ISSUE XI : Note from the Editors
By Sean Jacobs and Niyati Pendekanti
The current academic year, which just came to an end, was both our final one at The New School: Niyati graduated with her MA, and Sean, took voluntary severance after sixteen years as a professor. It is no overstatement that the last while was marked by tumult and change for GPIA, its faculty and students, and this magazine.
First, we learned last October that PhD programs at TNS would be suspended. A number of GPIA faculty teach in the Public and Urban Policy PhD program, supervise students and some of our students have gone on to complete PhD’s there. The PhD director is Michael Cohen, the founder of GPIA. Then, shortly after, we learned that GPIA would be “indefinitely discontinued” and would cease to exist after Spring 2027. Then the university offered early retirements and voluntary severance packages to faculty and staff. Faculty could choose to leave on January 2nd or June 1. Sakiko Fukuda-Parr (retiring) and Sean chose to leave on June 1. Staff wasn’t so lucky. Phil Akre, our longtime administrator and associate director, was told to leave on March 1. He had ask to stay through the summer.