New School Whistleblower Policy

May 4, 2009

Re: The New School Whistleblower Policy

A Note to the New School Community,

Every member of the university community is encouraged to report suspected misconduct to his or her immediate supervisor, or in the case of students, to the office of student rights and responsibilities. However, we understand that this procedure is not always a feasible option and have heard concerns regarding the need for a neutral forum to report wrongdoing. For these reasons, we have implemented a whistleblower policy.

This new policy creates a University Compliance Committee to receive and investigate complaints from students, faculty, and staff. If a committee member is the subject of a report, the chair of the board of trustees’ Audit and Risk Committee will conduct the investigation. The members of the committee are:

● Vice Provost Elizabeth Ross, who will hear complaints regarding academic misconduct;
● Senior Vice President for Human Resources Carol Cantrell, who will deal with matters related to the university’s personnel practices;
● Senior Vice President for Finance and Business Frank Barletta, who will deal with fiscal misconduct;
● Vice President and General Counsel Roy Moskowitz and/or Bevis Longstreth, chair of the board of trustees’ Audit and Risk Committee, who will handle all other concerns.

We have also retained EthicsPoint, a third-party provider of confidential reporting services, to create a phone and online system to allow for anonymous reports. This system will be in place by the end of May.

Following an investigation of a complaint, the University Compliance Committee will propose corrective actions to the president, provost, and executive vice president for approval and implementation.

We have done a great deal of work and made much progress in the last few months creating systems to enable members of our community to communicate openly and freely. By offering a channel for reporting suspected misconduct while ensuring protection from retaliation, this policy provides another avenue for constructive criticism to improve the functioning of the university.

The full policy is attached for your review or you can read it online as part of the Institutional Policies & Procedures Manual at www.newschool.edu/hr/manual.aspx. The Whistleblower Policy appears on page 49.

Bob Kerrey