Toward a New School

Despite the dozens tuning in to the New School Part-Time Faculty Union’s Strike School in early December, there was an air of uncertainty about proceeding as planned. The university, which at the time had been fending off a fair contract with the union for more than a month, had just announced its intentions to start withholding pay. Against this backdrop, anthropology professor Shannon Mattern began her explication of the university’s design ethos and the neoliberal vision it embodies. Reviewing various technologies employed by the New School, from its accordion-style web design (which discourages open access) to its infamous Pentagram-designed typeface (which algorithmically emphasizes flexibility and modularity, qualities the adjunct staff said have been excessively required of them since the pandemic), Mattern left open the question of which was better: the power of small, course-correcting interventions or a more holistic “raze and rebuild” strategy. For a striking faculty of thousands facing down the prospect of unemployment, the latter option felt like a breat…