Wounded

The New School is reeling. We were informed late last week that cuts of 13% of administrative staff positions would be announced on October 2nd - tomorrow. Today we learned that this means 122 people, in every section and every level of the school. I'm sure this number will include people I've worked with closely, and others I didn't know well but whose work I depended on. We're a lean institution at the best of times, our staff stretched thin. Faculty, staff, students, senates spent the days since last week's announcement meeting, organizing, drafting and circulating pleas to the university leadership to slow down or reconsider, none of which received a response... So we are mourning the loss of valued colleagues as well as the feeling that we have some voice in decisions like these. Huddling together in a solidarity spanning all kinds of New School people, all of us feel demoted. 

(Image by Ana Teresa Rodriguez)