The New School in Manhattan has laid off 19 full-time faculty and 68 staff members, totaling nearly 90 positions, as it confronts a $160 million structural budget deficit driven by the COVID-19 pandemic and a 20% drop in enrollment since 2021. President Joel Towers described the cuts as part of a "redesign" to achieve a balanced budget by 2028, but the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) President Todd Wolfson condemned them as "catastrophic," accusing the administration of poor decision-making and bloated executive salaries. All affected faculty were in the Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts and the New School for Social Research, while the Parsons School of Design, Mannes School of Music, and jazz and drama departments were spared.
These layoffs matter because they represent a significant blow to the humanities and social sciences at an institution founded as a sanctuary for critical social thought. The cuts, combined with earlier voluntary separation offers that reduced full-time faculty by 7%, have shrunk the humanities colleges while expanding the relative size of professional and arts programs. The move also comes amid broader federal threats to graduate arts programs under the Trump administration, which is considering guidelines that would restrict federal loan access for degrees deemed to have low earning potential, further endangering arts and humanities education nationwide.