William Allen Austill (1927-2016), the son of a Methodist minister, was born in Newton, Massachusetts. He earned a BA in 1948 and an MA in 1951, both from the University of Chicago. Austill began his career as a research assistant for the Council of State Governments on a project that produced the publication, Higher Education in the Forty-Eight States. Austill returned to the University of Chicago to serve as director of student housing, then moved on to St. John’s College as director of admissions and placement. In 1957, he served as chief administrator for the State University of New York, establishing SUNY's new Stony Brook campus.

Austill joined the New School in 1962 and remained at the institution in a range of roles until his 1989 retirement. He started out as associate dean of the New School (known as the Adult Division), in charge of the newly-developed Office of Educational Advising. In 1964, Austill was appointed acting dean of the Adult Division following the depature of William Birenbaum, and became dean in 1965. He remained in this position for the next fourteen years. In the fall of 1979, Austill was asked to take on concurrent positions as executive dean and vice-president of the New School. During this same period he also stepped in as dean of the Graduate Faculty (now, The New School for Social Research). In the spring of 1981, Austill resumed his former position as dean of the Adult Division. In 1987, he was named chancellor of the university and held this position until 1989, when he retired.

Austill made significant contributions to the New School, including more than doubling enrollment in the Adult Division, championing the Institute for Retired Professionals, and fostering the growth of credit-based programs at the institution. This latter activity included helping to develop the long-running undergraduate studies program to offer a fulltime day program for college-age students, the New School College. While the New School College was shortlived, it provided a framework for expanding the New School later realized in the four-year liberal arts division, Eugene Lang College. Austill also ushered Parsons School of Design into the New School in 1970, was an early supporter of the Media Studies program, and helped establish the Jazz and Contemporary Music program as a separate division in 1986.

Perhaps Austill’s most challenging moment at the New School came in 1979, when he was asked to lead the Graduate Faculty through a division-wide crisis. Longtime, core faculty were departing, retiring, and dying. The Sociology and Political Science Departments were losing accreditation. The short-staffed Philosophy Department was threatened, as well. As dean, Austill assessed the departments and solicited support from the Board of Trustees. He strengthened the Psychology Department, helping it to earn APA clinical accreditation. He saw that faculty was hired for the Economics Department, and reconstituted the Philosophy program. For the de-accredited departments, Austill helped in establishing consortial arrangements with local schools, allowing the programs at the New School to remain active until accreditation could be reestablished.

When Allen Austill arrived in 1962, the New School was comprised of two divisions. When he retired twenty-seven years later, he left behind a university with five divisions. Austill played a key role in developing the shape and substance of the enlarged institution. His goal, keeping an eye on economic viability, was always to protect and strengthen the New School's core values, building a dynamic institution with a commitment to intellectual curiosity, creative pursuit, and engagement with pressing social issues.

Allen Austill died in 2016.

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Source: Hendershott, Carmen. "Allen Austill." The New School History Project (2015). http://thenewschoolhistory.org/?ppl=allen-austill.