PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — University of the Arts supporters are not giving up their fight for answers after the school closed abruptly earlier this month. Now they want the state’s top law enforcement official to intervene.
It was a call Friday for Pennsylvania Attorney General Michelle Henry to investigate the matter Closure of the School of the Arts.
A group marched from Hamilton Hall to Love Park. Many of the people CBS News Philadelphia spoke to have the same questions as they did weeks ago and say they still haven’t heard from university leadership. They hope the attorney general jumping on board can change that.
“Let’s not kid ourselves, this is a crime scene,” said Adam Nelson, UArts class of 1991.
Other lawmakers have been involved in the UArts situation. State lawmakers held a hearing on the closure earlier this week. The city council also made a decision There are calls for hearings, but people want the attorney general’s office to go a step further.
“To initiate not an unofficial investigation, not a review, but an actual, formal investigation into the criminality, I think, of these financial issues that they don’t want to share,” Nelson said.
Students and staff said there has still been no communication from school leaders. Union officials said Thursday that an attorney for UArts had told them the university “lacking cash flow” to pay faculty what they are owed under federal law.
“The only communication we had from the university yesterday said that the financial information and the details of why the university was closing said that information did not exist,” said Bradley Philbert, a UArts faculty member and vice president of United Academics of Philadelphia. “And we are willing to believe that this is the case.”
Students and parents have also not received an answer about the tuition fee reimbursement. Micah Kleit’s 17-year-old daughter was scheduled to begin a summer program at UArts before the school closed. Despite numerous phone calls and emails, his $1,600 is now in limbo.
“The only work they’re putting into this right now is basically blowing off parents, and pushing aside any kind of actual resolution,” Kleit said.
CBS News Philadelphia has reached out to the attorney general’s office for comment on Friday’s meeting but has not yet heard back. Our calls to attorneys representing UArts have also gone unanswered.
