The Ecole Libre at the New School 1941-1946

Social Research, Winter, 1998 by Aristide R. Zolberg

The Belgians were divided politically in a manner similar to the French, between supporters of King Leopold III, who as commander in chief negotiated an armistice with the Germans and remained in Belgium, and of the government, which against the King's expressed wishes escaped to London, where it carried on the war on the side of its British ally. As for de Gaulle in the French case, launching of the Ecole provided an opportunity for the government in exile to achieve a presence in New York, highlighted by the appointment as dean of its Faculty of Law of former prime minister Paul Van Zeeland, a moderate Catholic leader who headed a coalition government and in 1939 became president of a Committee on Refugees established in London.

Surprisingly, there is no trace of any dispute over the modifier libre. Yet in the context of the times, the term was highly ambiguous. In French Third Republic usage, it referred to private institutions, primarily Catholic (as in enseignement libre), but including also the privately funded Ecole Libre des Sciences Politiques. However, for the Belgian participants the word libre undoubtedly evoked the Universite Libre de Bruxelles, where it referred to the commitment of the faculty to "free thought" (libre examen), which in practice entailed explicit opposition to the Roman Catholic church and a commitment to Freemasonry as well as to the anticlerical Liberal Party. The ambiguity was compounded in the English translation, provided by Alvin Johnson as "Free French School of Higher Studies," because "Free French" evoked "la France libre," and suggested the school had an explicit connection with de Gaulle's movement.

With regard to what is sometimes referred to as the "spiritual cleavage," as emphasized by Gustave Cohen on the occasion of the Ecole's first anniversary, one of its most unusual features was that "with a breadth of view one should wish to see maintained in the Fourth Republic," the Ecole bridged a deep divide in French and Belgian political culture, drawing into its teaching body members of Catholic faculties such as Jacques Maritain and Father Ducatillon, as well as professors from the government-controlled French university, the College de France, and the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes--or, as he put it, "the entire scale of the French keyboard" (Pour la Victoire, March 6, 1943). It thus appears that the founders were quite determined to set aside their disagreements in the hope that by its very existence, the school would contribute to the emergence of a less divisive political culture in the postwar period (Pour la Victoire, January 10, 1942).

On the organizational side, Johnson pointed out that the Ecole Libre would be legally a part of the New School, so as to obviate the necessity of obtaining a separate state charter, which would take months of negotiations and might in fact fail because the faculty was made up entirely of noncitizens. He suggested further that "if it is desired to bring over other scholars, the New School can exert far greater influence with the immigration authorities than any newly launched institution," and also that the Ecole would benefit from the New School's established status as a nonprofit institution, which provided a major advantage for fundraising. But he agreed that the "Free French School shall be completely autonomous," with the faculty deciding on its structure, choosing its officers, and with complete freedom to appoint the teaching staff. The institution would also be free to withdraw from the New School with whatever funds might be accrued in its accounts. The New School would provide classrooms and seminar rooms rent-free prior to 5:00 P.M.; but the Ecole Libre was expected to meet charges for lights and services, and the New School would be "compelled" to retain half the tuition charged for evening classes. In the face of French objections, on the ground that such charges were foreign to French university traditions, a later draft of the regulations specified that "Following the French system," the Ecole "reserves the right to give free, public courses." Johnson also pledged that "The New School is prepared to transfer to the Free French School the services of any of the French or Belgian scholars now on its general faculty." But there is no evidence that individual scholars would be consulted regarding their preference, and given the Rockefeller Foundation's doubts about the project, one might have anticipated objections from the piper.