University in Philadelphia Abruptly Announces Closure

The University of the Arts, an institution with roots almost a century and a half old in Philadelphia, has abruptly announced it will close this week, citing declining enrollment and revenues as well as increasing expenses. University President Kerry Walk and the chair of the board of trustees, Judson Aaron, announced the June 7 closure in a notice posted Friday night on the university's website, calling it "heartbreaking" and "deeply painful," the AP reports. Separate town halls are planned Monday with students, faculty, and staff, they said.

• Officials at the university—which has offered programs in design, fine arts, media arts, music, dance, and theater—said that summer courses will be canceled and that a new class will not be enrolled in the fall. They vowed to help continuing students transfer to other institutions such as Temple and Drexel universities and the Moore College of Art and Design.

• Officials said University of the Arts had been in a "fragile financial state" like many institutions of higher learning following "many years of declining enrollments, declining revenues, and increasing expenses" but had made progress on improving its position.
• "Unfortunately, however, we could not overcome the ultimate challenge we faced: with a cash position that has steadily weakened, we could not cover significant, unanticipated expenses," they said. "The situation came to light very suddenly. Despite swift action, we were unable to bridge the necessary gaps."
• The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that the university employs just under 700 faculty and staff who will ultimately be out of work. Walk told the Inquirer the school opened in the fall with 1,149 students, down from 2,038 in 2013.
• Many students and faculty members learned about the closure from news reports or posts on social media before the announcement was made. "At 2:47pm on Friday I got an email asking me to apply for graduation, and at 6:03 the Inquirer posted the story that my school was closing," illustration major Natalie DeFruscio tells the New York Times. "If you spent five minutes there, you could tell it was oozing with talented students," she says. "And there were amazing professors I adore who were also blindsided by this."
• The University of the Arts was created from two century-old institutions, the Philadelphia College of Art—established in 1876 as part of the Philadelphia Museum of Art—and the Philadelphia College of the Performing Arts, which both changed names before eventually merging in 1985 and becoming a university two years later.

(More university stories.)