We at the Gallatin School of the Earth acknowledge the pivotal importance of education in bringing about a more just, equitable, sustainable future. At such a critical moment in human history, when humanity is faced with the existential threat of anthropogenic climate change, education is profoundly important as not only a response to climate change, but a way to illuminate a brighter path into a more sustainable biotic future for human society and the Earth. Education has the potential to be the spark that can ignite the desire for a transformation to a more just, equitable, and sustainable world for human society and the other inhabitants and ecosystems of the Earth–and the torch that can carry and illuminate that vision into the future.
Producing the Future
If we consider the critical role of the university in producing the future, it is our assertion that universities can produce different futures and educate people to inhabit those different futures. Thus, we envision the Gallatin School of the Earth at NYU as an incubation center for the generations of the future who will live in a future where human flourishing is symbiotically connected with ecological flourishing. But we cannot detach how something is being taught from why something is being taught. Therefore, we believe it is necessary to transform the organizational structure of the university in order to transform the future. Our responsibility to the future must also take into consideration the kinds of people our university develops and the organizational arrangements that they make and that make them.
At the Gallatin School of the Earth, it is our contention that the current educational structures do not acknowledge or encourage responsibility for an economically or socially sustainable future for ourselves, for others, and for the planet; instead, the present model of higher education treats people and the planet as infinite resources which can be exploited for the short-term gain of the few board members. Why do a small handful of shareholders and board members have administrative votes, but not faculty, staff, or students who are the life-force of the university? The Gallatin School of the Earth is educating for a more just and democratic future.
A More Democratic Gallatin
A more democratic Gallatin education means practicing more democratic values throughout the university. The current exercise of top-down, authoritarian administration is not only incongruent with the democratic beliefs we espouse at Gallatin, but it is also anathema to the principles of social justice that we want to instill in our students. Because we believe in Gallatin’s responsibility to creating the conditions for our individual and collective flourishing, the administration itself will be disbanded and replaced with a democratic and transparent Senate composed of an executive board as well as student, faculty, and staff representatives from every school and department, each with votes proportionally equal to their relative population at the school. There will also be a special council for traditionally repressed and underrepresented minorities, to ensure that their voices are heard in the decision-making processes at Gallatin. As such, the future of the organizational structure of Gallatin will be democratically open to everyone involved at the university, so that all stakeholders, not just shareholders, can have a say in future decisions made at the Gallatin School of the Earth.