Hundreds Rally Against Sweeping Cuts at New School
Around 40% of full-time faculty were offered buyouts and programs are on the chopping block as the university faces a $48M deficit.
Hundreds rallied outside the New School during a board meeting today, December 10, to protest sweeping faculty and program cuts that many say will be devastating to the century-old institution’s progressive social research mission.
At 4 pm today, around 300 students, staff, and supporters gathered outside 66 West 12th Street, which houses the offices of President Joel Towers and Provost Richard Kessler.
“Short on money, high on power, we don’t trust Joel Towers,” New School students and faculty chanted underneath the university building’s scaffolding.
The university in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village, which includes the Parsons School of Design and the College of Performing Arts, is facing a $48 million budget deficit that administrators attribute to rising costs, federal funding cuts, and declining enrollment. This fall saw just 8,900 enrolled students, a record low for the last decade.
But critics say the shortfall is the result of the New School’s financial mismanagement and blame the administration for making faculty shoulder the burden.
According to the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), 169 full-time faculty members — approximately 40% — and all non-unionized staff with over four years of service have received buyouts or early retirement offers. New School President Joel Towers said in a statement last month that layoffs will “very likely be necessary.”
Protesters also said the cutbacks run counter to the school's legacy. Founded in 1919 as an alternative to traditional universities, the New School was built on the premise of debating and resolving pressing real-world issues.
“There is no other school like this in the country, but we’re losing the fundamental mission of the New School,” one organizer said through a bullhorn to the crowd of demonstrators.
In November, Towers announced a series of cost-cutting measures, including a PhD admissions freeze for the 2026–27 academic year, salary reductions, a pause on retirement contributions, and the discontinuation of programs and courses with “low demand.”
The AAUP called the austerity measures “extreme” in a statement today and claimed that dozens of programs, most of them focused on social sciences or humanities, will be axed under Towers’s restructuring plan.
"The New School is the only university in the country with a world-recognized art and design school and a Research 2 designation,” said Heather Davis, director and associate professor of Culture and Media at the New School, referring to the Carnegie Classification for doctoral universities with high research activity.
“By gutting the humanities, the administration is eliminating what makes the school unique,” Davis added.
A spokesperson for the New School told Hyperallergic that “the university has identified a range of programs for merger or discontinuance across our colleges,” but did not confirm the exact number of programs or departments affected.
Notably, the plan will also consolidate the New School’s five colleges into two “academic units”: one comprising the Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts and the New School for Social Research, the other integrating the Parsons School of Design, the College of Performing Arts, and the School of Media Studies.
The school turned down an offer by a group of trustees to provide $1 million for PhD funding, as confirmed by Towers in a town hall meeting with students on December 5, the transcript of which was reviewed by Hyperallergic.
In a statement shared by a spokesperson, the New School described the restructuring plan as “a series of necessary and sometimes difficult steps to align The New School’s finances with our mission by reducing costs, retiring the university’s structural budget deficit, and reallocating resources where they matter most for students and our teaching and learning mission.”
“The university is advancing an ambitious and comprehensive plan that emerged from the work of over 100 faculty and staff in five working groups that met throughout the summer as well as the ongoing efforts of faculty and staff this fall,” the statement reads.
The New School isn’t the only private university facing growing deficits. The California Institute of the Arts laid off nine staffers this summer after sending voluntary separation notices to between 50 and 60 staff earlier this year, citing a $15 million shortfall. The School of Visual Arts also made staff reductions this summer.
Students and faculty are urging the university to rescind buyout offers, put a cap on salaries over $200,000, and suspend other measures.
Days before the end of the fall semester, faculty remain unnerved. One part-time Parsons School of Design professor who identified herself as Jen told Hyperallergic that her colleagues are worried about their futures.
“When I started teaching at Parsons, I thought it was the center of everything that I care about,” she said. “Now I feel ready to risk it all for them.”
Emily Li, a fifth-year Parsons BFA and BA dual degree student, said one of her professors who started teaching at the school this fall in a tenure-track position started crying when she received her buyout notice.
“What we’re being told is that everything will stay the same and nothing will happen to their programs,” she said. “But I don’t trust them. I know my teachers are really overworked and tired.”
