‘Pay Our Fkn Teachers!’ NYC Students Back New School Strikers

College students are marching with striking teachers outside The New School in Manhattan this week. Photos by Joe Maniscalco

By Joe Maniscalco

Colleges and universities have for years employed an economic system that’s allowed them to get the most talented and dedicated academics this country has to offer on the cheap — but students at The New School School and Parsons School of Design in New York City are calling bullshit on the whole operation.

So-called “Part-time” instructors with ACT-UAW Local 7902 hit the pavement and went on strike this week citing unlivable wages and unaffordable healthcare costs. Members of Student-Faculty Solidarity — the group 19-year-old sophomore Emily Li helped found to support The New School faculty — went with them.

“I don’t think I’ve had a single faculty member who was full-time in the past two years that I’ve studied at the school,” Li told Work-Bites outside The New School’s 5th Avenue campus on Wednesday, Nov. 16.

The teachers administrators are careful to call “part-time” constitute some 87-percent of the educators teaching at the university. But like so many other workers coming out of Covid lockdown, they continue to struggle.

“When faculty don’t offer office hours, they’re not doing that because they don’t care about us,” another Student-Faculty Solidarity member who wanted to remain anonymous told Work-Bites. “It’s just because they are not paid to do that work — many of them have to do these extra jobs to keep doing this work.”

The administration didn’t want to discuss students’ charges directly when Work-Bites contacted them. Instead, they maintain meeting Local 7902’s demands would cost the university more than $200 million — “almost 50% of the total university annual operating budget of around $460 million.”

Student support for striking teachers at The New School couldn’t be plainer than this.

“This isn’t like admins’ hands are tied behind their backs…they’re strapped for cash…there’s no way to reallocate funds — that’s just not true,” 21-year-old sophomore Cooper Sperling told Work-Bites. “This is a non-profit — we have access to all the financial records, so we can see where the money’s going and how it’s being distributed.”

Sperling says he likes the idea of having instructors who “work in the field” — but “the fine print says the reason they are part-time is they get to be treated like contract workers — it’s the whole Uber model. They don’t get the pay, benefits and job security they deserve.”

Fine Arts teacher Sara Jimenez marched the picket line telling Work-Bites, “It means everything to have the students support us because the heart of the school is the students.”

She also rejected the idea teachers like her are asking for too much of the university’s budget.

“Well, we’re a majority of the school,” she said, “so I don’t see how they couldn’t figure something out. If the majority of the institution is comprised of us why wouldn’t half be towards us?”

The New School has always billed itself as a progressive institution and home to radical thinkers and scholars — but Li said “It’s all bullshit if The New School can’t back it.”

Standing strong: Students say The New School administrators are exploiting so-called ‘part-time’ teachers.

“The New School doesn’t respect the fact that they, themselves, are part of this complex which exploits so-called ‘part-time’ labor — because it’s convenient for them — because it’s cheap,” Li said.

Student-Faculty Solidarity has well-over 3,000 Instagram followers — about a third of The New School’s student body.

“I think it’s pretty evident that the administration is afraid of a movement like this because people show up — because they really, really care,” the 20-year-old junior who wished to remain anonymous added. She also charged the institution with being “underhanded” and trying to intimidate vulnerable students like her in hopes of preventing them from supporting striking teachers.

“The fact they keep bringing up visas and scholarships and financial aid that students are receiving to graduate — you keep using those buzz words because that’s going to scare some students into keep going to class,” she said.

Part of The New School’s online strike FAQ says, “At this time, the university is focused on sustaining the instructional experience for students, or providing them with an alternate educational experience that ensures their course completion, timely submission of grades, and stability in their financial aid, visa status, and degree completion.”

Regardless, students supporting striking teachers told Work-Bites, “We’re going to leave here having made some significant changes that are going to make this university better for the students who come here in the future.”