This story was updated on Nov. 24 at 7:15 p.m.

The New School Full-Time Faculty Union (FTF), a group of full-time faculty organizing to create a union and AAUP-TNS Leadership Council denounced President Joel Towers’ restructuring in a released joint statement. 

The university made restructuring and financial decisions, “without meaningful, representative consultation with faculty, staff, or students,” the statement said. “TNS continues to feel the vicious-cycle effects of the austerity measures implemented in 2020.”

On Nov. 17, Towers sent a university-wide email confirming upcoming changes to take place at the university. 

Plans approved by the Board of Trustees include a two-college model, Ph.D. admission pause, discontinuation of low-demand and duplicate academic programs, salary reduction for employees, and a pause on retirement contributions for employees. Eligible full-time faculty will also be offered early retirement packages and Towers said, “involuntary separations will very likely be necessary.”

“These measures force us to pay for years of financial mismanagement of the university (according to our economics colleagues’ analysis of the data compiled by the Finance Summer Working Group),” the joint statement said. 

The statement also included an alternative proposal and countered the university’s math. 

The suggestion endorsed in the letter is a cap in salaries at $200,000 per year for 18 months instead of cutting retirement benefits.

An analysis of the financial data by economics department members claimed TNS could have had a $7 million surplus instead of a $30.2 million deficit. 

The analysis said faculty costs were not the problem as they are in line with or below revenue growth. Rather, the budgets for administrative salaries, facilities and real estate, professional services, and employee benefits grew at a higher rate than revenue.

Administrative salaries grew at a much higher rate than faculty at 4.8% —  a total of $80.7 million in 2024.

The statement also said it was not necessary to pause admissions to Ph.D. programs at TNS. The economics department produced an analysis demonstrating that, even modeled conservatively, the cuts could lose far more money than they save.

Ph.D. students’ on-campus labor greatly offsets the costs of the programs, the analysis said. It also noted that approximately 50% of Ph.D. funding at The New School comes from restricted donations and grants. This is money that can only be used for Ph.D. education and cannot be redirected.

It also warned that the school could lose potential masters students, as many enroll specifically because of the university’s M.S. to Ph.D. pathway.

They estimated lost master’s student revenue could total over $1,000,000 in the first year of the policy, with $6,000,000 lost by year four. This is not including the revenue generated by the labor provided by Ph.D. students.

The joint statement also expressed worry that The New School for Social Research’s Ph.D. program pause may be indefinite after Towers rejected an offer to fund 22 students for the next year. 

“This rejection causes us to worry that the pause is indefinite and that the goal is not to ‘protect’ existing Ph.D. programs but rather to wind them down,” the statement said.

The statement said Towers’ changes are another in a long history of austerity at The New School.  

Both AAUP-TNS and FTF-TNS said past measures have contributed to current deficits that “continue to negatively impact student experience and retention.”A previous retirement pause also occurred in 2020. 

“122 workers, representing 13% of university staff, were laid off by The New School on Oct. 2, 2020,” according to a Press Release from the AAUP-TNS website. 

Solidarity was also expressed for part-time faculty, student colleagues, Student Health Services staff, and NSSR’s Ph.D. programs.

“We recognize that [part-time faculty] are among the most precarious workers at the university, and we are alarmed by the reduction of courses across various departments and new threats of termination (‘involuntary separation’).” 

 The AAUP Leadership Council and FTF-TNS called the restructuring plan an attack on “critical inquiry” and employees at TNS.

“We are all being asked to work more for less, and at the expense of students and workers. We must stand together,” the statement said.

A previous version of this article incorrectly stated Full Time Faculty as a union. The correct version states Full-Time Faculty as a group of full-time faculty organizing to create a union.