The New School has been associated with left-leaning politics, campus activism, civic engagement, and social change. It is a "Periclean University" (a member of
Project Pericles), meaning that it teaches "education for social responsibility and participatory citizenship as an essential part of their educational programs, in the classroom, on the campus, and in the community". The New School is one of nine American universities to be inducted into Ashoka's "Changemaker" consortium for social entrepreneurship. In 2010, NYC Service awarded New School special recognition in The College Challenge, a volunteer initiative, for the "widest array of [civic] service events both on and off campus". Miriam Weinstein also cites the Eugene Lang division in her book,
Making a Difference Colleges: Distinctive Colleges to Make a Better World. In 2024 during the
Gaza war, students participated in
pro-Palestinian occupations which called for the divestment from defense companies, an academic
boycott of Israeli institutions, the expulsion of jazz students from Israel, amnesty for all students and staff sanctioned by the university for violations of codes of conduct, and the barring of police on campus for any reason whatsoever. During the spring, when faculty, staff, and students barred students from entering their dormitory, those blocking entrance were arrested, but Donna E. Shalala, the interim president of New School, stated that criminal charges would not be pursued against the student protesters who were arrested.
Kerrey presidency and opposition Former
U.S. Senator Bob Kerrey became president of The New School in 2000. Kerrey drew praise and criticism for his streamlining of the university, as well as
censure for his support of the
2003 invasion of Iraq, generally opposed by the university's faculty. In 2004, Kerrey appointed
Arjun Appadurai as
provost. Appadurai resigned as provost in early 2006, but retained a
tenured faculty position. He was succeeded by
Joseph W. Westphal. On December 8, 2008, Kerrey announced that Westphal was stepping down to accept a position in President
Barack Obama's
Department of Defense transition team. Kerrey then appointed himself to the provost position while remaining president. This decision was strongly criticised by faculty and other members of the university community as a power-grab involving potential conflicts of interest. This was seen as a threat to scholarly integrity since the role of provost in overseeing the academic functions of a university has traditionally been insulated from fundraising and other responsibilities of a college president. After a series of rifts including protests involving student occupations of university buildings, Kerrey later appointed Tim Marshall, Dean of
Parsons School of Design, as Interim Provost through June 2011. Marshall has since been reappointed in this role. On December 10, 2008, 74 of the New School's senior full-time professors gave a vote of no confidence for the New School's former president,
Bob Kerrey. By December 15, 98% of the university's full-time faculty had voted no confidence. On December 17, over 100 students
barricaded themselves in at a dining hall on the campus while hundreds more waited on the streets outside. They considered the current school administration opaque and harmful. Their chief demand, among others, was that Bob Kerrey resign. The students soon enlarged their occupied area, blocking security and police from entering the building. At 3 AM the next morning, the students left the building after Kerrey agreed to some of their demands. The agreed-to demands included increased study space and amnesty for any actions performed during the protest. He did not concede to resignation. In total, the occupation lasted 30 hours. The following year, on April 10, 2009, students, mostly from New School but also from other New York colleges, reoccupied the building at 65 Fifth Avenue, this time holding the entire building for about six hours. The students demanded the resignation of Bob Kerrey. The
New York Police Department arrested the occupiers, and the New School students involved were suspended. The next month, Kerrey announced he would fulfill his presidency at the university through the end of his term and expressed his intent to leave office in June 2011. He resigned a semester early, on January 1, 2011. In August, the board of trustees appointed
Dr. David E. Van Zandt the university's president.
Environmental sustainability In 2010,
The Princeton Review gives the university a sustainability rating of 94 out of 99. In 2010, the organization also named The New School one of America's "286 Green Colleges". The New School has a student-led environment and sustainability group, called Renew School, as well as full-time employees devoted to the school's sustainability. The university signed the Presidents' Climate Commitment and
PlaNYC. The institution's sustainability website outlines many goals and projects for the future intended to result in The New School receiving a good rating on the 2010 College Sustainability Report Card. The New School had the lowest reported
carbon footprint of any college and university submitting inventories under the Green Report Card program, totaling about 1.0 metric tons CO2 per student. Subsequently, with the completion of the LEED certified but large University Center, The New School's carbon footprint increased to about 1.5 metric tons.
Labor movement Academic student workers are represented by SENS-UAW. Clerical employees and librarians are represented by Teamsters Local 1205. Professional employees are represented by Teamsters Local 1205 Professional. Student health employees are represented by SHENS-UAW Local 7902. Maintenance workers and security are represented by SEIU 32BJ. Engineers are represented by IUOE Local 94. Part-time faculty are represented by ACT-UAW Local 7902. Part-time jazz faculty are represented by AFM Local 802. In 2003,
adjunct faculty in several divisions of the New School began to form a
labor union chapter under the auspices of the
United Auto Workers. Though the university at first tried to contest the unionization, after several rulings against it by regional and national panels of the
National Labor Relations Board, the university recognized the local chapter, ACT-UAW, as the bargaining agent for the faculty. As a result of a near strike in November 2005 on the part of the adjunct faculty, the ACT-UAW union negotiated its first contract which included the acknowledgment of previously unrecognized part-time faculty at
Mannes College The New School for Music, the only division of The New School where a majority of the faculty did not vote to support unionization. In October 2018, graduate students received a tentative union contract from the administration after months of negotiations. In November 2022, the union that represents the university's part-time faculty, ACT-UAW Local 7902, voted to strike following six months of unsuccessful contract negotiations. The strike began November 16. On December 5, the university announced it would withhold pay and healthcare premiums for all strikers, including full-time faculty and staff who had stopped work. To that end, the university sent out forms requiring student-workers to attest to having "delivered [their] work obligations." However, the New School paid all striking workers, resulting in anger by students who felt they did not receive what they paid for. In response, the union filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board. The next day, some staff, students, and faculty of
The New School for Social Research expressed a vote of no confidence in the McBride administration. Notably, neither Parsons nor Mannes voted no confidence, amounting to the vast majority of The New School faculty, staff, and students, revealing a significant cultural divide between the creative arts community and those in the social sciences. Before the strike ended, a handful of student organizers initiated an occupation of the University Center as a display of protest. The strike ended on December 10, when, with the help of a federal mediator, the union and the university tentatively agreed to a contract that increased part-time faculty pay, compensated them for their work outside the classroom, and made more union members eligible for health insurance. The union approved the contract on December 31.
Hillel chapter suspension In May 2026, the University Student Senate (USS) voted to pause The New School's chapter of
Hillel International, following the new Registered Student Organization (RSO) compliance committee's findings that the chapter had "directly supported
Israel Defense Force] military bases at
Tze’elim army base,where they materially supported over 700 soldiers from the
Oketz,
Kfir,
Golani and Handasa units in the IDF." The New School's administration subsequently rejected the funding pause, writing that the pause was "misguided". ==Notable people==