COME ONE, COME ALL. INAUGURAL AAUP-TNS TOWN HALL
Join AAUP-TNS for a town hall on the restructuring process at The New School.
Power is not a thing but rather a capacity composed of active and changing relationships enabling a person, group, or institution to compel others to do things they would not do on their own.
— Ruth Wilson Gilmore. Golden Gulag, 2007
What do we know about restructuring at The New School? A few fast facts:
The administration plans to lay off a large proportion of our staff colleagues (numbers circulated point to 25%) by October 2, primarily impacting our colleagues who are older, women, and/or Black, Indigenous, and People of Color. The layoffs are not about savings. According to the administration, total staff salaries (before cuts) represent less than 4% of the purported $130 million shortfall.
Degree-seeking enrollment is down by only 10% but the administration is planning to reduce the University’s programs by 20-25%.
The administration has hired Huron Consulting Group, a global management consulting company that promotes post-Katrina dispossession as a model to rebuild in the aftermath of COVID-19 and has designed plans to carry out austerity measures including mass layoffs, furloughs, and permanent elimination of positions (including tenured faculty) at universities throughout the U.S.
The New School’s targeted Voluntary Separation Program (for which 102 of 365 full-time faculty are eligible) presents the possibility of eliminating tenure-track positions which could then be replaced by part-time or non-tenure-track posts.
Make your voice heard and share your concerns about the restructuring process.
Contact us to get the link to the Zoom session.