Parsons School of Design professor Mia Wright-Ross resigned from The New School at the beginning of October after over a month of receiving $0 paychecks due to improper communication regarding her health insurance.
Wright-Ross took a leave of absence for the spring 2024 semester and returned to TNS to continue teaching her Shoe Construction 1 class this fall. According to multiple email exchanges with the benefits and help offices at TNS, she learned she was billed for her health insurance policy during the semester she was on leave, and the debt was being taken out of her current paychecks.
Wright-Ross’ union representative Azure Osborne-Lee said, “Essentially what happens is if you have healthcare through The New School and you take a semester off, or you’re not teaching for whatever reason … then they’re not able to deduct your premiums from your paycheck. So what is supposed to happen is that they have a third party contact you.”
The third party that Osborne-Lee is referring to is Effective Healthcare Benefit Solutions (EBPA), an employee benefit plan administration.
According to Osborne-Lee, the EBPA should notify the employee and give them the option to pay their premiums out of pocket while on leave so there is not a negative balance when they return. “If, for whatever reason, you don’t end up paying your premiums while you’re off, then what happens is they will take the money out of your paycheck when you start working again,” Osborne-Lee said.
Wright-Ross was unaware of the over $800 she owed until Oct. 3, when she received correspondence from TNS’s benefits staff about her remaining balance that accumulated during her leave of absence. Upon signing her new contract for fall 2024, no one made her aware of the debt.
“They did not inform me that there would be any lapses or changes in the way that my insurance or anything was being processed. They really didn’t give me any response or any information about what that meant.” Wright-Ross said.
Students taking Wright-Ross’s Shoe Construction 1 class received an email from Wright-Ross on Oct. 6 via Canvas explaining her decision to resign after an arduous month of communicating with the administration.
“As a leading authority in Footwear & Accessories Design with five exceptional years at The New School, I’ve consistently strived to provide you with the most enriching learning experience possible. However, professional integrity and financial stability are paramount,” she wrote in her email.
Wright-Ross graduated from TNS in 2011 and became a shoe construction professor at Parsons in 2019.
Harry Shen, a fourth-year Parsons student and one of Wright-Ross’ students, said the email and resignation came as a surprise and that Ross never exhibited any signs of frustration. “I’ve waited a long time to take this class … it’s a popular class, and I actually only got off the waitlist days before registration closed.”
Other part-time faculty professors have dealt with similar issues. Osbourne-Lee stated that Wright-Ross was “not the only faculty member who’s having this problem” and anticipates that more faculty may decide to leave after some faculty have questioned whether or not they could continue working for The New School.
“She’s also not the only faculty member who has had to ask [themselves] whether or not they’re going to continue working at The New School,” Osborne-Lee said.
Wright-Ross shared that although her decision was difficult, she didn’t feel she could set an example for her students if she continued working for an institution that wasn’t compensating her. “I refuse to be a hypocrite as an educator. So there was no way that I could continue to be a professor, teaching to the new generation of designers and working for free … So even the decision was challenging my ethos as a creator.”
Wright-Ross holds studio workshops through her personal atelier MWR Collection for students who’ve taken a prerequisite studio class in handbag, shoe, or accessory design and construction courses. She has also offered discounted private lessons to students who lost their opportunity to experience her teaching at TNS this semester.