State lawmakers want to prevent universities from closing abruptly like UArts

HARRISBURG — Following the sudden closure of University of the Arts, state lawmakers are trying to prevent the abrupt closure of any other Pennsylvania schools.

A group of House Democratic lawmakers, led by Rep. Ben Waxman (D., Philadelphia) and Rep. Bob Merski (D., Erie), want to create new accountability and transparency measures for higher education institutions.

Any college or university would be required to notify the state of its impending closure or consolidation, submit annual enrollment and financial data, and create a repository of transcripts for closing universities, among other changes, according to the proposal, which has not yet been formally introduced in the state House. Schools would need to meet those requirements in order to get any state funding, which most private colleges like University of the Arts receive even though they are not public.

This proposal will not address the issues that UArts students and graduates are currently facing, but is hopefully a proactive step to prevent such a closure in the future, the lawmakers said in a joint interview Wednesday. Lawmakers said they may have been able to help UArts if they had learned earlier about the institution’s financial woes.

”We’re going to continue to see mergers and closures, and we need to be sure that we’re getting ahead of it,” said Rep. Morgan Cephas (D., Philadelphia), who chairs Philadelphia’s delegation to Harrisburg, noting the merger of University of the Sciences with St. Joseph’s University as one of several consolidations or closures of private colleges in the Philly region in the last few years.

Pennsylvania owns its own higher education system, which includes 10 four-year universities and 15 community colleges. It also has four state-related schools that all receive state funds in exchange for offering in-state student tuition discounts. There are also more than 100 private universities across the state.

Those private schools still receive some state funding. For example, in-state students who attend private schools are eligible for state-funded grants, and the state often lends or gives funds to schools for major capital projects or helps them obtain federal funds.

Waxman, whose Center City district includes University of the Arts, said he has personally sent letters asking state entities to approve funds for some of the school’s capital projects.

“If the state is expected to provide that kind of funding, there needs to be information about whether or not the university is financially viable, and whether or not they are managing those resources appropriately,” Waxman said. “There has to just be accountability.”

On Monday morning, Waxman will host the first of what he said will be a series of public hearings about UArts’ closure at the William Way LGBT Community Center. Students and faculty are invited to talk about how the closure has impacted their lives. UArts administrators have been invited to speak, but are not expected to attend.

Merski, the bill’s other author, said he had already been working on similar legislation, following the closure announcement of Notre Dame College in Ohio, where some of his constituents attended.

The Erie representative then began working with Waxman, Cephas, and House Appropriations chair Jordan Harris (D., Philadelphia) to identify what actions they could take against UArts for disrupting the lives of so many students and faculty.

“I was a first-generation college student. I can’t imagine being a freshman putting down your $500 deposit and then the school announcing their closing and the state not having a mechanism to help you,” Merski said. “It helps us structurally as a commonwealth to mitigate some of these abrupt closures so that they don’t happen so abruptly, so there’s a procedure in place so that students are taken care of.”

“We have to be good stewards of the taxpayer dollar and we want the universities, the private institutions to know: You’re getting our resources to help educate our students,” Harris said. “We want to make sure that if necessary, if there are issues, that we can know what’s going on.”

Harris added that he does not want the state to take over private universities, bur rather, work on “safeguarding our investment.”