Beloved cafeteria worker Jada Graham was recently fired. In response, a petition in support of her reinstatement was created, gaining over 800 signatures from The New School community in under one week. 

Graham worked as a cashier for two years in the University Center Dining Commons. The New School and Graham’s union did not respond to a request to comment on the official reason for her termination.

“She is what I look forward to when going to the UC,” Elliot Cosco said, a first-year Contemporary Music and environmental studies student at Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts. Cosco started the petition to reinstate Graham on change.org, which witnessed an overwhelming response of support from New School students and community.

Alongside Cosco, Christian Morrow, a first-year student studying Design and Technology at Parsons School of Design, helped spread awareness by hanging petition flyers in the Stuyvesant Park dorms. 

“Students feel the absence of her being gone in the dining hall,” Morrow said. “I remember immediately there was such an outcry about her being gone when she was fired. People were completely freaking out.”   

To Cosco, the petition represents how integral Graham was to The New School. “It shows the amount of support that a single person can provide to the school … I would argue that she is beneficial for students’ mental health. The more people comment, the more I realize that is not a joke. She is beneficial,” Cosco said.

For many students, Graham wasn’t just another employee, Graham was a sense of comfort and a familiar face to look for. 

Sammy Sachs, a second-year student studying Journalism + Design at Lang shared, “She connected to students on a more personal level. I feel she genuinely cared about the students and what they were up to.”

“If you search Jada’s name on Fizz, there’s a whole bunch of results of people being immediately upset,” Cosco said.

Fizz is a social media app that has a private social feed for your school. TNS users have a history of showing appreciation for Graham on the app. Since Graham’s firing, TNS’ Fizz feed has been filled with students reacting to Graham’s absence. One student shared, “WE WANT JADA.” Another user said, “Jada we love you queen, light of the dining hall…” 

The firing of Graham is felt beyond the student body. Her absence has not gone unnoticed among the Dining Commons staff. 

“It sucks that she’s not here. It’s dead now; the vibe is off at work,” a fellow Dining Commons worker said. The New School Free Press granted them anonymity due to fear of employer retaliation. “[The petition] shows that she has a lot of support here.”

Others like Morrow have similar hopes the petition could bring Graham back and show solidarity. “If it’s not able to bring Jada back, then at least to show the administration that we care about the people who work here. We do have a family here at The New School, all of us,” Morrow said.

Despite the students, staff, and community support for Jada, The New School has not publicly provided an explanation for Graham’s firing. Even the Dining Commons staff have been left in the dark.

“They still haven’t said anything about it. No definite explanation or anything. She’s just gone,” Graham’s former co-worker said.

With the number of petition signatures still rising, The New School community notices the absence of Graham and hopes to have her reinstated, as well as find answers to her departure.

“You can see just from the petition alone, how many people support Jada, what she does for the school, and need her there in the dining hall,” Sachs said.