Intended to relieve the school's $48 million dollar budget deficit, The New School President Joel Towers, began rolling out major budget cuts towards university spending. On Dec. 3, The New School administration offered "voluntary separation packages" to the aforementioned 169 full-time and non-unionized staff in light of this restructuring, indicating that if an insufficient number of employees opt in, "involuntary separations," or mass layoffs, will ensue. There will also be 5-15% cuts to salary for those who refuse to leave. In addition to this plan is the discontinuation of several non-STEM undergraduate majors and suspended admissions for most PhD programs at the school. These moves by the university have left students and faculty throughout the boroughs outraged.
Protestor demands included a stark restructuring of the university’s agenda with the suspension of “realignment” measures, a cap on all salaries over $200,000, a rescinding of all “voluntary separation package agreements”, and a call on the Board of Trustees to hold a public meeting with the entire university community.
The burning fact in all of this is that staff have been given no time to react. Affected faculty, like Associate Prof. Heather Davis, who spoke out at the New School, has been given less than two weeks to opt-in to what is a life-changing decision at the most demanding point of the term for both students and staff - the end of the semester.
Davis, also a current program director at the University, added that, "This is not about any ongoing financial crisis, it's about ideological targeting of social justice, the humanities and social sciences.”
The administration’s targeting of faculty and staff follows closely on the heels of decisions to merge, indefinitely suspend, or eliminate more than thirty academic programs—mostly in the social sciences and humanities. The University Faculty Senate, in a motion passed on November 25, 2025, forcefully condemned the President Joel Towers and Provost Richard Kessler for bypassing established principles of shared governance, expressing deep concern over their unilateral decision-making.
Dr. Chenjerai Kumanyika, assistant professor at NYU and AAUP representative chanted in solidarity at the protest, exclaiming how, “Neo-liberalism always tries to make a political fight look like an economic fight.”
The swiftly unfolding events at The New School are happening amid broader challenges facing universities and colleges, intensified under the Trump Administration. Affected faculty argue that the core issue at The New School stems from ongoing mismanagement aimed at deliberately undermining the institution—a threat they believe is driven by the ideological agenda of Towers and Kessler.
During the Trump administration, the college humanities sector was significantly affected by sharp reductions in federal support, particularly through cuts to the National Endowment for the Humanities(NEH). Grant funding was increasingly steered toward projects promoting "patriotic" themes, while universities faced mounting pressure to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.
Policy changes—including proposals like the "One Big Beautiful Bill"—reshaped the higher education landscape and contributed to widespread program eliminations, hiring freezes, and growing job insecurity among humanities faculty. As a result, many professors were compelled to seek alternative funding sources and to defend the value of their disciplines in the face of intensified political rhetoric denouncing so-called "radical indoctrination" in academia.
This seemingly ideological attack on humanities and the arts affects the culture of schools like the New School that have such high budgets to maintain.
The New School was founded in 1919 by a group of progressive intellectuals who sought a more relevant and open model of education—one that empowered faculty and students to directly address society’s challenges. The university’s origins are rooted in anti-militaristic beliefs, emerging when professors at Columbia University protested U.S. involvement in World War I, an event that contributed to the rise of fascism.
Holding about 2,000 full-time and part-time faculty- while employing over 900 staff members- the New School comprises six different colleges over their intentionally progressive umbrella. The university holds three football fields worth of real estate in one of the most expensive areas in the world.
As The New School adopts a business-first approach, its austerity measures are increasingly seen as a shift toward corporate values like cost-cutting and efficiency. Many fear the university is prioritizing financial goals over its academic mission, with these recent actions reflecting a move away from educational stewardship toward a more corporate, profit-driven mindset.
Raha Rafii, part time lecturer at the university contextualized this as well, adding how,”(The New School) paid millions of dollars to outside consulting firms (Huron) to fix our situations… and ended up weaponizing their leverage. This is a private-equity styled takeover.”
On air, Rafii continued to exclaim how the faculty and university were in communication over the summer to come up with a plan that worked for both sides, however administration hasn’t included any compromission within this new restructuring.
“All of this is taking place while a new Center For the American Experience being established at the same time makes this definitely more of an conservative bend”, she added, putting into question the allocation of university funds.
Heather Davis, Associate Professor and Program Director at The New School followed this up by adding how, “ The economics department here at the university shows that if administrative costs, professional services and facilities grew at the same rate as revenue, the school would actually be in a $7 million dollar surplus rather than a $48 million deficit.
All of this administrative turmoil is compounded by the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and its consequences, as noted by Davis.
Davis added how, “(The)New School laid off many workers during the COVID pandemic, which caused a huge gap in the amount of staff on hand and the amount of work that now needed to be done. Since then, the university has made little effort to fill those roles, causing many at the school to be overworked and underpaid. Now, these same staff are being offered “voluntary separation packages”.
Amy Malsin, Vice President of University Communications, responded to WBAI’s request for comment, saying that “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 fallIt also puts in motion 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. Even as these changes take place, we are guided by our legacy of innovative higher education that engages in the issues of our time, and our commitment to the freedom of speech, thought, inquiry, and artistic expression for all members of our community.”
As the situation progresses students, staff and faculty say they will continue to hold their position and plan more events throughout the New Year and the holidays as we continue to see the New School’s approach to financial reconstruction.