New School fires tenured professor

The New School’s decision to lay off tenured professors was part of a broader job-cutting round that hit 19 full-time faculty members and 68 staff members in early June 2026, according to campus and higher-education reports. Richard Kessler, the university’s provost, told The Chronicle of Higher Education that 19 full-time faculty members were notified by a June 1 deadline and that 10 of them held tenure. The cuts came as the Manhattan university pursued a 15% workforce reduction after earlier buyouts and retirements. The New York Times later highlighted one tenured professor’s dismissal as a test of how much protection tenure still offers at a financially strained institution. ### How unusual is it for a tenured professor to be laid off? Tenure traditionally gives professors stronger protection against dismissal than other faculty appointments, but it is not an absolute guarantee in cases involving financial exigency, program closure, or institutional restructuring. The New School case drew notice because the layoffs reached tenured faculty during an active cost-cutting campaign, not just contingent or non-tenure-track instructors. (chronicle.com) The Chronicle reported that 10 of the 19 laid-off full-time faculty members were tenured. The New York Times focused on one dismissed professor with tenure, but other reports said the affected group was larger. ARTnews, Hyperallergic and The New School Free Press each reported that multiple tenured faculty members were included in the layoffs. ### Why was The New School cutting faculty at all? The New School said the layoffs were tied to persistent budget pressure and declining enrollment. (chronicle.com) Higher Ed Dive reported in March that the university was seeking to reduce its workforce by 15% through layoffs and eliminating vacant positions after an earlier 7% reduction through voluntary buyouts. That report said President Joel Towers had signaled the school needed to shrink further to address a structural deficit that had been cited at $30 million. (artnews.com) By early June, several outlets described the financial hole in larger terms. The Chronicle said the deficit had last been reported at $48 million, while The New School Free Press reported the operating deficit had reached $60 million and Hyperallergic described a cumulative $160 million structural budget deficit tied to the pandemic and enrollment losses. Those figures come from different points and descriptions of the school’s finances, but all point to the same fact: administrators were publicly framing the cuts as part of a long-running restructuring. (highereddive.com) ### Who was making the decisions? Joel Towers has served as The New School’s president since August 1, 2024, according to the university. Richard Kessler was appointed provost and executive vice president for academic affairs on August 5, 2025, the university says. Kessler was the administrator quoted by The Chronicle on the number of faculty laid off and the number who held tenure. (chronicle.com) March reporting by The New School Free Press said a layoff notice timeline had been laid out in an email from Kessler and Francisco Pineda, the executive vice president for business and operations and chief operating officer. That report said faculty layoffs would follow procedures “consistent with the Full-Time Faculty Handbook.” (newschool.edu) ### Were the cuts limited to one department or school? The 19 laid-off faculty members were concentrated in the university’s liberal arts and social research divisions, according to campus reporting. The New School Free Press reported that all 19 taught at Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts or the New School for Social Research. The same report said some of those dismissed worked in programs that had not been closed or marked for redesign. (newschoolfreepress.com) Other reports tied the layoffs to a broader academic overhaul. The Chronicle said the university was consolidating four colleges into two beginning in fall 2026, discontinuing more than a dozen academic programs, and had paused most doctoral admissions the previous fall. ### What happened after the layoffs were announced? (newschoolfreepress.com) The New School’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors publicly opposed the cuts. Higher Ed Dive reported that the AAUP chapter called the layoffs and earlier reductions “a major gutting” of the full-time faculty and urged the university to reinstate those dismissed or offer phased retirement. Democracy Now quoted Jeremy Varon, a history professor and the AAUP chapter president, saying the move sent “a chilling message to all of academia.” (chronicle.com) The next public markers are already visible on university pages. The New School’s budget page remains online, and the 2026 catalog says the university reserves the right to modify programs, faculty and academic operations. Those pages, along with updates from President Towers, Provost Kessler and faculty groups, are likely to be where the next steps in the restructuring are documented. (newschool.edu) (highereddive.com)