Students and faculty are shocked: Only a week before a new semester was slated to begin on Oct. 2, the Art Institutes network sent an email stating that it will permanently close all of its locations on Sept. 30. This may sound like a desperate plot twist from a cheesy Netflix drama, but it’s real.
The closures will affect Art Institute schools in Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, Miami, San Antonio, Tampa, and Virginia Beach, per the network’s website.
According to the Houston Chronicle, the school system is mailing students five official copies of their transcripts for free on or after Oct. 1 — and doing little else besides wishing them the best.
The email sent to students said:
“Although there is no formal transfer of credit agreements in place, there will be academic and student financial aid staff available to students at the campus through the end of 2023. We are hopeful that the colleges and universities in each of the Art Institute markets will assist students and allow them to transfer their credits and complete their program of study.”
Well, as long as the Art Institutes are “hopeful” that other schools will help their students without any incentive to do so, that’s good enough, right?
No, it’s not—at least according to students like Michele Carter, who began her Art Institute program last April. Carter spoke to WSB-TV about the mood among students and faculty right now:
“People are heartbroken. People have been crying. I heard there’s faculty that has been crying because school is getting ready to start again. So, where are they going to find employment when classes are already set for other schools? Where are we going to go for the next semester when class is already set? We have to go through an application process and everything.”
Per the New York Times, the sudden closure will strand approximately 1,700 students who were counting on their new semester to start next week.
Deborah Obalil, executive director of the nonprofit Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design, commented, “There are students who thought they were pursuing an education who are now going to be left out in the cold.”
Why are all the Art Institute locations closing?
Getting a straight answer about the closures from the Art Institutes hasn’t been easy.
Per the Times, when current sophomore Hannah Grabhorn looked for more answers online, every page on the school’s website referred her back to the same notice. And the email capped off by saying that “the Art Institutes do not anticipate any further communication.”
Well. Now we know what it sounds like to be ghosted by an entire educational system.
According to the Times, the Art Institutes have suffered from low enrollment since the onset of the pandemic. In addition, it paid out $95 million to settle fraud allegations in 2015 and also lost accreditation in 2018, which led to the closing of nearly 20 other locations.
Obalil said that it’s a very tricky time for arts education, noting that schools like the San Francisco Art Institute are declaring bankruptcy while the Watkins College of Art in Nashville is merging with a larger institution to save itself.
She explained, “We are at an inflection point. … Delivering an arts and design curriculum is an expensive operation.”
However, the Art Institutes billed themselves as a cheaper alternative to conventional arts education programs. Some students said they were quoted about $90,000 to earn a full degree. Meanwhile, one year of tuition at a prestigious alternative like the Rhode Island School of Design amounts to approximately $59,000.
But the real issue here isn’t that the Art Institutes are closing their doors — it’s how little notice they gave students and faculty. This only makes sense if complete idiots are running the Finance department, or if the people at the top have a complete lack of respect for those willing to offer their time, money, and skills to the network.
The decision-makers at the Art Institutes should have known before this final summer semester that the system wouldn’t continue past September, and they should have told everyone immediately. This would have allowed students and teachers several months to prepare for switching education institutions. Instead, everyone is left scrambling.
To paraphrase Captain Kirk, “How we deal with [school closures] is at least as important as how we deal with [school operations].”
The Art Institutes system certainly doesn’t make the grade, and we hope students and faculty find alternative programs and positions long before the crummy leadership behind this debacle cons their way into other jobs.