SPE Executive Dean Mary Watson Interviews with WestView News
Executive Dean, School of Public Engagement at The New School, Mary Watson, interviewed with WestView News, discussing the university’s 100th anniversary.
“What is important about the school that Mary is now the Dean of is that it was the school that emerged from the Columbia University break away—there must have been many singing phrases and angry words that crackled and sung about as it emerged—oh, oh I wish I had some of these. Can you give me a few?”
“The New School was founded a century ago in New York City by a small group of prominent American intellectuals and educators who were frustrated by the intellectual timidity of traditional colleges. The founders, among them Charles Beard, John Dewey, James Harvey Robinson, and Thorstein Veblen, set out to create a new kind of academic institution, one where faculty and students would be free to honestly and directly address the problems facing societies in the 20th century. Their vision was to bring together scholars and citizens interested in questioning, debating, and discussing the most important issues of the day. (source: The New School History)
There are many examples in the founders’ original proposal for the university. Some excerpts include:
The founders envisioned that The New School “would become the center of the best thought in America, would lead in emancipating learning, and would be a spiritual adventure of the utmost significance…”