(NEW YORK CITY) - In response to drastic cuts at The New School, University students, Faculty and Staff recently marched down West 12th Street to hand deliver a gigantic letter and petition addressed to University President Joel Towers that was signed by more than 1,650 people and read, in part: “While the President’s Office characterizes this as a ‘transparent’ process of ‘restructuring,’ the reality for Workers and students has been much different: Vague promises, few details, closed-door meetings and unannounced changes - including course cancellations, planned cuts to student medical services and other austerity measures. None of these changes serve the needs of any part of our community, but instead harm students and place Management’s financial burden on vulnerable members of the University’s workforce."

The New School cuts include goals to slash student medical services, fire Health Workers and merge and cancel several courses, majors and programs. They also include the elimination of 20% of Full-Time Faculty and both Union and Non-Union Staff by the end of the academic year.

As part of those reductions, last November, University leadership sent 169 Full-Time Faculty and Non-Unionized Staff a voluntary separation and early retirement package offer, demanding a response in less than two weeks.

The accepted offers didn’t match the School’s target, so Workers are now waiting for further layoffs along with other austerity measures to meet the School’s budget hole of $48 million, according to United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 7902, which represents hundreds of Workers at The New School.

“Show us what you're up to because we keep getting surprises,” Raha Rafii, a Part-Time Faculty Member at The New School said during the rally. “We want true transparency. Why should we believe that the only way to manage this budget deficit is to get rid of the most vulnerable members in the University?” 

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