A week after UArts closure, here are some questions answered and what comes next

Even now, University of the Arts’ accrediting agency and state and federal officials remain in the dark about whatever cataclysmic developments triggered the school’s closure on June 7, representatives said Friday.

The news came at a student town hall meeting convened by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, the accrediting agency. Heather F. Perfetti, the organization’s president, reiterated that Middle States was “as surprised by the institution’s determination that they needed to close as so many of you.”

Perfetti expressed her regret to the students and parents who joined the Friday morning session.

“We all believe that no academic journey should include this kind of severe and abrupt disruption,” she said.

After University of the Arts canceled its own planned town hall meeting before it was scheduled to begin in the first week of June, the agency worked to bring together government officials and a representative from Alvarez & Marsal, the firm hired by the university to manage it through closure, to answer what questions it could.

Here’s what we know and what we don’t know about the closure, two weeks after it was announced:

Officials said they have asked university officials for a list of students who have finished requirements for degrees that were completed but not yet awarded, or those who have missing grades.

“Our commission has always been prepared to extend the accreditation of the University of the Arts for the sole purpose of awarding degrees and grades that were completed but not yet processed,” Perfetti said.

Middle States officials acknowledged reports that University of the Arts is in merger talks with Temple University.

Though even if a merger were to happen, said Tracey Schneider, Middle States’ general counsel, “Temple University would have to have that process reviewed and possibly approved by the commission,” a process that will take a year, Schneider said. “We truly want you to focus today on the immediate options you have in front of you for continuing your education.”

Middle States has signed off on six “teach-out partners,” or universities that have formal agreements to accept students, transfer credits, and work through financial aid information. They are Moore College of Art and Design, Drexel University, Temple, Montclair State University, Point Park College in Pittsburgh, and the New School in New York.

More partners are working out details and will be announced, officials said.

University of the Arts’ registrar’s office remains open, and students can get free copies of their digital transcripts and pay for physical copies. Three thousand transcripts have been processed since May 31, when then-president Kerry Walk announced the abrupt closure. (Walk has since resigned.)

Student records will be maintained well into the future, officials said, and will be sent to another institution to be kept there.

For students who have already paid for summer and fall classes or housing, refunds will come, officials said.

“We are still working through all of that,” said Jenelle Beavers, a managing director with Alvarez & Marsal, the firm now running the institution. “We will be issuing reimbursements for summer and fall; we’re working on process and timing. We know this is very important. We are doing the work to get those answers as soon as possible.”

Student digital records and email access will remain for now, also.

Beavers said those left at the university were “literally working around the clock to get these issues resolved, and totally appreciate these situations that you’re in.”

Alvarez & Marsal representatives said that they had no idea what would happen to the university’s buildings, but that students who have artwork or other items still left inside will be able to retrieve them.

“We will hold on to your items. You will have an opportunity to get them,” Beavers said. “We are not getting rid of anything. People should feel at ease that their items are intact.”

One displaced student voiced a question many have said they wondered about in the days since the closure was announced.

“Why didn’t the school reach out to other schools for help? If the school was facing so much financial hardship, why didn’t they reach out?”

Perfetti shook her head.

“I wish we could answer your question, but I think that everyone sitting around this virtual table is not in a position to answer,” she said. “We just don’t know.”

One student said he found the university’s conduct since May 31 “absolutely, positively disgusting.” He asked what might happen to the board of trustees and anyone who was responsible for the closure.

“We took the most severe action that we could take as an accreditor,” Perfetti said. Middle States withdrew University of the Arts’ accreditation almost immediately after university officials told them they were closing with just a few days’ notice to students.

“We are working with the university, not the board,” Beavers said. “I’m not sure that I can answer that.”

Lynette Kuhn, chief of the Pennsylvania Department of Higher Education, Access and Equity for the Pennsylvania Department of Education, said her agency was “taking this seriously to get to the bottom of what occurred, and how the events have unfolded. At the conclusion of those investigations, I believe each agency will have more answers in response to the timeline of events.”

Sherrie Bell, acting division chief of the U.S. Department of Education section responsible for Philadelphia-area schools, concurred.

“We’re waiting to see what the state uncovers and we’ll go from there,” Bell said.