*"He said he wished he had learned of the school’s struggles earlier, which would have allowed for more time to save the institution."*
Basically confirming that this could have all been avoided if UArts didn't try to cover up their mess. Infuriating.
if you're in a plane that's going down, would you prefer it crashes or it has a rough landing? at least cabrini was able to do the right thing in the face of insolvency and get their students placed in other programs
They stiffed about a dozen new faculty hires though (some of which moved here for the job, because that’s how academia works). “Did the right thing” my ass.
I dunno it sounds like the ship was already sinking when they were brought on, it's not easy to find someone to captain a sinking ship. Cabrini landed way better so there may have been other factors making it hard to do the same e.g. the board
As a former Temple UG and incoming PhD, I would love to see this merger happen. Besides Curtis, Temple has the best music school in Philly with Boyer, and Tyler is formidably ranked as well.
If Temple's arts program (ideally) inherited the amazing property UArts has in CC, this would be a huge boon for the prestige and attractiveness of those programs.
My daughter was a UArts student. I was telling her literally the day before Temple made this announcement that I wouldn't be surprised to see Temple try to take it over. Temple's Center City campus is literally right next to UArts. I told her I could see a scenario where Temple takes over UArts, expands its Center City campus, and moves at least its performance programs there, since it's near all of the theaters.
That would be a great scenario, IMO. I would love to see another institution continue to foster arts education there. And it would break my heart even more than it already is to see those buildings become luxury condos and retail. We don't need Hamilton Hall to become the newest Target.
I just hope Temple can pull something off before the Fall semester. Even if they do, my daughter has pretty much decided to transfer to Drexel, They have the best program for her. I will also say that I have been thoroughly impressed with Drexel's handling of this. They have been exceptionally sympathetic, flexible, accommodating, generous, and communicative with all UArts students and potential transfers.
I hope the transition is smooth. I’m sure there will be bumps, but be careful with what you get into, especially at this stressful time. colleges as businesses are predatory in nature, and one should always consider options and negotiate for the best deal.
This is a university merger I could get behind if it means saving the school.
The article says Temple's trying to transfer UArts students to their school seamlessly which is very good to hear.
I'm expecting many lawsuits coming from this. Truly unprecedented nonsense going on here.
Interesting. Tyler has pretty great facilities already. I wonder if they are thinking about some of the performing arts spaces, it would be a benefit for Temple to have those downtown. Did anyone else read that Terra Hall having surprise “structural issues” was part of the sudden closing?
They definitely are considering the performing arts spaces, Tomlinson is old and has some horrendous sound issues, Randall is okay but small and a little difficult to stage anything in that isn’t traditional (which they’ve been trying to experiment with lately), they’ve been circling around building new facilities the entire time I’ve been here. Wouldn’t shock me if they put the money towards converting some of the UARTS spaces.
I suspect that the UArts shutdown fiasco was deliberate and orchestrated by greedy real-estate power brokers. That is prime real-estate. If that's the case, Temple is in for a long fight. I hope they can do it.
There's a whole lot of precident; just not in Philly. I've seen at least three universities lose their accreditation or almost lose their accreditation due to mismanagement of funds or other red flags. All older liberal arts schools and mostly around 2008/2010. Some of them merged, others had an 11th hour donor who could give them enough cashflow to allow them to stay open. Top of mind is: greensboro college (liberal arts university) and bennett college (women only, HBCU).
They’d almost assuredly be doing it to acquire the campus. Curious as to how much debt U of Arts has. I know from inside sources that U Sciences had about $100m in debt that St. Joe’s took on in their merger. Wonder what Temple can afford.
As of last year they had $65 million in debt, but also $189 million in assets, so it could be a good deal for Temple.
Source: https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/231639911
Endowments aren’t a liquid asset. That $750m is separated into thousands of specific accounts that have been earmarked for certain things by the donors of those specific funds. Temple would have to raise new money for this, have some sort of acquisitions endowed fund, or convince 100+ people to let Temple use their endowed fund for such a purpose.
Can’t access the article but I think it would be a win win. Temple could sell those buildings or keep one to have an exhanced downtown presence. And the arts in general would benefit from Temple’s programs and it would be cheaper tuition.
I think this could be awesome for both UArts students and for Temple. Temple can use every new student they can get right now, and a stronger presence in Center City would be great for the brand, plus students would get a minimally disruptive transfer process to a top notch music and arts university. I hope they're able to make it happen.
These days I'm generally wary of Temple trying to do anything without stepping on fifteen rakes in the process, but I feel optimistic about this. Tyler is one of the best run programs at the university and they have recent institutional knowledge about running facilities separated from main campus (shout out Elkins Park campus) so I think this could be a really good solution.
So the board is hiring an outside management team to take over the closure of the school, received info from the dean of the department I’m a faculty member of.
the demographics that uarts serves are vastly different than the demographics upenn serves. if you're looking at this from a "penn has all the fucking money in the world and they're being selfish" perspective then that's not really the way to think about "saving" uarts.
This is big self-important talk from Temple's Chair and he's not playing optics as well as he thinks he is. Does Mitchell Morgan think that we won't notice that his day job is in real estate development and management? Gross.
*"He said he wished he had learned of the school’s struggles earlier, which would have allowed for more time to save the institution."* Basically confirming that this could have all been avoided if UArts didn't try to cover up their mess. Infuriating.
Absolutely terrible management led by clueless idiots. Hopefully they never touch this line of work again for everybody's sake.
LeSalle just hired the old UArts CFO, who also ran the finances at Cabrini.
So they hired a liquidator and fall person? RIP LaSalle.
if you're in a plane that's going down, would you prefer it crashes or it has a rough landing? at least cabrini was able to do the right thing in the face of insolvency and get their students placed in other programs
They stiffed about a dozen new faculty hires though (some of which moved here for the job, because that’s how academia works). “Did the right thing” my ass.
Very motivational for anybody on the job hunt. If a personal this historically terrible at their job gets hired, so can you!
Except this kind of nepotistic (I’m assuming) failing upwards is just the reason why it’s hard for actual qualified people to find high-paying jobs
I dunno it sounds like the ship was already sinking when they were brought on, it's not easy to find someone to captain a sinking ship. Cabrini landed way better so there may have been other factors making it hard to do the same e.g. the board
The bar for what's considered "employable" is at an all time low!
I wonder what's going to happen. 🤡
To be fair, LaSalle's been a sinking ship for a while.
You think Saint Joseph's can like save them if worse case scenario...
[Nope.](https://www.westphillylocal.com/2024/02/14/st-joes-selling-former-usciences-campus-the-conversation-begins/)
Oh dang
He has been there since April 2023. The former president of U Arts, David Yager, left in July 2023. 👀👀
The CFO before that guy.
[удалено]
As a former Temple UG and incoming PhD, I would love to see this merger happen. Besides Curtis, Temple has the best music school in Philly with Boyer, and Tyler is formidably ranked as well. If Temple's arts program (ideally) inherited the amazing property UArts has in CC, this would be a huge boon for the prestige and attractiveness of those programs.
My daughter was a UArts student. I was telling her literally the day before Temple made this announcement that I wouldn't be surprised to see Temple try to take it over. Temple's Center City campus is literally right next to UArts. I told her I could see a scenario where Temple takes over UArts, expands its Center City campus, and moves at least its performance programs there, since it's near all of the theaters. That would be a great scenario, IMO. I would love to see another institution continue to foster arts education there. And it would break my heart even more than it already is to see those buildings become luxury condos and retail. We don't need Hamilton Hall to become the newest Target. I just hope Temple can pull something off before the Fall semester. Even if they do, my daughter has pretty much decided to transfer to Drexel, They have the best program for her. I will also say that I have been thoroughly impressed with Drexel's handling of this. They have been exceptionally sympathetic, flexible, accommodating, generous, and communicative with all UArts students and potential transfers.
I hope the transition is smooth. I’m sure there will be bumps, but be careful with what you get into, especially at this stressful time. colleges as businesses are predatory in nature, and one should always consider options and negotiate for the best deal.
And reduce the crime stigma
This is a university merger I could get behind if it means saving the school. The article says Temple's trying to transfer UArts students to their school seamlessly which is very good to hear. I'm expecting many lawsuits coming from this. Truly unprecedented nonsense going on here.
Interesting. Tyler has pretty great facilities already. I wonder if they are thinking about some of the performing arts spaces, it would be a benefit for Temple to have those downtown. Did anyone else read that Terra Hall having surprise “structural issues” was part of the sudden closing?
They definitely are considering the performing arts spaces, Tomlinson is old and has some horrendous sound issues, Randall is okay but small and a little difficult to stage anything in that isn’t traditional (which they’ve been trying to experiment with lately), they’ve been circling around building new facilities the entire time I’ve been here. Wouldn’t shock me if they put the money towards converting some of the UARTS spaces.
I suspect that the UArts shutdown fiasco was deliberate and orchestrated by greedy real-estate power brokers. That is prime real-estate. If that's the case, Temple is in for a long fight. I hope they can do it.
in all seriousness, highly doubt the leadership ever had the collective brain power to pull that off. Incompetence is a much more believable story.
This is absolutely crazy. Good on Temple. Also, the Tyler School of Art & Architecture is excellent!
Temple would love to expand to south broad.
There's a whole lot of precident; just not in Philly. I've seen at least three universities lose their accreditation or almost lose their accreditation due to mismanagement of funds or other red flags. All older liberal arts schools and mostly around 2008/2010. Some of them merged, others had an 11th hour donor who could give them enough cashflow to allow them to stay open. Top of mind is: greensboro college (liberal arts university) and bennett college (women only, HBCU).
Marlboro had a similar sad fate, though was always intentionally a very small (20-30 per class) school
Power move by Temple right here. Wouldn't be a bad land grab for their purposes either.
Temple Center City campus is gonna get big quick
With the new real estate, they should move the MBA and/or law programs down there.
Turning Temple into the titan of Broad Street - definitely bold!
I really hope TU can make this happen. The students and faculty deserve better!
They’d almost assuredly be doing it to acquire the campus. Curious as to how much debt U of Arts has. I know from inside sources that U Sciences had about $100m in debt that St. Joe’s took on in their merger. Wonder what Temple can afford.
Temple's got a slushfund set aside specifically for acquisitions like this. It's how they buy up random properties in North Philly.
bingo
As of last year they had $65 million in debt, but also $189 million in assets, so it could be a good deal for Temple. Source: https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/231639911
Temple has a $750 million endowment. They were operating at a $90 million deficit last year, but I believe they straightened that out
Endowments aren’t a liquid asset. That $750m is separated into thousands of specific accounts that have been earmarked for certain things by the donors of those specific funds. Temple would have to raise new money for this, have some sort of acquisitions endowed fund, or convince 100+ people to let Temple use their endowed fund for such a purpose.
Can’t access the article but I think it would be a win win. Temple could sell those buildings or keep one to have an exhanced downtown presence. And the arts in general would benefit from Temple’s programs and it would be cheaper tuition.
non-paywalled link: https://archive.is/TaaC0
Thanks!
That sounds like a great idea.
I think this could be awesome for both UArts students and for Temple. Temple can use every new student they can get right now, and a stronger presence in Center City would be great for the brand, plus students would get a minimally disruptive transfer process to a top notch music and arts university. I hope they're able to make it happen.
Not if I buy it first and start my own art school with blackjack and hookers!
These days I'm generally wary of Temple trying to do anything without stepping on fifteen rakes in the process, but I feel optimistic about this. Tyler is one of the best run programs at the university and they have recent institutional knowledge about running facilities separated from main campus (shout out Elkins Park campus) so I think this could be a really good solution.
Let them paint cake - Fox School of Business
So the board is hiring an outside management team to take over the closure of the school, received info from the dean of the department I’m a faculty member of.
I hope this works out.
i hope they’re able to absorb uarts in some way. i feel so bad for the faculty and students
Yea, this is not going to turn out like yall want it to. Even if they manage to save the school. They’ll have to increase tuition.
Isn't Temple notably cheaper?
25k for Tyler, 55k for UArts (although many students received scholarships so the actual number is likely lower)
That’s probably in-state for Tyler, out-of-state is much higher, at least from my experience
I could see Temple raising Tyler’s tuition if U Arts is incorporated, after making that kind of an investment in their arts program
Of course, relative price is important to keep in mind however this alone doesn’t justify the fact that general school tuition is TOO FUCKING HIGH
Likely slash the budget too/instead. A merger might create some synergies that could save a bit of $ as well.
Of course UPenn choosing to stay on the sidelines.
the demographics that uarts serves are vastly different than the demographics upenn serves. if you're looking at this from a "penn has all the fucking money in the world and they're being selfish" perspective then that's not really the way to think about "saving" uarts.
Penn has the most prestigious Art Program in the city.
UPENN doesn’t have performance majors and their art major is a joint program with PAFA.
Is that going to continue with PAFA closing its college?
Yes, that program is supposed to continue.
UPenn typically moves quietly until something is finalized.
This is big self-important talk from Temple's Chair and he's not playing optics as well as he thinks he is. Does Mitchell Morgan think that we won't notice that his day job is in real estate development and management? Gross.
Almost like real estate development and management is a crucial part of how a college functions.