Over the past two years, we’ve heard grumbling from a handful of professors over the state of affairs at the New School. None of them have been too happy with New School President David Van Zandt’s approach to administration, which thus far has meant lavish salaries for administrators and paltry offerings to teachers who give the school its reputation.
It seems that relationship is coming to a head. The New School Union will be holding a protest Monday, March 16, at 11:00 AM (at 63 Fifth Avenue, on the corner of 13th Street.) Combining forces with ACT-UAW to defend the rights of New School’s part-time faculty, they are protesting the following:
- The proposal to hire new part-time faculty outside the union, with no union rights. That means, amongst other things, zero healthcare.
- The misdirected crack down long employed New School faculty who have fewer credentials. The fashion faculty, for example, who through professional reputation and rigorously applied teaching methods, have built a global reputation for Parsons, are now being deemed unqualified to teach courses. These assessment have been made, not through peer review, but by administrators with “questionable qualifications”.
- Single part-time faculty would no longer be eligible for health care, and full-time faculty would see their costs double. Families would receive family insurance for one year only, and then receive 0% contribution.
- 0% wage increases for the first two years of a contract, and 1% increase each year for the next four years. That’s not even keeping up with inflation.
Basically, the new administration wants to make sure the school sucks in the future, and will bleed its students and faculty dry in the meantime. Those who think that the companies that employ workers have a responsibility to meet the basic living standards of those they employ should come out on Monday. Your voice is needed.
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