A “phased retirement” program was recently offered to all principal full-time faculty at The New School — faculty who teach at the university for the entire school year — according to a March 23 email from Lisa Rubin, vice provost for faculty affairs. 

Merrie Snead, associate director of university communications at TNS, described the phased retirement program as a way for eligible faculty to transition into retirement over a “limited and approved period of time.”

The email from Rubin stated that the phased retirement program will consist of a decreased workload that is accompanied by a “proportional reduction of pay.” 

Faculty enrolled in the program will continue receiving the $2,200 or other allotted amount of money they receive for general research funds per fiscal year. The 225 hours or other allotted amount of student research assistance will also still be available to them. 

Faculty are not eligible to apply for paid leave if they are in the process of the phased retirement plan. 

This is not the first retirement plan that has been offered to full-time faculty. An early retirement offer was sent to eligible faculty members in December 2025. Simultaneously, eligible full-time faculty were offered buyouts under the title “voluntary separation” packages. 

A leaked employee email from March 13 that was shared with the New School Free Press confirmed faculty layoffs would take place at the end of this semester, with around 15% of faculty and staff to be laid off by June. 

These methods of workforce reduction are a part of the university’s sweeping restructuring aimed at tackling a budget deficit last said by administrators to be about $60 million. A leaked document shared with NSFP in March revealed that the university plans to reduce the number of employees by 20%. 

In addition to the workforce reduction methods, the restructuring has seen the consolidation of colleges under the “two-college model,” the pausing of PhD admissions, the cutting and pausing of majors and minors, and a university-wide hiring freeze.

Jeremy Varon, a history professor at Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts, said in a written statement, “TNS is trying to ‘solve’ the budget crisis off the backs of its employees … The offer of phased retirement is another means of shrinking the workforce.”

“Historically, awareness of this benefit has not been consistent across the faculty population,” Snead wrote in an email to the Free Press. “Faculty recently received a message to ensure that all principal full-time faculty were aware of this benefit, including information about how to learn more about it.”