UArts closure will be the subject of Philadelphia City Council hearings, as a Temple merger moves one step closer

At least one government body began demanding answers of University of the Arts on Thursday, with Philadelphia City Council calling for hearings into how the venerable university collapsed so quickly.

The arts college is set to close Friday, a week after its president and board chair said an unspecified financial crisis would prompt them to shut down the university. President Kerry Walk resigned days later, and the board has since brought in a global management firm to manage the university’s closure.

And also Thursday, a possible merger with Temple University took one step forward.

Temple has signed a non-disclosure agreement with the University of the Arts to look at the possibility of a merger, according to a source close to the process who asked not to be identified because the talks are private.

If the talks were to progress, the next step would be a non-binding letter of intent to merge, according to the source, followed by discussions and research into the ramifications of such a move.

No timeline was available, but according to a source at the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, such moves typically take at least a year.

Villanova and Cabrini Universities signed a non-public memorandum in March 2023 under which Villanova was exploring the purchase of the Cabrini campus in Radnor. By that June, the universities announced publicly that they had signed a memorandum and that Cabrini would close for good a year later. The two universities finalized the agreement five months after that in November. Villanova will officially take over the campus at the end of this month.

In the meantime, City Councilmember Mark Squilla on Thursday introduced legislation calling for Council’s education committee to hold hearings, and Councilmember Isaiah Thomas, the committee chair, said he backed the inquiries.

Squilla said he was on a call with university leaders, along with Mayor Cherelle L. Parker, and state and federal officials, and hung up with “a lot of questions that we asked that they weren’t able to provide answers to. I think the only way that we get the answers is to bring them in and have them be able to on the record say exactly what happened.”

Squilla said the university officials were vague, and gave answers that made it seem as if the school closed because accreditation was pulled by Middle States Commission on Higher Education; Middle States has made it clear in an unusual public statement that it pulled accreditation only after University of the Arts informed officials it was closing with a week’s notice.

“There’s a lot of confusion and makes you really want to look into it deeper: What happened, and did they exhaust all options?” Squilla said. “We’re looking at other options — state folks coming in to oversee this. There’s a lot of things at play right now. I don’t think we’re willing to take their unilateral decision as the rule.”

Thomas, in a statement, noted the university months ago hammered out its first-ever union contract with faculty, and said the university’s sudden closure “was a massive blow to the students and faculty of the prestigious school, as well as the Avenue of the Arts and the broader arts and culture community... artists, educators, and staff supported UArts students’ journeys, and for the rug to be pulled out from under them so soon after a contract ratification is highly concerning and should be thoroughly investigated.”

Thomas said the education committee would “investigate this issue to the furthest extent possible, in search of the answers that the University of the Arts has failed to provide about their abrupt closure.”

Elected officials and national teachers’ union president Randi Weingarten are expected to come to campus Friday afternoon for a rally.

Weingarten, in an interview, said that she’s seen plenty of scandals in her long career as a New York City teacher and president of the American Federation of Teachers, but that the University of the Arts collapse was particularly stunning.

“This is such an abrogation of responsibility on the part of the college,” said Weingarten. “They have broken every norm and every rule imaginable in terms of their obligations to students, staff, to alumni. They have potentially destroyed opportunity and careers for hundreds if not thousands of people. To do it a moment after graduation, this quickly, in the dark of the night — it’s repulsive, it’s obnoxious, and lousy.”