The Bloomie's of Academe

Actress Diana Rigg mesmerized students at Manhattan's New School for Social Research last semester with her comments about the pitfalls of performing in the nude. Said she: "I used to make my body up because otherwise you look like a piece of old cod under the stage lights." Magician Doug Henning demonstrated scarf tricks and philosophized on how magic led him to the study of Zen. NBC Newscaster Tom Snyder arrived for class with two mobile vans and a crew of 65. He then televised all the students on the Tomorrow show.

These classroom antics, all part of two seminars involving the performing arts, are par for the courses at the New School, where the curriculum more closely reflects the thinking of Phineas T. Barnum than that of James B. Conant. Humorist Lily Tomlin recently stood on her head to refresh herself while teaching a class on satire. John Lennon will be the guest lecturer this week in a course called Making It in Rock. The New School Bulletin, a catalogue that might be better titled The Best of Club Med and Esalen East, routinely offers courses like Psycho-karate, Body Language, French in Guadaloupe and the Sensuous Experience of Dining.

One reason for the New School's trendy curriculum is that the school is the only degree-granting institution in the nation devoted primarily to the education of adults. Only 4,500 of the 21,000 students at the school are studying for credit; most of these are enrolled in its highly regarded graduate program, or in its affiliate, the Parsons School of Design. The typical New School student is a middle-aged professional or a housewife who is simply eager to learn something new--and willing to pay an average of $100 per course for the opportunity. Enrollment has more than doubled in the past decade, and the school opened a new branch last month in suburban Westchester.

The spirit of innovation at the New School goes back to 1919, when

Economist Thorstein Veblen, Historian Charles Beard and Philosopher John Dewey founded it in a few Manhattan brownstones. Their aim: enlivening traditional learning. From the start, they succeeded. In the 1920s, the school offered the first college-level courses on black culture, taught by W.E.B. DuBois; in the '30s Martha Graham taught pioneering classes in modern dance.

Spotting Trends. Today, the school --now ensconced in modern brick and glass buildings in Greenwich Village --sticks closely to a strategic formula for success. Explains President John Everett, 57, a former chancellor of the City University of New York: "Other schools have professors who have never been in politics teaching political science. We want the person who has been a politician." Hence, faculty members--most of whom are part-time and untenured --tend to be well-known personalities in the metropolitan area. New York City Consumer Affairs Expert Elinor Guggenheimer teaches a course on the consumer and the marketplace; Village Voice Writer Nat Hentoff presides over a course in investigative reporting. Comedian Alan King, who got his start in New York clubs, has lectured on the origins of ethnic humor. Other New York personalities who have taught at the New School: Senator Jacob Javits, Broadway Producer Joseph Papp, former Mayor John Lindsay and Comedian Woody Allen.

The New School prides itself on its quickness to spot trends. When Watergate broke out, officials cobbled together a Crisis in Government course taught by Eugene McCarthy and Law Professors Raoul Berger and Philip Kurland. The Boris Spassky-Bobby Fischer match in 1972 prompted a sellout course on chess strategy. Says Allen Austill, dean of the school: "It's education in the marketplace. We can jump at things that look good. If they fade, they fade."

Many do, prompting some educators to criticize the New School as the Bloomingdale's of academe--an institution run more on fads than serious study. Still, the New School is flourishing, while many private colleges are struggling to keep afloat. In fact, Temple University recently set up a Center City program copied directly from the New School; at New York University, the University of California and other schools, lively adult education programs based on the New School model are also in full swing. Says Clark Kerr, chairman of the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education: "The New School is unique. It has made a special contribution to the intellectual life of the nation." The school intends to keep at it. Next year it will add exotic new courses in 300 Edible Fruits and Vegetables Growing in New York City, American Indian and Eskimo Religion, and Prehistoric Art: Art on the Rocks.

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