UArts faculty and alumni call for City Council review of school’s closure

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Philadelphia City Council heard the pleas of students, teachers and alumni from University of the Arts at a rare summertime hearing in City Hall Thursday morning.

The university closed abruptly in June to the dismay of students and city leaders.

Councilmember Nina Ahmad called for an audit to find out exactly what happened.

“I would not let those board members off the hook. They need to be accountable and I don’t know, maybe they are, I just don’t know that information,” Ahmad said. “We should not just say, just because the president resigned there’s no other access to this information. Somebody knows something. So I think we need to be a bit of a dog with the bone on this.”

UArts professor Christina Mattei said she moved across the country from California a year ago to take a position at the school. She spoke about how her life has changed since the school closed.

“I worked countless free hours preparing programming for the 2024 and 2025 school year for the university to shut down,” Mattei told City Council. “This has greatly affected my son who is with me today, because I can’t afford child care for this summer.”

Mattei said she’s resorted to “sleeping on my couch as a grown woman and renting a room in the apartment that I live in now in Philadelphia to cover rent and make sure food is on the table.”

Students also spoke about how their lives have now been turned upside down twice: once due to COVID, and now again by the school’s sudden closure.

Brynn Smith, a musical theater major, was just one semester short of graduation. She’s spent the summer trying to connect with a place to resume her education in the fall.

She said UArts did nothing for her, but other groups have helped, including Sarah Lawrence University. She added that UArts did not help with the financial information or let her know if any of her scholarships would transfer to a new institution.

“This has been the most stressful summer of my entire life,” Smith said.

Despite the challenges, she looked back fondly at her time at UArts. The people “were magic,” making the whole transfer experience harder. “We will all persevere, but I won’t be excited about” the final semester of classes.

Smith was one of only a few former students who showed up, as many others are still scrambling to land a new spot at a new school, find financing or both.

“Something tangible needs to come out of the hearing,” said Councilmember Ahmad said.

She said a fund for economic relief could come from more than artists, but also from city unions. She said the city should focus on saving the school as well as saving the students who are undergoing psychological trauma from the closure.

Council President Kenyatta Johnson said he would work with the Council to make sure everyone is “made whole,” including students. He added that there are still talks with Temple University to bring the school under their banner.