Two years ago, with an unprecedented one-week notice, the University of the Arts closed its doors, abandoning faculty, students, art lovers, and donors. Administrators departed for parts unknown, while UArts left a $77 million endowment on the table.

An endowment is not free money. The funds are legally restricted for use according to the wishes of donors. The Hamilton Family Charitable Trust donated more than half of the endowment and claims the right to reclaim those funds. And yet the universities (Temple, Moore, Rowan, Drexel, Arcadia, and others) that stepped up immediately to assist the bereft UArts students, sometimes with scholarship support, have a reasonable claim for acting in the spirit of general UArts philanthropy.

Last week Philadelphia Orphans’ Court Judge Sheila Woods-Skipper convened an informal conference of all claimants, but the issues remain unresolved. Another conference is tentatively scheduled, possibly for July. I urge all parties to put aside self interest and come to that conference seeking a fair solution in the spirit that surely connects all donors — commitment to students studying the arts and to a city eager for the arts to flourish.

I’m asking the colleges and universities involved to trust each other (gasp!). We read a lot these days about loss of trust in higher education. How can we ask the public to trust us if we don’t start trusting and cooperating with each other? I also appeal to the proven generosity of the Hamilton Family Charitable Trust to focus on the spirit, if not always the letter, of its gifts.

Inquirer reporter Susan Snyder cites arguments from Hamilton’s lawyers that none of the money should go to a publicly funded university like Temple.

Temple is not exactly “publicly funded,” even though it receives some state appropriations. It’s identified as “state-related,” a special hybrid of public and private support. But more important, Temple has voluntarily stepped up to support the arts by forming partnerships with the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the Philadelphia Orchestra and Ensemble Arts Philly. Temple’s purchase of UArts’ Terra Hall, soon to be its Center City campus, is a major contribution to keeping the Avenue of the Arts true to its name.

How it should have been done

Two years have not diminished my horror at the University of the Arts’ abrupt and disgraceful closure. I’m still waiting for some accountability. I suppose various lawsuits are wending their way through the court system. But to this date, I don’t think anyone in the public knows what happened or who was responsible. I’m a reliable defender of higher education, but the UArts mess is indefensible.

It didn’t have to be that way. Unfortunately, current challenging economic circumstances have led to the closing of far too many colleges and universities. In 2024, Cabrini University in Radnor gave staff, students, and donors a year’s warning before it closed. The college tracked down donors to ask if they wanted their money to go to Villanova, which was purchasing the Cabrini campus, or to another charity or college. This responsible behavior is the norm. What happened at UArts is not.

A suggestion for those making contributions to colleges and universities

Let me take this moment to offer some suggestions for readers who are planning philanthropic contributions to universities. First of all, thank you! Your investment means so much to the institution, its faculty, staff, and students, especially now when higher education is under attack.

But if I could be so bold as to suggest: Make the gift in the general spirit of your priorities (scholarships, faculty development, etc.), but please don’t place too many restrictions on it. You may want to give special help to a small category of students. But I can tell you from experience that if you limit the gift in that way, there will be some years when your kind gift goes to no one. You are also assigning a great deal of work to university staff who manage scholarships. One of the problems in the UArts endowment is that many of the scholarships were heavily restricted. The UArts administration, unlike the staff at Cabrini, did not bother to check with the donors. But now that the matter is in the courts, it will be almost impossible to honor the letter of the agreement (some of which were signed decades ago).

The most appreciated gifts are those that demonstrate trust in the institution. For example, my husband and I endowed a writing prize at Governors State University (GovSt). We specified that the prize must go to first-year students (not hard to find!) We stipulated that the essays must demonstrate revision across two semesters. That’s it. We delegated everything else to the GovSt faculty. They created a design for the prize far exceeding our own imagination. Instructors in freshman comp nominate a number of pieces from their first-semester class. The students are then invited to revise their essays with mentoring from another instructor, not their classroom teacher. Before submitting the finished product, students attach an introductory reflection. We, of course, do not make the selections, but we have read the winning essays. My husband and I are blown away by the quality of the writing and the heartfelt student statements of growth and change through the process. As the years go by, new GovSt faculty members may change administering the prize in other ways, and that’s how it should be.

Find a solution in July for equitable use of the UArts endowment

According to The Inquirer, the UArts’ $77 million dollar endowment is invested and growing by approximately $3 million dollars each year, funds that could be used for badly needed scholarships in the arts or for other important purposes. But for now the money is just sitting there.

I imagine a July meeting, presided over by Judge Woods-Skipper, where representatives of the Hamilton Family Charitable Trust and of the colleges and universities agree to cooperate on the ownership and distribution of endowment funds. They might agree on setting up a task force to design a process, possibly involving proposals from interested parties to accomplish projects to enhance education and mentoring in the arts. Maybe the 700 UArts abandoned faculty and staff could be included in the call for proposals. Perhaps the displaced students and alumni could seek funding for good ideas. But whatever is decided upon, please let it happen fairly, cooperatively, and quickly.

Those familiar with Dickens’ Bleak House may recall Jarndyce and Jarndyce, the fictional case in Chancery that went on forever. “… innumerable children have been born into the cause; innumerable young people have married into it; innumerable old people have died out of it … Jarndyce and Jarndyce still drags its dreary length before the court, perennially hopeless.” For the UArts endowment, I’m arguing for hope.

With excellent decisions on the redevelopment of the Avenue of the Arts, Philadelphia is on the cusp of becoming the best urban arts center in the nation. I appeal to the competing parties seeking UArts endowment funds to come together with that common purpose.

Elaine Maimon, Ph.D., is the author of Leading Academic Change: Vision, Strategy, Transformation. Her long career in higher education has encompassed top executive positions at Governors State University (IL), University of Alaska Anchorage, and Arizona State University West Campus, as well as distinction as a scholar in rhetoric/composition. Her co-authored book, Writing in the Arts and Sciences, has been designated as a landmark text. She is a Distinguished Fellow of the Association for Writing Across the Curriculum.

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