Overview
- The New School, which handed out layoff notices this week, dismissed 68 staff members and 19 full‑time faculty, with roughly half of the affected faculty holding tenure.
- The administration has moved from a four‑college model to two by merging Eugene Lang with the New School for Social Research and combining Parsons with the College of Performing Arts, and it has discontinued more than a dozen programs while pausing most doctoral admissions.
- School leaders say the cuts are meant to close an annual operating gap variously reported as about $48–60 million and to address a larger accumulated deficit, with a target to break even by 2028 and reach a 4 percent operating surplus by 2030.
- Faculty, students, and unions have protested the pace and process of the reductions, arguing the measures disproportionately hit tenured faculty of color, involved poor communication, and included reports of withheld outreach to part‑time instructors and requests to suspend retirement contributions.
- Campus observers warn the changes will shrink humanities and social‑theory offerings, concentrate teaching in design and performing arts, and could further weaken graduate programs and long‑term faculty recruitment if enrollment and funding do not stabilize.