Pressure to investigate UArts closure ramps up with latest letter from faculty union

University of the Arts faculty, laid off en masse when the school closed abruptly June 7, are pressuring the Pennsylvania attorney general to launch a formal investigation into what went wrong in its catastrophic final days.

The union that represents faculty — which is also attempting to push the university’s board of trustees into scheduling federally mandated bargaining sessions over closing terms — joined calls for investigations, sending a letter to the attorney general’s office seeking support for a state probe.

“The University of the Arts has provided little public information related to its financial collapse and imminent closure and subsequent loss of accreditation from the Middle States Council on Higher Education,” union leaders wrote in the letter, circulated in an online petition.

“Nevertheless, the university engaged in frequent marketing campaigns about its viability and prestige, grew its real estate and investment portfolio to a $200 million valuation, and placed multiple members on its board of trustees with significant financial and real estate development experience — individuals who would and should have been expected to exercise greater care and oversight of university operations.”

A spokesperson for Pennsylvania Attorney General Michelle Henry said that officials are “very concerned by the sudden closure of the University of the Arts” and said the office was “reviewing the circumstances of the closure and any transfer or loss of assets” but would not confirm an investigation.

Separately, both State Rep. Ben Waxman (D., Philadelphia) and the Philadelphia City Council’s education committee are holding hearings on the closure. The state hearing is scheduled for Monday at the William Way Center in Center City; no date for the city hearing has been announced.

Bradley Philbert, the faculty union’s executive vice president and a former University of the Arts adjunct professor, said no one from the school will commit to sessions to begin “impact bargaining” over closure terms, as is legally required.

To that end, union members showed up outside board chair Judson Aaron’s home in the city’s Queen Village section Wednesday to demand answers and hand out leaflets to neighbors.

“UArts Board Chair Jud Aaron lives in your neighborhood. He closed the University of the Arts and laid off hundreds of staff and faculty with one week notice! Now he has no plan to negotiate with UArts Faculty & Staff Union?” read a flier stuck under car windshield wipers and tacked to light poles.

More in-person actions are planned if no negotiations are scheduled, Philbert said.

Four groups of faculty, students and staff have sued the university since the closure announcement.

Each of the lawsuits — including the latest, which was filed Wednesday in federal court by two former University of the Arts students — seeks class-action designation, which would allow the lawyers involved to lead the legal fight on behalf of all of University of the Arts’ former students and employees.

In two of the lawsuits, more than 20 former employees claim administrators violated a federal law requiring employers to give at least 60 days’ written notice of mass layoffs when they announced their intention to shut the university just a week before the closure.

They’re seeking two months’ pay as well as money to cover their accrued vacation time and health benefits over the same period.

A judge has yet to set a hearing in those cases.

Though they originally began as separate lawsuits — one brought by a group of largely nonunion employees, and another filed chiefly by workers represented by the union — both groups signaled to the court this week that they intend to combine their cases and pursue similar legal claims. The students’ lawsuits — brought on behalf of 16 plaintiffs, many of whom were expecting to attend University of the Arts in the fall before its sudden closure — seek damages for fraud, breach of contract, unjust enrichment and unfair trade practices

They say the university cheated its students by failing to disclose its precarious financial position while continuing to recruit for and accept applications for the 2024-25 school year.

“The abrupt closure of [the university] has caused considerable financial distress to its now former students who relied on its continuing operation and accreditation when they enrolled, obtained loans, and, in many instances, relocated to Philadelphia to attend,” said attorney Joe Sauder, who is representing the two students who filed complaints on Wednesday.

Attorneys for University of the Arts have not yet responded to any of the legal actions in court, and university officials have not responded to requests for comment.

Staff writer Gillian McGoldrick contributed to this article.