The New School: Say No to Temporary Progress Reviewers, Pass All Students for Fall Semester

We, the students, parents, and allies of the New School, are horrified to learn that the school administration plans to hire unqualified, nonprofessional “Temporary Progress Reviewers” to determine students’ grades for the Fall 2022 Semester. Not only is it completely disrespectful of the work students have put in all semester for our final grades to be determined over a one-time Zoom meeting with a hastily hired “reviewer” who may have no teaching experience and certainly will have no experience in our area of study, it’s completely disrespectful to the teachers who designed our syllabuses and to the entire concept of academia. We came to the New School and paid good money to be taught and graded by legitimate professionals, and putting our grades in the hands of untrained, unvetted temps is a complete betrayal of The New School’s duty to us as students and could result in serious damage to our academic transcripts. Additionally, it is a massive waste of our tuition dollars to hire hundreds of temp workers when that money could be better spent just paying the professors we already have, who are desperate for a contract that will bring them back to the classroom!

We completely refuse to be graded by anyone other than our legitimate professors who know our work and know us as students, and we urge the New School to reconsider this horrendous plan. Additionally, we demand that every student in good standing receive an A for the Fall 2022 semester, with no students regardless of academic standing before the strike receiving anything below a passing grade of at least a B+. There is precedent for this, as The New School gave out grades in a similar fashion during the Spring 2020 semester when COVID hit, something that was arguably less of a disruption to classes than this strike. We also demand that the New School only consider coursework assigned before the commencement of the strike in any grading scheme it adopts; given the New School’s total lack of communication about grading up to this point and the fact that we have had no opportunity to receive help and feedback on final projects and papers from our professors, it would be unfair and inappropriate to factor this work into our final grades. 

Fellow students, please sign to let the New School know in no uncertain terms that you will NOT be graded by temp workers and if possible, REFUSE to meet with anyone other than your actual professor for grading purposes. Do not listen to the school’s scare tactics, they cannot and will not fail us all.