The Schools of Public Engagement is one of the academic divisions that compose The New School, a private research university located in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. The college is split into five schools; Milano School of Policy, Management, and Environment; the School of Media Studies; the Julien J. Studley Graduate Programs in International Affairs; the Creative Writing Program; and the Bachelor’s Program for Adults and Transfer Students. History The Schools of Public Engagement, founded in 1919, is the direct successor of the original institution, making it the oldest divisions of The New School. The school's founding members wanted to create a “center for discussion and instruction for mature men and women,” and by 1934 it was chartered as a university by the state of New York and began conferring degrees. The division was restructured in September 2011 to include both the Milano School of Management and Urban Policy and what was then called The New School for General Studies. Growth and change Dean Allen Austill led the division from the 1960s to the 1980s. He was assisted by Albert Landa, who directed publicity for the New School and helped expand the university during a financial crisis, and Wallis Osterholz, who for forty-five years was responsible for much of the day-to-day administration. Austill also added areas such as guitar study and culinary science to the curriculum. In 1962, Austill initiated the Institute for Retired Professionals, a community of peer learners aged 50 to 90 who develop and participate in challenging discussion groups; the institute, now headed by Michael Markowitz, still exists today. Austill's subordinate as Chair of Humanities for many of these years was Reuben Abel, a philosopher. Abel was succeeded by Lewis Falb, a specialist in interwar Paris who broadened the humanities curriculum further. Prominent teachers in this era included the philosopher Paul Edwards; the literary scholars Hasye Cooperman, Justus Rosenberg, and Margaret Boe Birns; the political scientist Ralph Buultjens; and the visual arts instructors Anthony Toney, Minoru Kawabata, and Henry C. Pearson. The 1990s and after The New School, for most of its history, operated as a noncredit institution, serving largely white, middle-class, often politically progressive, often Jewish adults living in Manhattan who were interested in intellectual stimulation and self-improvement. In the early 1990s, the institution, sensing demographic changes and needing to supplement its revenue, began to encourage credit students to matriculate at the institution,