University Planning

Our 100-year legacy as a university dedicated to courageous change drives our ongoing commitment to planning for a distinctive, relevant, and boldly creative future.
In 2020, The New School is engaged in a critical planning exercise to reimagine its future as a more sustainable, resilient, and efficient university. This accelerated effort will ensure that The New School will thrive well into the future as a fully student-centered university dedicated to progressive teaching, engaged learning, interdisciplinary research, and bold creative practice.
The process includes a full review of the institution’s academic portfolio, the organizational structure that supports it, and current and future resources. It is designed to address, head-on, the financial challenges The New School faces as a tuition-dependent institution – challenges that have been heightened by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Read More about the impact of COVID-19 on university finances in the summary available here.
The university is now moving into a new future-looking phase under the leadership of President Dwight A. McBride. He, along with the President’s Leadership Team, is driving the Reimagining project with active participation from the college deans, leaders of the Faculty and Staff Senates, and representatives of the Budget Advisory Council. The planning process is also deeply informed by feedback from The New School community. Recommendations from the Reimagining process will be presented to The New School’s Board of Trustees at their September 2020 meeting.
- Community Input
  
  Our planning process is shaped by voices from across the university. The faculty, staff, and students, who have made a commitment to teach, research, study, and work at The New School, all share in creating the university's future. In the earliest phase of the Reimagining work, faculty, staff, and students were invited to share opinions through an online survey and a series of small-group discussions. Summaries of that feedback are linked below.
  Additional major university efforts have informed our understanding of our community values. These efforts include the university-wide Campus Climate Assessment and CoRe Project, an 18-month initiative involving hundreds of faculty and staff to identify areas of improvement to help us better serve students and each other.
  View the reports here.
- FAQ
  
  We realize there are many questions about the scenario planning process and have developed a set of FAQs to address these questions and concerns. Please check back regularly for updates.
  Read the FAQ.
- Planning Partners
  
  Even in a condensed time frame, our university planning is a collaborative effort. We’re grateful for the partnership of the Faculty, Staff, and Student Senates and the Budget Advisory Council as this important process takes shape.
- Liberal Arts Task Force
  
  Within the context of the Reimagining work, we are exploring a revision to our structure that will elevate the liberal arts and the university’s teaching and research on climate change, racial equity, democracy, human mobility and other pressing social issues. This effort is led by the Provost’s Office and the College Deans who will engage faculty and staff to consider these issues. Our goal is to identify vibrant and streamlined college structures that can help us advance our distinction in teaching, research and creative practice at The New School, while also finding ways to share resources and identify additional economies.
  We are convening a task force to consider possible approaches and make recommendations to the Provost who, with the President, will make decisions about our structure to present to the Board of Trustees. This work will be guided by the insights of our academic community and grounded in principles of academic integrity, equity, inclusion, and social justice in the design of curriculum and its impact on our students, faculty and staff.
  More information on the Liberal Arts Task Force may be found on their page within the Provost's Office website.

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President McBride's Video Messages