This is a big deal for the New School because, even amidst the headlong casualization of the academic workforce, the New School stands out—nearly nine out of ten faculty members are part-time.Part-time instructors, members of ACT-UAW Local 7902, had voted to authorize a strike last week, after failing to make meaningful progress in their negotiations on a new contract with the New School administration.The result is that the people who perform the overwhelming majority of the actual education at the New School can’t afford to focus on that work, said Molly Ragan, who teaches at Parsons School of Design, one of the divisions within the New School, and who is a member of the negotiating committee.In a Google Doc linked from the New School website, the administration has suggested that faculty might decide to teach their classes over Zoom since then they won’t technically be crossing a physical picket line."What we do now, what we’re able to achieve, that will have consequences for people at this school in the future, and for the next bargaining session, and for academia in general," Potts said, before stepping back into the picket line Wednesday morning."