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 Reimagining 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.
Building on the achievement of the last strategic plan (2013-2018), 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. Watch President
McBride discuss the university-wide scenario planning in this ten-minute excerpt from a meeting held on July 30, 2020.
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.
Faculty and Staff Survey Summary and Highlights (PDF)
Community Dialogues Summary and Highlights (PDF)
Student Survey Summary and Highlights (PDF)