As 1000’s of snowbirds are flocking to Florida to flee the winter chill, designer Keanan Duffty will likely be heading to Miami for a recent job.

Istituto Marangoni Miami has tapped him as its recent Dean of Fashion, a post he’ll start in January. The British-born, Latest York-based creative will succeed Massimo Casagrande, who relocated to Paris to function dean of fashion design at Istituto Marangoni’s campus there. He can be director of education at Istituto Marangoni Miami.

Duffty, a Central Saint Martins alumni, will likely be making the switch from The Latest School’s Parsons School of Design, where he serves as director of fashion programs, provost’s office. His work experience includes founding the master’s program in Fashion Management at Parsons in 2019. He also served as its director and subsequently took on the post of director of fashion programs in Executive and Continuing Education at Parsons. He’ll exit Parsons at the tip of the yr.

Duffty won’t be giving up his Latest York apartment, and he’ll divide his time between Latest York and Miami. At what staffers call the “Miami Fashion School,” he’ll oversee 300-plus students, in addition to the college’s continuing education and youth programs. Began in 2018, the Miami campus is predicted to be at capability inside two years, a spokesman said.

A member of the Council of Fashion Designers of America and creator of “Rebel Rebel: Anti-Style,” Duffty also works as a musician. His multidimensional perspective and international background appealed to the chief search team, and it took “an extended time” to seek out the correct candidate, in response to Hakan Baykam, founder and chief executive officer of Istituto Marangoni Miami. “We wanted someone who was coming from a top U.S. school but in addition had the European heritage that Marangoni holds, someone who was not only ‘fashion’ but in addition had a background in art and music which really encapsulates Miami. We’re completely satisfied to have Keanan joining the Miami fashion movement as we proceed to grow.”

Partnerships will likely be high on his to-do list. Duffty is predicted to work closely with Latest York Fashion Week, along the lines of how the college has partnered with fashion weeks in Latin America. Duffty goals to line up brand partnerships for industry projects at the college for styling, business and fashion design, the spokesman said.

In other Parsons-related news, the union representing part-time faculty at The Latest School’s six divisions, UAW Local 7902, declared a strike Tuesday after months of failed negotiations for a pay raise. Part-time faculty comprise 87 percent of The Latest School’s teaching staff. Part-time faculty are in search of their first raise in 4 years and are reportedly demanding 10 percent now and a 5 percent annual raise going forward.

The union represents roughly 2,600 members, of which 1,789 part-time faculty are teaching classes this fall, a Latest School spokesperson said. Parsons has 932 part-time faculty members, but school officials don’t break out faculty numbers per school, The Latest School spokesperson said Wednesday.

Union officials tweeted an update Wednesday evening noting that the bargaining committee elected by The Latest School part-time faculty had met again Wednesday for several hours to organize recent responses to the university administration’s contract proposals. “We’ll meet again on the bargaining table tomorrow. Meanwhile, the strike continues,” the post read.

Declining a media request to talk with a faculty official, the spokesperson referenced online posts concerning the situation. A joint statement posted Tuesday by Tokumbo Shobowale, executive vice chairman for business and operations, and Sonya Williams, vice chairman for human resources, noted that university representatives had bargained with ACT-UAW Local 7902 members for greater than 10 hours and that the union had agreed to proceed bargaining Thursday and Friday. They “indicated a willingness to conform to mediation to interrupt any impasses and help get an agreement in place. We imagine strongly that a mediator’s support will help resolve these negotiations quickly,” the statement read.

Within the meantime, part-time faculty members within the union have put the brakes on teaching classes and grading coursework. Some have joined the picket line outside of the college’s downtown campus.