Tracking where UArts students have landed

Matthew Miller will become a Temple University Owl this fall semester, usually an exciting time for new students.

But the saxophone performance major from Burlington County is conflicted.

“It is hard to be super happy to join this new family when I was kicked out of the original,” he said. “It’s really hard to be excited about that when you just lost so much.”

Miller was one of hundreds of students whose academic world was upended in June when University of the Arts, claiming it had run out of money, suddenly shut down. Until then, his plan was set: He would have headed into his senior year this month with plans to stay for a fifth year to earn a master’s in teaching.

» READ MORE: The University of the Arts is closing June 7, its president says

While he was grateful to have been accepted to Temple, where he will get his bachelor’s degree in music performance, the university didn’t have a similar program to earn a master’s in teaching in an additional year, he said. University officials are looking at creating one, he said he was told.

“Fingers crossed,” he said.

It’s unclear how many UArts students, like Miller, have re-enrolled at other universities. UArts, where enrollment stood at 1,149 last fall, is required to track that and report it to the Pennsylvania Department of Education, which is waiting for further information from UArts about teach out plans. Representatives for UArts did not respond to requests for comment.

Nineteen colleges, both local and in other states, have been designated by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, UArts’ accreditor, as “teach out partners,” meaning that they have promised to ease the transfer path for students.

Nearly 750 students have enrolled at 15 of those schools, according to an Inquirer survey. Temple, which also remains in negotiations with the UArts board about a potential merger, is taking in 321 UArts students, more than any other school. Moore College of Art and Design, the only arts college remaining in Philadelphia, said 114 former UArts students will attend, which represents a 33% increase in enrollment.

» READ MORE: How the UArts closure transformed Moore College of Art & Design, the last art-centered college in Philly

Some students may have chosen to go to colleges not designated as partners; others have told The Inquirer they don’t plan to return to school, at least not immediately.

Nationwide, the statistics are staggering: At 467 colleges that closed between July 1, 2004, and June 30, 2020, more than half of students did not re-enroll elsewhere, according to a 2022 report.

Of those who did, only 36.8% earned a degree, and 10% more were still enrolled when the study ended. The majority of those colleges were for-profit institutions, and many of the closures were abrupt. The study showed that when closures were orderly with students receiving advanced notice and getting support, about 70% of students re-enrolled.

» READ MORE: With stats stacked against them, students get help from soon-to-close Cabrini University to enroll elsewhere

Local colleges, including Temple, Drexel, Moore, Arcadia, and Rowan, were among those that quickly began to accept UArts students and match them in programs on their campuses.

Temple fast-tracked a new undergraduate degree, a bachelor’s in fine arts in illustration and emerging media. More than 30 UArts students will start in the program this fall.

“We are simply doing for them what we always do, which is to help students build the lives they want to live,” said Susan Cahan, dean of the Tyler School of Art and Architecture, which typically enrolls about 1,400 students across 22 majors and boasts a close-knit community and an 87% freshman-to-sophomore retention rate.

For some specialties, Temple hired UArts faculty to help their school adapt. For instance, Temple has a very traditional classic jazz program, while UArts’ was more focused on commercial and pop music, said Robert Stroker, dean of Temple’s Boyer College of Music and Dance and the School of Theater, Film and Media Arts.

“It has been challenging,” he said of meshing UArts majors with Temple’s programming. “A lot of the programs there are slightly different than ours and what we’ve been doing is being as creative as possible to be sure that the students can come here.”

» READ MORE: University of the Arts’ dance program is moving to Vermont

Temple also has designated two floors of Johnson and Hardwick residence halls for a cohort of more than 50 former UArts students to live together and hired two former UArts resident assistants, one to live with the cohort and another to live in a separate area with performing and cinematic arts students.

“It really provides a little bit of comfort and a little bit of community and connection for them,” said Olan Garrett, senior associate vice president for student affairs. “Sometimes knowing you’re not alone is a powerful feeling for folks.”

That’s especially true after the institutional upheaval UArts’ students experienced.

Zoe Hollander moved from Minneapolis to attend UArts, where she flourished as a musical theater major scheduled to graduate in 2025.

She was cast this spring in the fall show that will never happen, she had plans for the improv comedy troupe she founded, and she was going to travel to London for a school program this winter. Hollander had just re-upped the lease on her close-to-campus apartment when she found out the school was closing.

In the confusing days after the announcement, she mulled all sorts of options — enroll in any school that would let her finish her degree quickly online? Leave school altogether and apply for loan discharge?

”That would be a lot of money that I would get back; I very much considered that,” Hollander said.

» READ MORE: University of the Arts hit with new charges of unfair labor practices as court date looms

With just a small number of programs nationally offering a bachelor’s of fine arts in musical theater as UArts did, programs are competitive, and moving on felt especially daunting. Staying in Philadelphia was a priority, both because of her lease and because Hollander has built relationships in the city, personal and professional.

Temple felt like her best option, though Hollander, who was halfway across the country visiting family when the closure news came, at first had a tough time finding people to talk to at the school.

”Once I was able to talk with humans, I had a better idea of what was going to happen,” said Hollander. “The people at the theater department at Temple have been wonderful — they’ve done a great job of communicating, and they want to help.”

Temple is absorbing many of UArts’ musical theater students.

Financial aid has been less of a bright spot, she said. Temple’s sticker price — tuition and fees for in-state students are close to $20,000 this year, and more than $35,000 for out-of-state residents — is much lower than UArts’ was, but Hollander has to take out just as much in loans to transfer to Temple. Her institutional grants and loans represented more than 40% of her tuition at UArts, and just 15.4% at Temple.

”We know that the people are trying their best, but a lot of us are feeling failed by higher ed as a whole,” said Hollander. “If I had known this two months ago, I might have made a different decision.”

» READ MORE: The latest UArts hearing discusses red flags before closure, a failed move to save the school, and an accusation of ‘cowards’ on the board

Temple Provost Gregory N. Mandel said no student is paying more in net tuition and fees than was paid at UArts.

“The majority of the students are paying less now that they are coming to Temple,” Mandel said.

Temple’s campus is vibrant and lovely, but touring it felt jarring, Hollander said — the feel of being at a large school where arts isn’t at the center of everything was strange.

When Hollander visited campus with a friend “we both had a moment where we said, ‘This doesn’t feel right,’” she said. “What I always loved about UArts is that it was a small school in a big city. That’s why I moved to Philadelphia. This is just different.”

For Phoenix Williams, a film and animation major from Ocean County, N.J., the UArts closure may not have been the worst thing. He said he wasn’t getting a lot of career guidance there.

“No one would ever help me with internships,” he said. “I’m still trying to figure out what I’m supposed to do after college in regards to getting a job in film.”

But at Drexel University, where Williams recently enrolled for his senior year, he’s already learning more about what he can do with his degree, he said.

“When I went on June 2 to look at Drexel, the amount of posters they had up of students who graduated in 2022 and 2023 working in the field now is kind of insane,” said Williams, who hopes to make horror movies. “So I actually feel more secure now.”

He hopes he can get funding from Drexel to work on his senior thesis, he said, and heard some encouraging words about that from faculty.

» READ MORE: UArts’ sudden closure was a shock, but not a big surprise in the turbulent higher-ed landscape

Drexel, he said, may actually cost him less than UArts. His parents encouraged him to finish his degree.

“I just want to get the hell out of college,” he said.

At UArts, he would have received a bachelor’s of fine arts; at Drexel, it will be a bachelor’s of science in film and television, he said.

Miller, the saxophone player, said he still has many questions about the UArts closure. Why did it happen? How did the college run out of money with little warning? Whose fault is it?

But for now, at least one question has been answered for Miller. Stroker, the Boyer dean, said Thursday that Temple will create an accelerated program for Miller and others like him to get a teaching certificate. It will be rolled out in the next few weeks, Stroker said.

Miller said he appreciates all Temple has done, but still wishes he would be getting the master’s he was on target to receive at UArts.

“As grateful as I am for all this, I can’t help but feel disappointed,” he said.