Via The New School in Exile.

Posting notices to several listservs and web-based forums, a group of some 150 students have announced that they have, as of yesterday, 17 December, occupied the New School Graduate Faculty Building on 65 5th Avenue in Manhattan. The students in the meantime have authored a website with a list of demands -- most notably the resignation or "removal" of Bob Kerrey as president, James Murtha as executive vice president and the removal of Robert B. Millard from the Board of Trustees. Mr Millard is the non-executive chairman of L-3 Communications, a company contracted for interrogation work at Abu Grahib Prison in Iraq and recently taken to court by a group of four former Abu Ghraib inmates for being subjected to torture while in custody (Military personnel have already been tried on criminal charges and imprisoned for abuses at Abu Ghraib, but no civilians have yet seen court.)

The New School University, founded in 1919, has been known for its work to synthesize progressive American intellectual thought with critical Continental philosophy. It has since its founding aspired to be a site where cultural work is informed and enriched by politics. The New School is also home to The Vera List Center for Art and Politics, directed by Carin Kuoni. The Vera List Center has recently produced OURS: Democracy in the Age of Branding, an exhibition and event program on view through 1 February 2009.

Update: Coverage by the Times here, Gothamist here, the Voice here.

Update: Electronic Flux corporation has published an announcement of the occupation on their mailing list.