When the University of Arts announced their closure in May, their remaining students didn’t know where to turn or where they would be finishing their education.
Up to 75 students that planned to attend the University of Arts (UA) in Philadelphia, as well as at least 30 Pittsburgh Technical College (PTC) students, were offered programs, called teach-out programs, that matched and accepted all of their credits to Point Park so they could continue their education. Out of the 75 students, 45 transferred to Point Park.
Both schools were in financial trouble when UA announced their closure on May 31, while Pittsburgh Technical College announced their closure on June 10.
With the teach-out program, students with select majors at UA can keep their same planned major and get accepted automatically. Students from both shuttered universities will not pay more for tuition than they would have at their respective schools.
The teach-out program was started partially in thanks to emails from concerned students and parents to conservatory faculty, as well as enrollment staff.
Marlin Collingwood, vice president of enrollment, received emails asking for a solution just a day after UA made their announcement.
“When I woke up, I had two emails from UA students – one was a mom – those two students were freshmen and they applied here,” Collingwood said. “I’m an early riser, so these emails must have been at five or six in the morning – the one mom in particular basically said, ‘we have no idea what to do, is there any way that you would be able to help us figure it out? Could she come to Point Park instead?”
After Collingwood and other faculty received more emails and texts, Collingwood and faculty from the conservatory got to work on a solution for these students. Two days after UA’s closure was announced, Point Park got to work on the teach-out program.
Collingwood sees the teach-out program as an example of what Point Park can do when everyone puts their heads together. “Initially, when the first calls came in, I was like ‘I don’t think I can take in any more dancers because we’re full already,” Collingwood said. “By Monday, we had a conversation with Susan, head of the dance department, and she was like ‘no, let me figure out what we can do’, same with musical theater. I saw two of those students Tuesday as they were moving in and their families were so grateful, because some of these people haven’t even gotten their tuition reimbursed yet. They paid their tuition for this fall in Philadelphia, and they haven’t gotten that money back yet.”
Sanai Warren, a freshman dance major, planned to be at UA before the university announced their closure.
“I found out a couple weeks after I got accepted, and I found out online through their ‘Class of 2028’ Instagram page,” Warren said. I thought it was a prank, honestly, but then they came out with an actual letter saying it was real.”
Point Park offered Warren, as well as other dance majors at UA, a chance to audition and start their education in an unprecedented situation.
“I found out online that they were having auditions and were taking any [UA] students that were supposed to go, or any students that were currently attending or supposed to attend,” Warren said. “I’m still kind of figuring out and navigating, because there’s so much in that transition, but I’m just grateful that everything was open to me, in a sense, as a result of such a difficult change.”
Aaliyah Hunter, a freshman dance major, also planned to go to UA, but saw the same Instagram post that Warren saw. She also thought it was fake, until finding the news broken by the Philadelphia Inquirer.
“I was just, really devastated,” Hunter said. “I was having a hard time picking a college because I wanted to pick the right one and I wasn’t sure what was going to be a good fit. Around this time, I was finally starting to feel comfortable with where I was going. And then I found out and I was just like, ‘where should I go, what should I do next?”
The process to audition at Point Park was not a problem for Hunter, as she just had to learn dance videos and submit videos of herself doing the same routines.
Students already at Point Park hope that the incoming UA and PTC hope that the campus serves these new students well.
Joshua Gosselin, a junior animation major, is excited for all the incoming students from both universities.
“I’d be pretty psyched, if I were one of them, to be a part of this university,” Gosselin said. “This is a great campus, it has got a lot of opportunities for them. Point Park is one of the better schools for the arts.”
