To our readers,
A faculty member has resigned from The New School for Social Research prior to the conclusion of a Title IX investigation. We have received inquiries from faculty and students who wish to publish at Public Seminar responses and reflections about sexual harassment at our own university.
This is new territory for us as editors of a web publication that is housed at, but does not represent, The New School. We are reluctant to host the adjudication of internal disputes at Public Seminar, and normally direct such content elsewhere. We have a global audience, and we strive, with everything we publish, to link the particular to questions of general concern. Many issues of interest to our New School colleagues and students do not meet these criteria. However, after a lengthy discussion, we have decided to consider submissions on sexual harassment at The New School for publication. We are now part of a national story, and we are obliged to cover it as such.
As we meet this challenge, we know that we must provide high-quality, ethically sound content for our readers. The following practices and criteria will apply to any submissions about sexual harassment or Title IX investigations at The New School:
- We, Jeffrey Goldfarb and Claire Potter, will edit these submissions. All queries (preferably) or essays should be submitted through the Public Seminar portal.
- We don’t publish everything we receive. Standards to which all Public Seminar content is held apply to any submissions addressing Title IX or sexual harassment, whether at the New School, or another, community. We will edit, and we will fact-check when appropriate.
- As we noted above, we strive to publish essays, letters and other content that goes beyond the particular to make larger arguments. All submissions should meet this standard.
- Editors at Public Seminar, whether faculty or students, in addition to being subject to civil rights and libel laws, are bound by university standards of confidentiality and Title IX regulations. Because of this, Public Seminar cannot publish or republish unproven allegations, or confidential information, about members of the New School community.
- We understand that some members of our community do not believe that they can speak freely about these issues, and we are sympathetic to that. However, because Public Seminar is an enterprise with professional standards, and because publication on the Internet has lasting consequences for reputations (our own included), we will not publish anything we deem to be gossip or rumor; anonymous submissions, however factual; or anonymous quotes in attributed submissions. Should authors wish to do research among confidential sources, the resulting narrative may be publishable if a) sources are revealed to Jeff or Claire, who will keep them confidential; and b) the article can be independently determined to be factual.
Public Seminar and its editors strive to meet our audience’s expectation of high quality content, readability and relevance in everything we do. We plan to meet this challenge through conversation and by testing each new challenge against our core values.
