New College Xenophobia

By way of introduction, I was the registrar at New College for a few years in the early 90s (following the closure of Antioch San Francisco and the absorption of Antioch’s programs and students and some of their faculty and staff into NCOC). I’m now the registrar at UC Hastings law school.

Mildred’s point about the biggest threat to the school being financial is very true, but I’m not sure that steady enrollment is going to solve the problem. The DOE has placed New College on heightened cash monitoring status. My understanding of what that means is that New College will have to disburse financial aid to their students out of their own financial reserves, then submit quite burdensome records detailing proof of each student’s eligibility before the dept of education will reimburse the school for the aid. I seriously doubt that New College has the financial reserves to do that. And even if they did, I doubt they have the record-keeping capabilities to provide proof of eligibility.

The school will also have a payroll obligation to its faculty and staff, which is probably met from that big federal aid reimbursement. And if the latter is seriously delayed, then I imagine they won’t be able to issue paychecks on time either. Even well-endowed University of California schools are becoming more and more dependent upon tuition for their operating expenses, and the majority of students pay their tuition from financial aid awards. Lose one, lose the other.

The composition of the reconstituted Board does not look significantly different to me from its past membership. It looks like New College loyalists are still filling the positions on the Board and the Presidential Search Committee. IOW, plus ca change…

New College has been in deep doo-doo with WASC before. The only thing that has kept them alive is that WASC believes that New College represents a needed alternative on the educational horizon. But if New College proves itself incapable of becoming fiscally and academically responsible, I imagine it will sadly go the way of Antioch and other alternative colleges which are now relics of the 80s.

In my experience, there has always been a strong xenophobia at New College which prevents the possibility of any outside leadership making true changes in the dysfunctional systems there. And I don’t think they view themselves as a true educational endeavor, but rather as a private and proprietary group of individuals committed to their own view of changing society.

I hope they survive, but I cannot imagine how they will do it unless Peter has an inexhaustible pocketbook. And as long as Peter and Milly are still calling the shots, I can’t imagine that Martin will really be out of the picture. Friendship is valued there above all else.

Gina Barnett

~ by tbarj on August 20, 2007.