Dive Transient:
- Seattle College intends to purchase the Cornish School of the Arts, the 2 establishments introduced Thursday.
- Underneath the plan, the personal nonprofit arts establishment would grow to be “Cornish School of the Arts at Seattle College” and stay at its campus in Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood.
- The universities signed a letter of intent however are nonetheless working towards a ultimate deal, which might require regulatory and accreditor approval. They count on for the acquisition to start by Could 2025 and be totally accomplished round Could 2026.
Dive Perception:
Seattle College, a non-public Catholic establishment, and Cornish framed their deliberate mixture as an enlargement of alternatives for college students at each establishments. These alternatives, they mentioned, would come with “revolutionary interdisciplinary studying throughout fields akin to pc science, enterprise and the effective arts.”
Cornish is lower than a tenth of the scale of its potential companion. In 2022, the humanities school had a fall headcount of simply 443 college students, down almost a 3rd from 5 years prior. Seattle College had 7,121 college students in fall 2022, a average decline — 2.2% — from 2017.
For the 2023 fiscal 12 months, Cornish reported a complete working deficit of $2.7 million whereas its money belongings fell by greater than half to $2.4 million. Seattle College additionally booked a deficit that fiscal 12 months, of $3.9 million, although it has a a lot bigger income and asset base.
As of Could 2023, Cornish had about $54.1 million in property on its steadiness sheet and long-term debt of $12.3 million.
Cornish’s historical past extends again some 110 years, when it was based by pianist and instructor Nellie Cornish. At present its choices run the inventive gamut, with packages in visible artwork, dance, design, music, media and movie, theater and different areas.
Seattle College lacks a devoted effective arts faculty, although it gives a restricted variety of effective arts levels in addition to different levels in arts matters.
Nevertheless, the college has plans to increase its attain into the humanities. Months earlier than the letter of intent with Cornish, Seattle College introduced a donation of an artwork assortment valued at $300 million — the biggest such reward to a U.S. college, the establishment mentioned — to construct an artwork museum on campus.
“Increasing alternatives for arts schooling at Seattle College displays the long-standing Jesuit dedication to integrating the visible and performing arts into the tutorial expertise,” the establishment mentioned in Thursday’s launch.
The acquisition additionally comes throughout a troublesome time for personal arts faculties. The sudden collapse of College of the Arts in Philadelphia was notably dramatic. The Delaware School of Artwork and Design additionally folded this 12 months. Moreover, California School of the Arts reportedly has been wrestling with a large deficit and sharp enrollment decline, and has mulled a possible merger.
As they work on a definitive deal, Seattle College plans to run a “thorough due diligence evaluate of Cornish’s funds, holdings and belongings, operations, compliance and authorized obligations.”
The universities count on Seattle College to take management by the top of Could 2025. For a transition interval of a couple of 12 months after that, Cornish would seemingly preserve its personal degree-granting authority and retain its present accreditation. Throughout that point, the 2 establishments would start merging their administrative help operations, they mentioned.
