Since the University of the Arts’ abrupt closure in June, questions have emerged regarding the allocation of its remaining funds, and how much money could end up going to Temple.
UArts proposed that 44% of the funds, approximately $27.2 million of the $63 million total, go to Temple in a petition filed in Orphans’ Court. The petition requested for the money to be used as scholarship money for transfer students from UArts and toward the continued education of the arts. UArts has since also filed for bankruptcy.
“Temple wants to get a portion of the endowment because we took roughly 360 of the University of the Arts’ students,” said Ken Kaiser, senior vice president and chief operating officer. “And the endowment’s purpose is to support the arts, to support the students, so it would make sense that we would get a piece of it.”
The petition requested the most money go to Temple, which took in the most transfer students from UArts. The next biggest portions of the endowment would go to Moore College of Art and Design and Drexel University.
Temple has supported UArts students by adding additional majors, like animation, expedited application processes and offered expedited degrees for the transfer students, Kaiser said.
The Hamilton Family Trust, a private family trust which provides funding for a variety of educational programs across Philadelphia, barred Temple from acquiring UArts in August.
Francis J. Mirabello, a trustee of the Hamilton Family Trust, said the family made it clear that they did not approve of their money coming to Temple, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The Hamilton Family Trust contributed roughly half of the $63 million endowment to UArts.
Along with this major donor, the UArts faculty and staff union also do not want the endowment coming to Temple.
“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,” wrote a spokesperson for the United Academics of Philadelphia, the labor union representing UArts’ faculty, in a statement to The Temple News.
Kaiser said that if the money comes to Temple, the funds will be used in the manner donors intended — to support transferred UArts students.
Since UArts filed for bankruptcy, UAP wrote that if the UArts Board continues to neglect the needs of their union they will “fight to make UAP members whole using every legal avenue available.”
The timeline of the endowment remains uncertain alongside UArts’ bankruptcy and the conflicting visions for the money.
“I don’t know the timing of it or ultimately what will happen,” Kaiser said. “I feel confident we will get some portion of the endowment, I just don’t know when or how much.”
Zoe Hollander, a senior musical theater major, transferred to Temple after UArts’ closure. She said UArts has not kept students informed regarding where the funds are going.
“I have not heard anything about finances,” Hollander said. “The only things that we heard from the university were back in June when we were told that all of our scholarships would be matched through the teach-out agreement.”
Hollander said students did not hear about the teach-out agreement, a statement from UArts to its students about what universities were accepting transfers, until after the closure of UArts. Hollander also said she is still paying the price of UArts tuition despite the fact that Temple’s tuition is less expensive.
Besides the information in the teach-out agreement, Hollander said UArts students have received minimal support.
“At least in my experience, all of the assistance I got came from the teachers and faculty and the humans, not the institution itself,” Hollander said.
Although it had initially seemed students transferring out of UArts would be given the same value of their merit scholarships in their new schools, this has not been the case, she added.
“I think [the money] should go to students that aren’t receiving their scholarships,” Hollander said. “It should go to the teachers that are out of work and it should go to the union if there’s anything leftover.”
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