Under the leadership of President Kerrey, the University also moved quickly to reenergize its commitment to use its resources, talents and expertise to build a stronger and better city. In the words of President Kerrey, "we should try not merely to survive this disaster, we must challenge ourselves to build greatness in terror's wake and to build the society of our highest and best dreams."

One of the University's most important roles since September 11 has been to provide an environment for experts to discuss and share their ideas about New York. Within a month of the attack, President Kerrey held a town hall meeting in Tishman Auditorium on "Rebuilding New York City," with Felix Rohatyn, former mayor Edward I. Koch and former governor Hugh Carey, who shared their unique perspectives on the economic challenges that the city now faces. Felix Rohatyn, the former U.S. ambassador to France, was the financial strategist who shaped the plan to bail out New York City in the 1970's. As governor, Hugh Carey put together the team that forged the city's bailout plan. Ed Koch, a U.S. congressman at the time, fought for congressional approval for loan guarantees and fought against the city going into bankruptcy (as some leaders had proposed). Also on the panel were Ed Blakely, Dean of the Milano Graduate School, and Alice Rivlin.

Continuing the discussion on the next steps for New York's economy after the World Trade Center disaster, the Milano Graduate School and the Center for an Urban Future co-sponsored a forum that included Leslie Eaton, regional economics correspondent of The New York Times; Bob Fitch, journalist and author of The Assassination of New York; Joel Kotkin, senior fellow at the Center for an Urban Future; Errol Louis, assistant professor at Pratt University; and Fred Siegel, professor at Cooper Union and author of The Future Once Happened Here: New York, D.C., L.A., and the Fate of America's Big Cities.

In the 20th-century the University in Exile was a special, even unique, institution. It practiced an intellectualism that New School University, more perhaps than any other, has the responsibility to sustain in the shadow of September 11. In keeping with this venerable tradition, the University and the Graduate Faculty held a teach-in on September 20 and 21 to discuss the World Trade Center tragedy. The teach-in included presentations and discussions by New School faculty and students, World Policy Institute Fellows and outside experts on topics such as "The First Nine Months: Bush and The World," "Political Causes, Political Consequences," "Terrorism," "Creating the Other," "The Political and Moral Complexities of Responding" and "Political Violence in International Context: Student Perspectives." Speakers included President Kerrey; Dean Kenneth Prewitt; faculty members David Plotke, Victoria Hattam, Nilanjana Dasgupta and Andrew Arato; World Policy Institute fellows Sherle Schwenninger and Ian Cuthbertson; and outside scholars and practitioners, including Gary Sick, Hamid Dabashi and Michael Walzer.

Recognizing that music and art are essential to renewing the human spirit, the Jazz & Contemporary Music Program sponsored a discussion with the Jazz Journalists Association called "After Shock: How Music Helps, What Jazz Offers," with musicians Marc Ribot and Vijay Iyer, professor Farrah Griffin and journalist Lee Jeske, among others. The discussion focused on the aesthetic and community response to the events of September 11 and explored whether jazz improvisation is particularly suited to the recognition and celebration of cultural differences. And faculty and students of Mannes College of Music held a free World Trade Center Memorial Concert at its concert hall.

But more important than individual events, teach-ins and concerts is the fashioning of an enduring educational and research agenda that contributes to the successful redevelopment of the city. Working together, President Kerrey, the University's deans and the faculty and students of its colleges and programs have moved quickly to lay the practical and intellectual groundwork for the University to be an integral part of the rebuilding of New York City.

The Milano Graduate School has long been an active participant in the problem solving that goes on every day in the city, and it is using its strength as a center of research and idea sharing to help in the rebuilding of Lower Manhattan. Milano is a key part of the Civic Alliance, a historic consortium of more than 100 nonprofit organizations, small businesses, educational institutions and other partners, and it is helping to organize a town hall meeting near the site now known as Ground Zero. More than a dozen of its instructors have gathered in teams to consider visions and alternatives for Lower Manhattan, effects on nonprofit institutions and businesses, and economic issues related to New York City's revival. Milano has created a Web site – www.newschool.edu/milano/rebuild_nyc – to share reports and information about rebuilding efforts. Faculty, staff and students are engaged in these efforts.

Some Milano faculty also are incorporating the study of the rebuilding effort into their courses. New York City's condition before and after September 11 will play a prominent role in "Political Economy of the City," being taught by Alice Rivlin and Tatiana Wah in the spring of 2002. Faculty members Dennis Derryck and Rikki Abzug recently completed a study of more than 125 nonprofit groups affected by the attacks. Their report, "The WTC Tragedy Ripple Effect Devastates Neighborhood Nonprofits," can be found at http://www.newschool.edu/milano/rebuild_nyc/reports.html.

In January 2002 The New School inaugurated a series of lectures and courses, "The Dean's Forum," that focuses on global terrorism and other urgent contemporary issues. As an ongoing program each semester, the forum will feature three linked keynote lectures by distinguished public leaders and scholars, and three linked courses that provide a semester-long examination of issues that have saturated the media (which inevitably cover them without the necessary depth, context or analysis). The forum for spring 2002 is "Understanding September 11: Probing the Past, Looking to the Future." The three lectures and linked courses are: Public Lecture I, Milton Viorst on "Dilemmas Facing Contemporary Islam," with Course I on "Towards an Anthropology of Islam"; Lecture II, Kanan Makiya on "The Arab World After September 11," with Course II on "Struggle in the Middle East, 1900 to the Present"; Lecture III, Mansour Farhang on "Terrorism and Anti-Americanism in the Middle East," with Course III on "The Challenge of Terrorism." The public lectures are accompanied by a live Webcast through New School Online University. For two weeks following each lecture, public dialogues moderated by a forum instructor are accessible free of charge on the University's Web site.

Parsons School of Design is refashioning its research and design projects in a way that resonates with the University's historical mission. Parsons recognizes that design should be connected to human needs and aspirations. It has developed an agenda throughout its curriculum that stresses problem solving connected to community values, engagement with the world and social responsibility. Perhaps the most significant of these student design projects is the development of a product for fire departments that will save lives. Other important initiatives include a student and faculty design project focused on the development of handheld, wireless digital devices to be used in archiving and accessing information on location and types of unexploded bombs and land mines, and an effort between Parsons students and indigenous groups in Guyana to develop furniture made from a sustainable rainforest product.

These are just some of the initiatives and ideas that animate each of the University's eight academic divisions. The University is committed to seeking opportunities to do things differently and to do different things entirely in the human struggle to use individual freedom and creativity to build a stronger city, state, nation and world.


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