In an email sent to students, faculty, and staff on the morning of March 3, President Joel Towers outlined the increasing urgency of what he deemed a “historically significant, multi-year structural budget deficit” at The New School. Towers’ email confirmed a 7% workforce reduction from voluntary separations and a recent credit score downgrade reported by S&P Global Rating — a U.S. credit rating agency.

In the email, Towers said, “Participation levels in the voluntary separation programs will, by the end of the spring, result in a seven percent reduction in our employee population across faculty and staff.”

University leadership agreed to extend eligibility for voluntary separation to members of “two unionized units,” at the union’s requests — a move Towers described as part of an effort to limit layoffs by any means available.

However, Towers acknowledged that voluntary separations alone will not be enough to match staffing levels with the enrollment decline and the university’s new two-college structure. Additional workforce reductions will occur this spring, the emails said, beginning with the elimination of vacant positions. 

Other staff reductions will be part of the ongoing restructuring process aimed at addressing the university’s multi-year budget deficit, the email said. 

The restructuring changes affect faculty and staff, academic programs, and even campus operations, prompting concern from students, faculty, and staff, who say the cuts and consolidations could directly impact their education, jobs, and campus experience.

The email marks a change in tone from previous administrative updates, such as Towers’ November memo, where administrators projected a budget deficit of $48 million.

In this message, Towers said that the “budget fragility has become more acute and is now impacting our capacity to manage the day to day expenses and revenues of the university as they vary significantly across the year.” 

He cited three consecutive years of structural deficits, enrollment, which has “declined by approximately 20 percent” since the university’s supposed “peak in the fall of 2021,” and mounting “pressures” on higher education within the United States, as reasons why the university must continue working quickly on its restructuring efforts.

“S&P has recently adjusted our credit rating downward (from BBB+ to BBB), reflecting the conditions we are addressing through our comprehensive restructuring plan,” Towers said in the email. “The rating agency underscored the positive actions we have taken to-date.”

According to the email, further details are expected in the coming weeks from Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs, Richard Kessler Executive Vice President for Business and Operations and Chief Accounting Officer Francisco X. Pineda, and the executive deans.

Towers confirmed that by fall 2026, Parsons School of Design and the College of Performing Arts will be operating as a single college, and that Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts and The New School for Social Research will be merged into a single college. 

He claimed that the university can no longer afford gradual reform. The rapid restructuring, as mandated by the Board of Trustees, is aimed at resolving the deficit within the next two years, with the goal of reaching a balanced budget by fiscal year 2028, before the fall 2027 semester.

Towers said that repairing the remaining structural imbalances in the university’s budget is an urgent necessity, and that the university must act “with discipline, clarity, and care.”

He also reiterated the university’s decision to pause most PhD admissions for the duration of the restructuring, along with pausing, merging, and cutting programs and minors. 

The New School Free Press reached out to TNS’s university communications for comment on the contents of the email but has not received a response at the time of publication.