Sudden Closure of Art Institutes Leaves 1,700 Students Adrift
Sudden Closure of Art Institutes Leaves 1,700 Students AdriftThe for-profit network of colleges is closing its final eight campuses several years after it shuttered most of them.
Hundreds of students and faculty members were left stunned on Friday by the news that the Art Institutes, a system of for-profit colleges, would close its eight remaining campuses across the United States by the end of this month.
The system had suffered from low enrollment since the coronavirus pandemic began. Previous challenges included a $95 million settlement after fraud allegations in 2015 and a loss of accreditation that led to the shuttering of nearly 20 other locations in 2018.
When Hannah Grabhorn, 21, a sophomore studying games, art and design at the Art Institute of Atlanta, received an email on Friday that said her school was closing, she looked for more answers online. But every page on the school’s website referred her back to the same notice. The email said that “the Art Institutes do not anticipate any further communication.”
Grabhorn said she and her classmates were informed of the closure one day after final exams for the school’s summer quarter.
“All of us were crying,” she said.
The Department of Education said 1,700 students would be affected by the decision. In addition to Atlanta, campuses are closing in Austin, Texas; Dallas; Houston; Miami; San Antonio; Tampa, Fla.; and Virginia Beach.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/25/arts/design/art-institutes-closures.html
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Living in Chi 50 years, I've talked with main campus students, but never heard of these problems. 
Just terrible.
I always loved (and felt privileged) to visit the Art Institute as a world class preserver of art history. It's troubling that such a world class art museum's management of its school has allowed this problem to fester, and now it's apparent that this institution just can't run a for-profit business. (Gotta say, though, that US colleges don't generally run good placement "services," anyway. I've come to learn that from my student experience at FSU, NU, and Lewis U, and friends in the administrative office at Lewis.)
Along with art students' lives, the School of the Art Institute's board has hurt the overall museum's historical reputation; that board should be fired, even sued.
I do hope you can find some employment with the skills you did acquire.
You're sweet, too, but me, I'm just a teacher who hateshates to hear of bad educational experience, is all.
About the Institute and school disconnect, thank you. Most people are unaware of that.
