Media Studies at The New School - Name Change

We, the undersigned graduate students, faculty and staff of The New School Media Studies Program, wish to express our profound dissatisfaction with the name "The New School for General Studies," recently assigned to our division of The New School.

We appreciate the complex decision involved in renaming the various divisions of the university, and understand the goal of creating a unified institution while maintaining the individual character of each division. While we agree that many of the divisions' new names enhance their status, we do not believe that the name "The New School for General Studies" reflects well on our graduate program.

We are dissatisfied with the Administration's decision to rename our division without adequately seeking out opinions from the student body. We feel that this is indicative of a fundamental, and severe, disconnect between the University Administration and the students that comprise The New School, both within our division and university-wide. Because we will be liked to the University long after we have graduated, our opinions are valuable and indispensable. Creating and fostering an open, continuing dialogue is the best way to strengthen the relationship between the faculty, staff, students and Administration of The New School. Thus, we request that the University Administration strive to be more mindful and considerate of the opinions of the students that populate The New School.

Furthermore, as the Department of Media Studies was initially part of the first and original New School for Social Research, we ask that "The New School for General Studies" revert to its former name, "The New School," and that our specific graduate program be referred to as "The New School Graduate Program in Media Studies" in all communications, within and outside of the university, and on our diplomas.