University of the Arts asks judge to distribute endowment with partner schools

University of the Arts asked a Philadelphia judge to approve the distribution of its $63 million endowment to a dozen institutions that enrolled its students after the 150-year-old school’s abrupt closure in June.

The petition Tuesday in Orphans’ Court shows that the biggest chunk of the endowment, 44%, would go to Temple University, which has the most UArts students of any partner school. Moore College of Art and Design and Drexel University would get the next-largest amounts.

The money would be used for scholarships for transferred UArts students and then “to further the mission of advancing human creativity and art education in the areas of the visual and performing arts,” the filing said.

Ken Kaiser, Temple’s senior vice president and chief operating officer, said he was aware of the petition.

“We’re thankful to be considered as a home for a portion of these assets, and we’re committed to being responsible stewards for these assets,” Kaiser said. Temple said it currently has 359 UArts students. “In the end, it’s kind of bittersweet. Our endowment will be enhanced, but at a pretty significant price for the students affected.”

Moore, which would receive 16% of the endowment under the proposal, said it was honored that 114 UArts students chose the Center City school. “We would welcome additional resources to help support the scholarship funds we have awarded to UArts students,” Moore president Cathy Young said in a statement.

The Hamilton Family Charitable Trust, which has contributed about half of UArts’ endowment, had previously opposed the transfer of the endowment to Temple, ending Temple’s efforts to acquire UArts.

On Wednesday afternoon, Hamilton Family Charitable Trust board member S. Matthews V. Hamilton Jr. said of the petition: “It’s the first I’ve heard of it.”

Asked whether the family would maintain its interest in the fate of the University of the Arts’ endowment, he said: “Probably so.”

Another Hamilton board member, Francis J. Mirabello, also said he had not seen the petition, but he referred a reporter to an earlier letter obtained by The Inquirer outlining the foundation’s stance. In that letter, the family said it wanted the endowment to become part of the Hamilton Charitable Trust Education Fund, which was founded with the purpose of supporting educational activities in the Philadelphia region.

”The position hasn’t changed from that letter,” he said.

The union that represents former UArts faculty and staff also took issue with the proposed disbursement. No representatives of the university or trustees board have met their contractual and legal obligations to the workers affected by the closure, union vice president Bradley Philbert said.

“At no point were former workers, students, or community members consulted in this decision, which emphasizes the decadeslong disregard UArts officials have shown for the institution they were entrusted to protect,” Philbert said in a statement. “While these funds could bring much-needed support to institutions of higher education in Philadelphia and beyond, their primary use should be in repairing the damage done to the hundreds of workers and their families who have yet to receive the payments they are owed by UArts.”

The petition provided no insight into UArts’ closure. It attributed the board’s decision to “unforeseeable business circumstances, further cash losses being projected for the next academic year, 2024-25,” and the impending loss of its accreditation.