The New School has told students to continue their work, but irate parents are threatening a class action lawsuit for “services not rendered,” according to a group representing more than 1,500 parents. The parents are also considering deferring payment of the last fall tuition, withholding spring tuition, or transferring their children to other schools. Some are calling for the president to resign.
In a Saturday Zoom call to parents, New School president Dwight A. McBride said he was committed to resolving the stalemate, but the union rejected the school’s last offer to raise wages in five years. by 18 percent and expand access to subsidized health care, which he said would drive the operating budget into a deficit.
“We are a relatively small to medium-sized, highly tuition- and enrolment-dependent, low-capital institution operating in one of the most expensive real estate markets in the country. That’s our reality,” he said, adding that a quarter of college spending goes to real estate and large amounts of money are spent on paying off debt.
But part-time instructors, who make up about 90 percent of faculty — significantly more than the national average of about 50 percent — blame the administration for poor financial management and say they’ve prioritized administrators over instructors, a claim college officials reject. .
At one point, the president, David Van Zandt, who stepped down in 2020, was paid $1,473,155, more than his Harvard counterpart, and lived in the university’s expensive mansion in the heart of Greenwich Village, which some faculty say the institution must sell. The New School states that he was compensated at market rates.
The total cost of attending the new school, including tuition, fees and on-campus living expenses, was $78,744 in 2021-22, up 7 percent from the prior year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics although students typically pay significantly less when financial aid is factored in. There are approximately 10,800 undergraduate and graduate students, including those enrolled at Parsons.
At the New School, adjunct professors are paid $5,753 for a three-credit course, or about 135 hours of work, according to unions representing part-time faculty. They also get a lifetime pay raise, ranging from $6 an hour for 10 years of service to $10 an hour for 30 years of service. The university will not reimburse hours outside of the classroom, including time spent grading papers or supervising students.
