The art of closing
Imagine waking up one day to an email saying that your 130 year-old college is closing in a week. That’s what happened recently with the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.
There’s been a ton of coverage on this sudden closure (Kristen Graham and others at the Inquirer are doing a pretty good job, follow them), but I’m helping put together an event with the Debt Collective and Higher Ed Labor United to talk through some of the lesser-known aspects of the situation, namely the university’s recent relationship with bondholders.
The event is later today at 5pm. You can register here.
We’ll talk about some financial specifics that looked a little odd in the lead up to this closure, but also set the scene for the rash of university closings around the country. The fact that these institutions have to go into so much debt to exist and expand is the regime of educational finance that sets the conditions for sudden closures like this.
Hope to see you at the online event later today!