NYU Paris Administration Lays Off LS Professors and Shuts Down Program
The NYU Paris LS program no longer exists, according to administration.
The NYU Paris administration has begun layoff proceedings against five Liberal Studies professors due to financial disparities. Faculty were notified on Aug. 25 that layoffs were taking place, although the professors reportedly had permanent work contracts. Administration officials stated that the relocation of the LS student dorm in Paris had become too expensive, and as a result, the layoffs were necessary.
The Paris LS program has run for 12 years and is a staple of NYU Paris. It’s the only program at the study away site that maintains a guaranteed amount of students each year; however, the program no longer exists, and the Paris LS webpage has been taken down.
“Over the month of September, the employee representatives asked the administration in four separate meetings and multiple emails to provide concrete financial information. The administration repeatedly refused to provide this information,” said Marina Davies, who is head elected employee representative at NYU Paris as well as one of the professors named in the layoff proposal.
The NYU Paris administration was required by French law to meet with Davies to discuss their plans to lay off the professors. Additionally, French labor laws required the NYU administrators to justify their decision by giving employee representatives financial information.
Davies and other representatives are continuing to dispute the cancellation of the Liberal Studies program and the faculty layoffs. Even so, NYU administrators have refused to implement other options, according to Davies.
“We do know that in September, the NYU Paris administration had the financial means to hire four professors in other fields on temporary contracts,” she claimed.
There has been a high amount of unrest among faculty members since they were notified of the layoff plan. According to Davies, a rally was held on Oct. 29 outside of NYU Paris in protest, and the administration held a virtual wellness workshop for employees to ease tension.
“I have never been contacted with such frequency by so many colleagues as I have the past month since the layoff announcement was made,” Davies said.
A petition to NYU President Andrew Hamilton has been created in solidarity with the Paris faculty. The petition calls for three steps toward “finding cheaper student residence, reassigning these professors to other courses, and/or furloughing these professors.”
“The professors were all required to attend a preliminary layoff meeting, but they haven’t yet been laid off; we still have time to change President Hamilton’s mind,” Davies stated. The petition has reached almost 1,000 signatures and was sent directly to the office of President Hamilton on Nov. 6.
The Paris LS program provides 20% or more of total student enrollment at NYU Paris. Without it, NYU Paris may not bounce back, as the pandemic has brought the study away program to a standstill. “We don’t understand how NYU Paris will rebuild after the COVID crisis without this guaranteed LS foundation,” Davies said.
In addition to the petition, alumni from the first-year LS program in Paris penned an open letter with personal statements on how the program’s professors, rigor, and environment have impacted them.
Cora Enterline, a GLS senior who studied at NYU Paris in 2017–18, recalled her time in Paris as “the highest quality of education she’d received,” which assisted in her finding her footing at NYU. “The truth is that, without the freshman year experience, I would not be half the writer, critical thinker, or French-speaker I am today; and, frankly, I might very well have left NYU altogether,” Enterline said. “Classes and experiences like those I had freshman year in Paris are what make attending NYU worth it.”
Many of the students highlighted the professors as pillars of the caring environment fostered at NYU Paris. Sophie Kies, a GLS senior, stated that she “learned more from Davies, Pearl, and Scallotin, along with my other professors, than [she] learned from anyone else for the rest of [her] college career.”
“They didn’t only teach, but they fostered my independence, comfort in the language, and created a campus culture like nothing I’d experienced,” Kies said.
Zina Karas, a French major in GLS, said that she found the program to be transformative, and remains hopeful that potential LS students will take advantage of the NYU Paris experience.
“I am so very grateful to have had the opportunity,” Karas said. “Please don’t take that away from future generations of NYU students. They deserve better, and so do the professors who keep this program alive.”
This story will be updated as we learn more.
