589.00 through Sterling National Bank with the beneficiary line "FASHION INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY."119 A Deutsche Bank presentation to the Office of the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, dated September 12, 2019, lists in an exhibit titled "Tuition Payments on Behalf of Children / Women" nine payments to The New School from Epstein accounts: $29,025 on February 4, 2014; $15,704 on January 5, 2015; $4,730 on June 12, 2015; $16,083 on August 6, 2015; $16,656 on December 9, 2015; $4,420 on June 14, 2016; $16,850 on July 8, 2016; $3,756 on January 13, 2017; and $8,790 on January 10, 2019. The exhibit's only New York Film Academy entry is $3,442 on March 10, 2017.120

Emails released by the Department of Justice show the payments were for one student's tuition, invoiced by the school each term from fall 2014 to spring 2019. Epstein's bookkeeper Bella Klein wired the payments, and his accountant Richard Kahn forwarded invoices for approval. On December 9, 2015, Klein asked Epstein to "confirm that i can proceed with wire in the amount of $16,656," and he replied "yes."121 On September 20, 2016, Kahn forwarded a fall invoice with "approval to pay thank you."122 The fall 2015 invoice of $16,083 matches the August 6, 2015 wire to the school's operating account.123 On August 1, 2018, Klein wrote: "Today I paid balance for her fall semester in the amount of $7719."124 The spring 2019 invoice was $8,790.125

Relationships 42

Funded by
  • Dorothy Payne Whitney, from 19191
  • Hiram J. Halle, from 1933, principal funding, with the Rockefeller Foundation, for the University in Exile2
  • Rockefeller Foundation, from 1933, co-funded faculty appointments and the Research Project on Totalitarian Communication16
  • Project MKUltra, 1961–1962, two 1962 projects at the school, per the Everett file; subproject numbers not stated there72
  • Bernard L. Schwartz, from 2001, $1.1 million for the Bernard L. Schwartz Lecture Series and Project in Markets, Equality and Democracy39
  • Bernard L. Schwartz, from 2004, $3.7 million for the Bernard Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis and an endowed professorship41
  • Starr Foundation, from 2004, $10 million grant to establish the India China Institute106
  • United States Department of the Air Force, from 2013, assistance award FA95501410030, $6,176,482, on the dynamics of sacred values114
  • Jeffrey Epstein, 2014–2019, tuition and transfers paid from Epstein accounts, as recorded in Deutsche Bank statements and a Deutsche Bank exhibit126
Headed by
  • Alvin Johnson, 1922–1946, director, later president1
  • Hans Simons, 1950–1961, president17
  • John R. Everett, 1964–1982, president4
  • Jonathan F. Fanton, 1982–1999, president91
  • Philip Scaturro, 1999–2002, chancellor1
  • Bob Kerrey, 2001–2010, seventh president2
  • David E. Van Zandt, from 2011, eighth president98
  • Dwight A. McBride, 2020–2023, ninth president100
  • Donna Shalala, 2023–2024, interim president100
  • Joel Towers, from 2024, tenth president100
Employer of
  • Max Ascoli, from 1933, Graduate Faculty member from late 1933; dean of the Graduate Faculty of Political and Social Science from 19405
  • Hans Speier, 1933–1948, professor of sociology8
  • Leo Strauss, 1938–1948, Graduate Faculty member1
  • Kurt Riezler, 1939–1952, professor of philosophy, Graduate Faculty58
  • Wilhelm Reich, 1939–1941, associate professor lecturing in psychiatry (as reported by a New School official to the FBI)12
  • Klara G. Roman, 1948–1962, graphology course instructor; taught from 1948 until shortly before her death1
  • Martin Ebon, 1966–1968, Lecturer, Division of Social Sciences; lecture series Parapsychology: From Magic to Science25
  • Hannah Arendt, 1967–1975, University Professor in Philosophy42
  • Gilbert Roller, 1975, Instructor, course 2755-3 Paramechanics: A Study of Paranormal Psychical Phenomena8
  • Robert M. Brier, 1975, taught the course Experimental Parapsychology, spring 197513
Participants
  • Robert M. Brier, 1964–1966, Graduate student, studies in psychology and phenomenology1
Founded by
  • Alvin Johnson, from 1919, co-founder1
  • Charles Austin Beard, from 1919, co-founder of the school with James Harvey Robinson and Herbert Croly1
  • James Harvey Robinson, from 1919, co-founder of the school1
Members
  • Frank Haronian, until 1963, doctoral student; Ph.D. in clinical psychology, 19631
  • Hans Speier, from 1933, one of ten founding members of the University in Exile (Graduate Faculty)8
  • Institute of World Affairs, 1943–1953, independent unit of the New School, redesignated Research Division in 19531
Directors

Sources

  1. "The Founding, 1919," Histories of The New School, https://histories.newschool.edu/histories/founding-1919 (the Columbia dismissals of Dana and Cattell, the resignations of Beard and Robinson, Robinson's approach to Croly, Beard's "Endowment spells dry rot," and the 1919 proposal). ↩
  2. "Dorothy Payne Whitney Straight Elmhirst," Histories of The New School, https://histories.newschool.edu/people/dorothy-payne-whitney-straight-elmhirst (the 1916 discussions, the husband's warning and the pledge of $10,000 a year for ten years). ↩
  3. Peter M. Rutkoff and William B. Scott, New School: A History of The New School for Social Research (New York: Free Press, 1986), pp. 11, 19, 21 (Dorothy Straight's pledges "nearly $300,000, much of it from Dorothy Straight"; townhouse "paid for largely by Dorothy Straight"). ↩
  4. Alvin Johnson, Pioneer's Progress (Viking, 1952; University of Nebraska Press, 1960), p. 273: women's group including Mrs. Willard Straight, Mrs. Learned Hand and "later Mrs. Thomas W. Lamont." ↩
  5. Rutkoff and Scott, New School, pp. 28, 35, 45: the 1922 crisis; the board members who stayed (Croly, Mitchell, Caroline Bacon, Dorothy Straight, Emily Putnam); and the Rockefeller, Carnegie and Rosenwald refusal of an early endowment request, with "could not count on the Rockefellers, the Whitneys, the Goodyears, or the Guggenheims" on p. 44. ↩
  6. Rutkoff and Scott, New School, p. 30: Johnson's April 1922 letter to Dorothy Straight after taking over as director, with the phrase "To put it baldly, I have usurped the". ↩
  7. Tara Mastrelli, "'In the Name of Freedom': a Review of Judith Friedlander's A Light in Dark Times (2018, Columbia University Press)," International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society 34 (2021), pp. 125-135, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10767-019-09344-5, notes citing the New School Archives and Special Collections and the Dartington Hall Trust Archives. ↩
  8. Cornell University Library, "Dorothy Whitney Straight Elmhirst papers," #3725, https://archives.library.cornell.edu/repositories/2/resources/1281. ↩
  9. FBI, summary memorandum of September 10, 1969 and teletypes on the interview of Milton C. Rose, in "Straight, Michael W., HQ-1" (FOI/PA 1179375-1), https://archive.org/details/StraightMichaelW.HQ1. ↩
  10. "University in Exile," Histories of The New School, https://histories.newschool.edu/histories/university-exile (Johnson's correspondence with German-speaking scholars through the Encyclopaedia, $60,000 a year for two years, a faculty of fifteen at $4,000 each, the gift of "the whole $60,000" from Halle, the ten original members, six added by 1935, and the lists of original members). Johnson's own account (p. 340) gives $60,000 a year for two years. ↩
  11. Johnson, Pioneer's Progress, p. 340: Halle's call, "I am prepared to guarantee the sixty thousand a year for two years," Frank Altschul's vouching for Halle's credit and the concern that other donors would not contribute if they knew Halle would carry the whole load; p. 370: Johnson appointed to an enemy alien hearing board with Maurice Davidson and Joseph Leary Delaney, with cases "well prepared in advance by the FBI." ↩
  12. Rutkoff and Scott, New School, p. 92: Halle "had pledged the entire sum that Johnson required," Johnson "had collected only between $7,000 and $15,000," and Halle "made his fortune in petroleum refining and finance." Halle's anonymity is reported on the same page. ↩
  13. Daniel Bessner, "The Night Watchman: Hans Speier and the Making of the American National Security State" (PhD diss., Duke University, 2013), pp. 80-81, 85-86, 129 note 38 and 138-139, https://dukespace.lib.duke.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/232a76ac-f2d8-4827-99fe-50b3b109fa6c/content. ↩
  14. New School Archives and Special Collections, "Hiram Halle home movies of annual barbecue for University in Exile at Pound Ridge," Collection NA-0008-01, biographical note and scope and contents. https://aspace.archives.newschool.edu/repositories/3/resources/256 ↩
  15. Institute for Advanced Study, Digital Collections, "Bust of Albert Einstein," Jacob Epstein. https://albert.ias.edu/20.500.12111/1500 ↩
  16. Rutkoff and Scott, New School, p. 86: Johnson and the Rockefeller Foundation "had agreed to rescue" a dozen individuals; p. 91: Tracy Kittredge, "an associate in the Paris office of the Rockefeller Foundation," wrote on March 29, 1933; p. 94: "the Emergency Committee, acting for the Rockefeller Foundation." ↩
  17. New York Public Library, Emergency Committee in Aid of Displaced Foreign Scholars records, MssCol 922, https://archives.nypl.org/mss/922 (biographical note: founding in May 1933 by Cohn, Flexner and Stein contacting Duggan; Warburg and Gregg as advisers; Farrand as chair; Murrow as assistant secretary until 1935; 335 grants from about 6,000 applicants; Series I.B "Non-Grantees" with Riezler box 107 folder 16 (1933-1934, 1940), Speier box 118 folder 17 (1934, 1940), Ascoli box 38 folder 46 (1933-1935, 1939-1943), Colm box 50 folder 5 (1933-1941), Brecht box 46 folder 36, Simons box 117 folder 3 (1933-1943), Staudinger box 119 folder 3, Marschak box 93 folder 52, Lowe box 91 folder 23, Lederer box 86 folder 44 and Reich box 105 folder 36 (1939-1940)). ↩
  18. Johnson, Pioneer's Progress, p. 344: "Stephen Duggan, of the Institute for International Education, invited me to lunch." ↩
  19. Rutkoff and Scott, New School, p. 226: "in his private letters he acknowledged that he had been meeting regularly with FBI officials since the 1930s to report on the faculty"; Sidney Hook says Johnson "delegated it to Clara Mayer"; the 1940 "explicitly anticommunist clause in its charter"; and a Rockefeller Foundation memorandum of January 27, 1942 ("Hans Eisler File," endnote 22, p. 296) on enemy-alien files; the endnote names no author for the memorandum. ↩
  20. Rutkoff and Scott, New School, p. 135: "a governmental panel comprised of representatives from the FBI, the Visa Division, Naval Intelligence, and the Department of the Army," with Johnson, Staudinger and Makinsky appearing in early 1942. ↩
  21. Rutkoff and Scott, New School, p. 228. ↩
  22. Daniel Bessner, "The Night Watchman: Hans Speier and the Making of the American National Security State" (PhD diss., Duke University, 2013), https://dukespace.lib.duke.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/232a76ac-f2d8-4827-99fe-50b3b109fa6c/content, pp. 137-138 (the OSS quotation, over two hundred students, "over twenty-five government-associated projects," and the Rockefeller intermediaries), citing Claus-Dieter Krohn, Intellectuals in Exile: Refugee Scholars and the New School for Social Research (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1993), pp. 139-149, 165-167. ↩
  23. "Rockefeller Foundation Support for Communications Media in the 1930s and 1940s," Rockefeller Archive Center, RE:source, https://resource.rockarch.org/story/rockefeller-foundation-support-for-communications-media-in-the-1930s-and-1940s/ (Kris and Speier's study of totalitarian communication, coordinated with the BBC and government agencies; Rockefeller funding ending in 1943; researchers entering federal service; John Foster Dulles as a Foundation trustee urging post-war work; Bryce Wood's caution). ↩
  24. New School Archives and Special Collections, "Research Project on Totalitarian Communication, 1940-1944," https://findingaids.archives.newschool.edu/repositories/3/archival_objects/27451 (led by Speier and Kris for the Research Center of the Graduate Faculty, funded by the Rockefeller Foundation). ↩
  25. Ernst Kris and Hans Speier, German Radio Propaganda (New York: Oxford University Press, 1944), Preface; New School Archives, NS-02-16-01, Series 3, https://findingaids.archives.newschool.edu/repositories/3/archival_objects/27451; Bessner, "The Night Watchman," pp. 130-131 and note 47. ↩
  26. Bessner, "The Night Watchman," p. 131 n. 47, citing the New School Archives, "Totalitarianism Research Project," Box 1. ↩
  27. Bessner, "The Night Watchman," p. 131 n. 49, citing Walter Adams to Ernst Kris, May 8, 1944, Speier Papers, Box 3, Folder 134, and John Marshall's reply. ↩
  28. Daniel Morris Bessner, "The Night Watchman: Hans Speier and the Making of the American National Security State" (PhD dissertation, Duke University, 2013), introduction, pp. 14-15 and note 16. The dissertation lists "Gurland" in note 16 and "Gurman" in the introduction's list, and the page image of the introduction (printed p. 14) confirms the printed "Gurman" is a typographical slip for Arkadij Gurland. ↩
  29. Bessner, "The Night Watchman," p. 137 (Watson "left the FBIS under pressure from enemies of the New Deal, and Speier became the FBIS's Acting Chief Analyst"). ↩
  30. Bessner, "The Night Watchman," pp. 132-137 (the offer of February 1942; Principal Political Analyst, November 1942) and pp. 145-146 (transfer to the Overseas Operations Branch on May 22, 1944). ↩
  31. Bessner, "The Night Watchman," introduction, p. 13 (the connection made at the OWI with Leo Rosten "brought Speier to the RAND Corporation"). ↩
  32. Bessner, "The Night Watchman," pp. 194-195 (consultant May 1948, head of the Social Science Division July 1948). ↩
  33. The New School Archives and Special Collections, "Institute of World Affairs records," record group NS-02-16-01, historical note and scope and contents. https://findingaids.archives.newschool.edu/repositories/3/resources/235 ↩
  34. Same finding aid, abstract. https://findingaids.archives.newschool.edu/repositories/3/resources/235 ↩
  35. Daniel Bessner, "The Night Watchman: Hans Speier and the Making of the American National Security State" (PhD diss., Duke University, 2013), p. 164. https://dukespace.lib.duke.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/232a76ac-f2d8-4827-99fe-50b3b109fa6c/content. ↩
  36. Duke University Libraries, Rubenstein Library, "Guide to the Independent Aid, Inc. Records, 1934-1954," RL.01439, https://archives.lib.duke.edu/catalog/uaindaid ; "Doris Duke Foundation records, 1934-2009, bulk 1948-1982," RL.00318, https://archives.lib.duke.edu/catalog/dorisdukefound (subject files "New School Refugee Fund, 1940-1946" and "New School, 1952-1959"). ↩
  37. Bessner, "The Night Watchman," pp. 164-165 and notes 3, 9 and 11 (Speier to Lowe, February 25, 1944; Speier Papers, Box 4, Folder 14). ↩
  38. Bessner, "The Night Watchman," pp. 164-170. ↩
  39. New School Archives and Special Collections, "David Hahn École Libre papers," https://findingaids.archives.newschool.edu/repositories/3/resources/526 (Johnson facilitated the school in 1941; courses 1942 to 1946; recognition by the de Gaulle and Belgian governments; board members Focillon, Perrin, Van Zeeland, Maritain and Cohen; severance from the New School in June 1947). ↩
  40. Rutkoff and Scott, New School, p. 146: "The Rockefeller Foundation and Harold Laski of the London School of Economics recommended Strauss to Alvin Johnson." ↩
  41. "Leo Strauss," Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/strauss-leo/ (the New School years, 1938 to 1948). ↩
  42. New School Archives and Special Collections, "Hannah Arendt New School faculty files," https://aspace.archives.newschool.edu/repositories/3/resources/233 (University Professor in Philosophy, 1967 to 1975; office files; correspondence with Elizabeth Young-Bruehl, 1969 to 1975). ↩
  43. Rockefeller Archive Center, search "New School for Social Research," Rockefeller Foundation records, Series 200, folder "New School for Social Research - Hannah Arendt - (Grant in Aid)" (folder title). ↩
  44. Editors' Note, Social Research 23, no. 1 (Spring 1956), p. 233 (footnote to Leo Strauss, "Kurt Riezler, 1882-1955"): "Kurt Riezler was Professor of Philosophy in the Graduate Faculty of the New School from 1939 to 1952, when he became Professor Emeritus." ↩
  45. Thompson, In the Eye of the Storm, p. 232. ↩
  46. Deutsches Literaturarchiv Marbach, Normdaten record PE00079064, "Riezler, Kurt (1882-1955)," affiliations ("New School for Social Research <New York, NY> (1919-1997) (ca. 1939-1954)") and relations ("Liebermann, Käthe (1885-1955), Ehefrau 1915"). https://www.dla-marbach.de/en/catalogue/find/opac/id/PE00079064/ ↩
  47. Becker, Bert, "Riezler, Kurt Karl Joseph Siegmund (Pseudonym J. J. Ruedorffer)," Neue Deutsche Biographie 21 (2003), pp. 618-619, the biographical article on Riezler, including its literature list. https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/gnd118601008.html ↩
  48. Rutkoff and Scott, New School, p. 97 (Riezler's 1932 role at Frankfurt and "philosopher and diplomat Kurt Riezler"); Johnson, Pioneer's Progress, p. 347: "With Riezler the roster was closed." ↩
  49. The New School Archives and Special Collections, "Reuben Abel papers," collection NA-0003-01, scope and contents (list of lecturers). https://findingaids.archives.newschool.edu/repositories/3/resources/165 ↩
  50. The New School Archives and Special Collections, "Riezler, Kurt," File, Box 10, Folder 18, New School faculty vertical files collection (NS-08-02-02). https://findingaids.archives.newschool.edu/repositories/3/archival_objects/43221 ↩
  51. Colen, José A., and Svetozar Minkov, "Leo Strauss on Social and Natural Science: Two Previously Unpublished Papers," The Review of Politics 76, no. 4 (2014), pp. 619-633, introduction, and Strauss's paper "The frame of reference in the social sciences" (Leo Strauss Papers, Box 14, Folder 10). DOI https://doi.org/10.1017/S003467051400059X ↩
  52. Riezler, Kurt, "Some Critical Remarks on Man's Science of Man," Social Research 12, no. 4 (1945), pp. 481-505, as listed in Colen and Minkov. ↩
  53. Strauss, Leo, "Kurt Riezler (1882-1955)," Social Research 23 (1956), pp. 233-258, reprinted in What Is Political Philosophy? And Other Studies (1959). ↩
  54. Heuss, Theodor, "A Word in Memory of Kurt Riezler," Social Research 23, no. 1 (Spring 1956), opening article of the issue. ↩
  55. Rutkoff and Scott, New School, p. 102: "Johnson recruited two additional Rockefeller scholars, Italian political scientist Max Ascoli and Austrian Erich Hula"; p. 118: Ascoli "joined the University in Exile in late 1933," later editor of the Reporter. ↩
  56. New School Archives and Special Collections, "Wilhelm Reich Lectures, New School for Social Research (1940), 2018," https://findingaids.archives.newschool.edu/repositories/3/archival_objects/58166 (bound color photocopy of the 1940 transcripts from the Archives of the Orgone Institute). ↩
  57. FBI New York report of December 24, 1941, "Dr. Wilhelm Reich, Alien Enemy Control," NY file 100-8422, Wilhelm Reich FBI file, Part 1, https://archive.org/details/WilhelmReichFBI. The synopsis of the report gives the arrival date as August 26, 1939; its body and the immigration record give August 28. ↩
  58. FBI memorandum of May 6, 1941 and Washington Field Office report of June 16, 1941, Wilhelm Reich FBI file, Part 1, https://archive.org/details/WilhelmReichFBI. ↩
  59. Federal Bureau of Investigation, file on Dr. Wilhelm Reich, bufile 100-14601, Part 2 of 10, memorandum of M. A. Jones to L. B. Nichols, February 14, 1957, PDF page 123, beginning "Files reflect Wilhelm Reich, Austrian born, entered the U. S. in 1939," archive.org item WilhelmReichFBI, https://archive.org/details/WilhelmReichFBI. The item has ten parts (reich1, reich2, reich3, reich4a, 4b, 4c, reich5a, 5b, 5c, reich6). ↩
  60. New School Archives and Special Collections, "Bateson, Gregory," New School faculty vertical files, NS-08-02-02, Box 1, Folder 20, https://findingaids.archives.newschool.edu/repositories/3/archival_objects/42943. ↩
  61. "Erich Fromm," Histories of The New School, https://histories.newschool.edu/people/erich-fromm (courses at the New School "from 1941 to 1959"). ↩
  62. Robert G. Jahn, "Psychic Process, Energy Transfer, and Things That Go Bump in the Night," Princeton Alumni Weekly special report, "Psychic Research in the Western World: Colleges and Universities" list, CIA CREST, CIA-RDP96-00787R000500070001-1, https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00787r000500070001-1. ↩
  63. Walter and Mary Jo Uphoff, New Psychic Frontiers (Minneapolis: Bolger Publications, 1975), chapter V, pp. 228-229 (C.W. Post College and New School entries; Holzer at the New York Institute of Technology), CIA CREST, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200230018-6, https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00788r001200230018-6. ↩
  64. Rosemarie Pilkington, letter "Three-legged Physical mediumship," Fortean Times 226 (September 2007), pp. 73-74. https://archive.org/details/fortean-times-september-2007 ↩
  65. New School Bulletin, spring 1975, vol. 32, no. 5 (December 27, 1974), pp. 82, 88, 172, 328 and 356, https://books.google.com/books?id=Ez07AAAAMAAJ; Parapsychology Review, news item and volume index entry "Roller, Gilbert, 6:10," https://books.google.com/books?id=sH8YAQAAMAAJ. ↩
  66. John White, ed., Psychic Exploration (New York: Putnam, 1974), https://books.google.com/books?id=MbbxpH5RCaAC; The Writer's Directory, 1998-2000, p. 424, https://books.google.com/books?id=AKgKAB3ClvwC. ↩
  67. New School Archives and Special Collections, Adult Division Office of the Dean records (NS-02-01-01), Series 5, Box 7, Folder 43; NS-03-01-07, Box 2, Folder 2, https://findingaids.archives.newschool.edu/repositories/3. ↩
  68. Journal of Parapsychology, vol. 32 (1968), subject index, "New School for Social Research, New York, 171-73"; contents entry "The Possible Effect of the Checker in Precognition," Sara R. Feather and Robert Brier, p. 167; index "Checker, effect of, 133, 167-75." https://archive.org/details/sim_journal-of-parapsychology_1968_32_index ↩
  69. Gilbert Roller, A Voice From Beyond (New York: Popular Library, 1975), "About the Author," pp. 11-13. https://archive.org/details/a-voice-from-beyond ↩
  70. Robert G. Jahn, "The Persistent Paradox of Psychic Phenomena: An Engineering Perspective," Proceedings of the IEEE 70, no. 2 (February 1982), pp. 136-170, roster of colleges and universities, CIA CREST, CIA-RDP96-00788R001100010004-6, https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00788r001100010004-6; Science Applications International Corporation, Anomalous Mental Phenomena: Selected Papers (June 24, 1991), institutions roster, CIA CREST, CIA-RDP96-00789R003100030001-4, https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00789r003100030001-4. ↩
  71. Brian Josephson, Tucson conference program, email circulated March 21, 1994 to the pdl@jsasoc.com list, CIA CREST, CIA-RDP96-00792R000100130005-8, https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00792r000100130005-8. ↩
  72. New School Archives and Special Collections, "Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), 1977-1978," John R. Everett records, Box 7, Folder 29, https://findingaids.archives.newschool.edu/repositories/3/archival_objects/34220 (scope note). ↩
  73. MKULTRA Subproject 134 (CIA release DOC_0000017393) and Subproject 137 (DOC_0000017396), https://archive.org/details/DOC_0000017393 and https://archive.org/details/DOC_0000017396; David H. Price, "Buying a Piece of Anthropology, Part 1: Human Ecology and Unwitting Anthropological Research for the CIA," Anthropology Today 23(3), 2007, fig. 4, https://archive.org/details/human_ecology_torture_suicide. ↩
  74. Cinquegrana, A. R., Office of General Counsel, Central Intelligence Agency, letter to John R. Everett, September 7, 1977, in New School digital object NS010102_000027, PDF p. 7. https://digital.archives.newschool.edu/index.php/Detail/objects/NS010102_000027 ↩
  75. Central Intelligence Agency releases DOC_0000017393 (Subproject 134, page images 134-11 and 134-12) and DOC_0000017396 (Subproject 137, page image 137-10), as reproduced in NS010102_000027, PDF pp. 10, 21, 27 and 78. ↩
  76. Everett, John R., letter to Anthony A. Lapham, August 16, 1977, and Lapham, Anthony A., General Counsel, Central Intelligence Agency, letter to John R. Everett, August 1977, in NS010102_000027, PDF pp. 92-95. ↩
  77. New School typed draft statement on the CIA notification, undated, in NS010102_000027, PDF pp. 4-5. The draft carries typewriter strikeovers. ↩
  78. Cinquegrana, A. R., Assistant General Counsel, Central Intelligence Agency, letter to John R. Everett, March 17, 1978, in NS010102_000027, PDF p. 1. ↩
  79. New School Archives and Special Collections, Maurice Edwards papers documenting the work of graphologist Klara G. Roman (NA-0010-01), https://findingaids.archives.newschool.edu/repositories/3/resources/284; Encyclopedia of the Written Word (New York: Frederick Ungar, 1968), acknowledgments. ↩
  80. Obituary of Frank J. Haronian Jr., 72, Town Topics (Princeton), October 26, 1994 (B.S. City College of New York 1943; master's in education, City College; school psychologist from 1950; Ph.D. in clinical psychology, New School for Social Research, 1963; died October 22, 1994, Lawrenceville, N.J.). https://archive.org/details/towntopicsprince4834unse ↩
  81. Jo Thomas, "Extent of University Work for C.I.A. Is Hard to Pin Down," New York Times, October 9, 1977 (dateline Washington, October 8), CIA reading room copy, https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp88-01315r000300390007-3. ↩
  82. New School Archives and Special Collections, "John R. Everett records," https://findingaids.archives.newschool.edu/repositories/3/resources/289 (Everett 1964-1982; MacIver 1963-1964; Henry David 1961-1963; Hans Simons 1950-1961). ↩
  83. New School Histories, "Hans Simons," The New School Archives and Special Collections, https://histories.newschool.edu/node/347 (retirement in 1960; consultancy and directorship for the Ford Foundation). ↩
  84. New School Archives and Special Collections, New School Adult Division Office of the Dean records (NS-02-01-01), Series 2, "Simons, Hans, 1947-1972," Box 2, Folder 25, https://findingaids.archives.newschool.edu/repositories/3/archival_objects/18606 (scope note: "Correspondence mainly after 1960, when Hans Simons resigned as president of The New School"). ↩
  85. New School Archives and Special Collections, New School press release collection (NS-03-01-07), Box 1, Folder 17, "Announcements for appointment of Henry David as president, 1961 January 18-March 19," https://findingaids.archives.newschool.edu/repositories/3/archival_objects/38467 ↩
  86. New School Archives and Special Collections, New School Development and Public Relations Office records (NS-03-02-02), Series 2, "Inauguration of Dr. Henry David, 1961 Oct 23," Box 5, Folder 5, https://findingaids.archives.newschool.edu/repositories/3/archival_objects/21027 ↩
  87. New School Archives and Special Collections, New School central administration collection (NS-01-01-05), Series 1, "Simons, Hans. 'Future of the New School,' 1958 September 18," Box 1, Folder 42, https://findingaids.archives.newschool.edu/repositories/3/archival_objects/14272 ↩
  88. New School Archives and Special Collections, New School Associates records (NS-03-02-01), Series 3, "President's talk: Hans Simon's report on India (1960 Jan 28), 1960," Box 7, Folder 2, https://findingaids.archives.newschool.edu/repositories/3/archival_objects/19576 ↩
  89. Public Seminar, "The New School's Forgotten President," https://publicseminar.org/essays/the-new-schools-forgotten-president/ (Everett's tenure 1964 to 1982, "second only to the school's founding father Alvin Johnson"). ↩
  90. New School Archives and Special Collections, "John R. Everett papers," NA.0017.01, biographical note. https://findingaids.archives.newschool.edu/repositories/3/resources/336 ↩
  91. Gene I. Maeroff, "University of Chicago Official to Be the New School's Head," New York Times, May 23, 1982, Section 1, p. 30. https://www.nytimes.com/1982/05/23/nyregion/university-of-chicago-official-to-be-the-new-school-s-head.html ↩
  92. Neil MacFarquhar, "Senator Kerrey Accepts Presidency of New School," New York Times, February 17, 2000, https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/library/national/regional/021700kerry-pres-edu.html (Kerrey said he had been planning to run for a third Senate term until the school approached him; Fanton, "appointed in 1984," left the "$250,000 post with its official Greenwich Village residence" in September 1999 to become president of the MacArthur Foundation; "He will be the school's seventh president"; "The senator does not yet have a formal contract with the school"; Philip Scaturro identified as the school's chancellor). ↩
  93. New School University fact sheet, Internet Archive capture of December 11, 2000, https://web.archive.org/web/20001211161500/http://www.newschool.edu:80/aboutnsu/an_ata.html. ↩
  94. New School University press release, February 20, 2001 (Internet Archive copy), https://web.archive.org/web/2id_/https://www.newschool.edu/pressroom/pressreleases/2001/022001_install.html; Tenet Healthcare Corporation, Schedule 14A proxy statement, August 21, 2001, https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/70318/000091205701529713/a2056401zdef14a.htm. ↩
  95. The New School, "Julien J. Studley Elected Chairman of The New School's Board of Trustees," press release, June 30, 2008, https://www.newschool.edu/pressroom/pressreleases/2008/julienstudleyrelease06302008.htm (Wayback Machine capture, 2010 snapshot). ↩
  96. Chronicle of Higher Education, December 10, 2008 (Internet Archive copy), https://web.archive.org/web/2id_/https://www.chronicle.com/article/new-school-faculty-senate-votes-no-confidence-in-president-bob-kerrey/; NBC New York, December 11, 2008, https://www.nbcnewyork.com/local/kerry-gets-no-confidence-vote-at-new-school/1856735; amNewYork, December 23, 2008, https://www.amny.com/news/new-school-in-turmoil-students-occupy-building-tell-kerrey-quit. ↩
  97. Jefferson Siegel, "In turmoil, students occupy building, tell Kerrey to quit," amNY, December 23, 2008, https://www.amny.com/news/new-school-in-turmoil-students-occupy-building-tell-kerrey-quit. ↩
  98. New School press release, "The New School Names David E. Van Zandt New President," August 26, 2010, https://www.newschool.edu/pressroom/pressreleases/2010/NewPresidentAppointment.htm (Wayback Machine capture of January 24, 2021: eighth president, effective January 1, 2011, succeeding Kerrey, who "was appointed in 2001" and remained president through 2010; Michael J. Johnston, chair of the board). ↩
  99. New School Archives, Board of Trustees records NS-01-01-04, Series 2, folder "David Van Zandt--installation as University President (September 15, 2011)," https://findingaids.archives.newschool.edu/repositories/3/resources/244; New School Archives and Special Collections, biographical note to "Video statement by Bob Kerrey, 2014 January 28" (NS-03-02-08), https://findingaids.archives.newschool.edu/repositories/3/archival_objects/58008. ↩
  100. Daniel Jonas Roche, "The New School taps architect Joel Towers as its tenth president," The Architect's Newspaper, June 7, 2024, https://www.archpaper.com/2024/06/the-new-school-architect-joel-towers-tenth-president/ (Towers at the school since 2004; appointment begins August 1, 2024; succeeds interim president Donna E. Shalala, in the role since August 2023, and Dwight A. McBride, ninth president 2020 to 2023; Linda E. Rappaport, chair of the board). ↩
  101. Emails between Epstein's scheduler and Kerrey's New School scheduler, April 9, 2013, EFTA01897859, U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, Data Set 10; May 3, 2013, EFTA02140166, Data Set 10. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2010/EFTA01897859.pdf ↩
  102. Email from Epstein's scheduler to Kerrey's scheduler, June 4, 2013, EFTA02136979, U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, Data Set 10; email, September 11, 2013, EFTA02128739, Data Set 10. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2010/EFTA02136979.pdf ↩
  103. LinkedIn connection notice to Jeffrey Epstein, July 30, 2013, EFTA01966060, U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, Data Set 10. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%2010/EFTA01966060.pdf ↩
  104. New School University, "Philip Scaturro Elected Chairman of New School University's Board of Trustees," press release, June 12, 2002, https://www.newschool.edu/pressroom/pressreleases/2002/061202_nsu_scaturro.html (Wayback Machine capture, 2010 snapshot). ↩
  105. New School press release, "New School University Announces New Board Members," October 21, 2004, https://www.newschool.edu/pressroom/pressreleases/2004/102104_nsu_members.html (Wayback Machine capture of September 10, 2006: Bewkes, Naughton, Reiss and Schwartz joined September 1, 2004; "Philip Scaturro is Chairman of the Board"). ↩
  106. New School press release, "New School University Receives Major Gifts to Fund Projects Related to Globalization," November 4, 2004, https://www.newschool.edu/pressroom/pressreleases/2004/110404_nsu_gifts.html (Wayback Machine capture of September 10, 2006: $10 million from the Starr Foundation, "the largest foundation gift in the University's history"; $3.7 million from Bernard L. Schwartz; Kerrey's remarks naming the Bernard and Irene Schwartz Foundation). ↩
  107. New School press release, November 9, 2001, http://www.newschool.edu/pressroom/pressreleases/2001/110901_schwart.html (Wayback Machine capture of September 10, 2006, https://web.archive.org/web/20060910004616/http://www.newschool.edu/pressroom/pressreleases/2001/110901_schwart.html): the $1.1 million gift from Schwartz, chairman and chief executive of Loral Space & Communications, and the four-year project at the Center for Economic Policy Analysis. ↩
  108. New School press release, "New School University Receives Major Gifts to Fund Projects Related to Globalization," November 4, 2004, https://www.newschool.edu/pressroom/pressreleases/2004/110404_nsu_gifts.html (Wayback Machine capture of September 10, 2006: "Since its establishment in September 2004"; the center renamed for the Schwartz gift; the Irene and Bernard Schwartz Lecture). ↩
  109. New School press release, "New School University Receives Major Gifts to Fund Projects Related to Globalization," November 4, 2004, https://www.newschool.edu/pressroom/pressreleases/2004/110404_nsu_gifts.html, section "About the Starr Foundation" (established 1955 by Cornelius Vander Starr; American International family, now American International Group, Inc.; assets of approximately $3.5 billion). ↩
  110. U.S. House of Representatives, Select Committee on U.S. National Security and Military/Commercial Concerns with the People's Republic of China, Report (H. Rept. 105-851), vol. I, pp. 49 to 50 and notes 112 to 116 (p. 240), including the November 21, 1998 deposition of Bernard L. Schwartz, https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-CRPT-105hrpt851/pdf/GPO-CRPT-105hrpt851.pdf ↩
  111. ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, The New School, Form 990 for the fiscal year ending June 2022 (filing 202301359349306540), Part VII, Section A, https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/133297197/202301359349306540/full (McBride, president, 815,044 reportable compensation and 604,206 estimated other compensation; Rappaport, chair; Stein, Blassberg and Foote, vice chairs; DeWoody and Longstreth, trustees). ↩
  112. New School, "Board of Trustees Members," https://www.newschool.edu/about/university-leadership/board-of-trustees-members/ (members listed without titles, Linda E. Rappaport listed first, Joel Towers as president, life trustees including Philip Scaturro; no chair identified on the page). ↩
  113. ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, The New School, EIN 13-3297197, https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/133297197 (organization summary data, tax years 2011 to 2023). ↩
  114. USAspending.gov award records, recipient "THE NEW SCHOOL,": FA95501410030 (Department of the Air Force, start 2013-12-15, $6,176,482); W81XWH0910456 (Army, 2009, $1,370,000); W81XWH1120183 (Defense Department, 2011, $1,048,998); FA87501220325 (Defense Department, 2012, $522,399); DEEE0001719 (Energy, 2009, $1,903,000). ↩
  115. Minerva Research Initiative, "Dynamics of Sacred Values and Social Responsibilities," awarded projects, https://minerva.defense.gov/Research/Funded-Projects/Article/2029607/dynamics-of-sacred-values-and-social-responsibilities/ (Wayback Machine capture of December 10, 2019: principal investigator Jeremy Ginges, co-principal investigators, years 2014-2019, managing service agency Air Force Office of Scientific Research). USAspending award detail for ASST_NON_FA95501410030_097: period of performance 2013-12-15 to 2019-03-14. NSF award 1559387: USAspending.gov, start 2016-05-01, $653,245. ↩
  116. Scott Atran, Douglas Medin, Jeremy Ginges and Richard Davis, "Mutual Influence of Moral Values, Mental Models and Social Dynamics on Intergroup Conflict," final report, Defense Technical Information Center ADA591831 (archive.org mirror DTIC_ADA591831), project period May 2010 to April 2013. ↩
  117. Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas statement for JEFFREY EPSTEIN, August 1 to 31, 2015, DOJ Epstein Library file EFTA01285659, page 1 of 5: "08-06 Outgoing Money Trnsf TO BANK OF AMERICA A/C [redacted] TH E NEW SCHOOL OPERATING ACCOUNT (16,083.00)." The preceding 08-06 line is an $8,155.00 transfer to 1st United Bank for W. Chester Brewer, Jr., P.A. ↩
  118. Deutsche Bank statement for JEFFREY EPSTEIN, October 1 to 31, 2016, DOJ Epstein Library file EFTA01286417, page 3 of 5 (Bates EFTA01286419): "10-27 Preauthorized Debit ... TUITION THE NEW SCHOOL (17,030.00)." ↩
  119. Deutsche Bank statement for JEFFREY EPSTEIN, May 1 to 31, 2017, DOJ Epstein Library file EFTA01299344, page 2 of 5 (Bates EFTA01299345): "05-10 Preauthorized Debit ... TUITION THE NEW SCHOOL (10,856.00)." The same page lists "05-11 Outgoing Money Trnsf TO STERLING NATIONAL BANK A/C [redacted] FASHION INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY (3,589.00)" and, on May 19, an American Express payment of $89,103.78. ↩
  120. Deutsche Bank presentation to the Office of the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, September 12, 2019, Exhibit R, "Tuition Payments on Behalf of Children / Women," DOJ Epstein Library file EFTA01681865, page marked EFTA01681912 (printed page 49). ↩
  121. Bella Klein email exchange with Jeffrey Epstein, December 9, 2015, EFTA02478844, U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library. ↩
  122. Richard Kahn email, September 20, 2016, EFTA01782038, U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library. ↩
  123. The New School invoice, fall 2015, EFTA02491750; Deutsche Bank statement, August 2015, EFTA01285659, U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library. ↩
  124. Bella Klein email, August 1, 2018, EFTA02600764, U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library. ↩
  125. The New School invoice, spring 2019, EFTA01008842, U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library. ↩

Connected to by shared pages

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Alvin Johnson
15 shared · Organizationvia Hiram J. Halle, Research Project on Totalitarian Communication, Hans Simons
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9 shared · Personvia Ernst Kris, Research Project on Totalitarian Communication, Kurt Riezler
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11 shared · Personvia Ernst Kris, Research Project on Totalitarian Communication, Kurt Riezler
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8 shared · Programvia Ernst Kris, Research Project on Totalitarian Communication, Institute of World Affairs
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10 shared · Organizationvia Research Project on Totalitarian Communication, Hans Simons, Foreign Broadcast Intelligence Service
Foreign Broadcast Intelligence Service
6 shared · Personvia Leo Strauss, Kurt Riezler, Alvin Johnson
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