News
A Philadelphia arts school gave 7 days' notice it was closing. Now its students and faculty want answers.
Students and staff members from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia are scrambling to figure out their next steps after the school’s abrupt closure last week and are calling on the university to answer questions about why it shut down so quickly.
The university announced it would be shutting its doors in a statement on May 31, after news had already begun to leak about an hour and a half earlier, saying in part that it “has been in a fragile financial state, with many years of declining enrollments, declining revenues, and increasing expenses.”
The nearly 150-year-old university, a longtime home for artists of all kinds, shut down a week later on June 7, leaving its more than 1,000 students and hundreds of faculty and staff confused and anxious.
Among them is Owen Spaloss, who walked across the stage at the university’s graduation in May, but still needs to complete a three-credit summer internship to receive his degree in creative writing. The unexpected shutdown has put his once imminent degree completion at least temporarily out of reach.
“A lot of these universities don’t have a creative writing major, and even if they do, there’s no guarantee that they would accept all of my credits or that they would accept scholarships,” Spaloss said.
“The only reason I can afford to go to the University of the Arts is because of the donors and the scholarships that I’ve gotten. I couldn’t financially afford this on my own.”
News of the University of the Arts’ closure has led to protests on campus by students and staffers alike who question why the university didn’t alert its community sooner or better prepare for its financial failure. The university did not respond to requests for comment.
Krista Apple, who has worked at the university for more than 10 years and was serving as the director of the bachelor of fine arts in acting program, said she didn’t initially believe the school was closing after learning about it first in a Philadelphia Inquirer article.
“I thought it was a joke, or I thought the Inquirer had gotten something wrong. I thought maybe somebody was pranking me,” Apple said.
Students and staff said the Inquirer article made the rounds on social media, group texts and emails before the university released a statement. Some community members said they first heard about the closure on TikTok.
“It continues to be disorienting and heartbreaking. This is a massive loss of community for all of us who taught and worked together for many years. It’s also a massive loss for the city of Philadelphia,” Apple said. “Our students really were one of a kind, both in terms of the cohort of humans that they were, but also individually.”
The university said in the statement announcing its closure that it had “worked hard this year alongside many of you to take steps that would secure the University’s sustainability. The progress we made together has been impressive.”
“Unfortunately, however, we could not overcome the ultimate challenge we faced: with a cash position that has steadily weakened, we could not cover significant, unanticipated expenses. The situation came to light very suddenly. Despite swift action, we were unable to bridge the necessary gaps.”
The university’s accreditation was withdrawn June 1, three days after the school notified its accrediting body that it would close, the Middle States Commission on Higher Education said in a news release on May 31.
The Philadelphia City Council voted June 6 to hold hearings to examine the university’s sudden closure and its impact on the city’s higher education system and the school’s current students and staff.
Pennsylvania Attorney General Michelle Henry’s office confirmed to NBC News that it is “reviewing the circumstances of the closure and any transfer or loss of assets.”
DJay Jean, a rising sophomore who was studying vocal performance at the University of the Arts, said attending college has been a personal milestone.
“I’m a first-generation American, let alone I’m a first-generation student. My dad did not finish high school. My mom didn’t go to college,” Jean said.
“I grew up with just my father and it wasn’t a great upbringing. I eventually ended up in foster care at 16,” Jean said. “College never felt like an option to me financially.”
Jean was able to attend the university after receiving several scholarships, taking out loans and working part-time jobs. But now, they are unsure of what’s next and said they feel trapped after signing an apartment lease in Philadelphia.
“I spent so much money to go to this school, and I put so much trust in the faculty and the board. It’s an investment,” Jean said.
“You would think that after putting so much more money into something when it’s going away, the people responsible would want to inform you, and they’d want to let you know, ‘Here’s what’s going on.’ But they weren’t interested in that. And it made me feel very disrespected and made me feel like I wasted my money,” they added.
The university is facing criticism from students and staff about what they say has been a lack of communication and transparency from the administration.
Several students sent videos to NBC News showing demonstrations, performances and marches at the school.
They also said community members had been locked out of Hamilton Hall, one of the main buildings on campus, at one point during the demonstrations.
“They shut off the power to Hamilton Hall. … They didn’t want us to demonstrate. They closed their bathrooms to us and they shut off the power,” Jean said.
The university scheduled a virtual town hall on June 3 with a cap of 500 attendees, but it was canceled minutes before it was scheduled to start, according to several students. The university’s president, Kerry Walk, resigned the next day.
On the university’s official last day, June 7, campus community members who had been protesting and camping out in front of Hamilton Hall organized a “Last Jam” event to show their frustration and process the shocking news together.
Apple said staff were also called into a virtual meeting on the school’s final day.
“We were effectively fired en masse via Zoom by a member of the management team that had been hired, someone we had never met before,” she said.
“Based on the brief information they shared, I have reason to believe that I will receive at least my next paycheck, which is due at the end of June. But I’ll be honest, I’m not holding my breath,” Apple said.
Apple said she wants those who had been charged with making decisions about the university’s fate to face consequences for its closure.
“I would like to see some accountability, not just from the most recent administration, but also from the board of directors and also from the previous administration too, that was working really closely with this budget,” Apple said. “Because I just keep wondering at what point was it clear that this university’s finances were not salient, and I can’t fathom the notion that it was just two weeks ago, on May 29, that someone looked at our books and went, ‘Oh, no, we can’t keep going.’”
The board’s chair did not respond to a request for comment.
This week, the university announced a call center and support email for the campus community.
Students have also received an email confirming that any payments made for the summer or fall semesters will be refunded. Meanwhile, a Temple spokesperson said the university is exploring a potential merger with the school.
“The amount of support and care from our education and arts community across the country is one of the things that gives me hope. And it just proves to me that artists are incredibly resilient. And no matter how much funding we don’t have, we are not going away,” Apple said.
Originally founded in 1876, the University of the Arts is just the latest arts institution to shut down in Pennsylvania.
The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts closed its doors in January, with some of its students enrolling in the University of the Arts.
Last year, at least 14 colleges and universities shut down or merged according to Inside Higher Ed, amid lower college enrollment rates and the pressure of inflation.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, college enrollment fell from about 18 million in 2010 to about 15.8 million in 2023.
Despite the chaos and confusion, several students have found solace with those in the extended arts community.
“If nothing else, we are showing that we are committed to each other in our community. We’re showing that we are not willing to just go quietly into the night. We are going to stand strong and show what we stand for, because as artists it’s already hard enough to make it in the world,” Spaloss said.
“Our schools are closing down, but that doesn’t mean our community shuts down, too,” Jean added.
News
Trump Says Israel and Lebanon Agree to Extend Cease-Fire by Three Weeks
President Trump announced a three-week extension of a cease-fire between Israel and Lebanon that had been set to expire in a few days, after hosting a meeting between Israeli and Lebanese diplomats at the White House on Thursday.
Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militant group that has been attacking Israel from southern Lebanon, did not have representatives at the meeting and did not immediately comment on the announcement. The prime minister of Israel and the president of Lebanon also did not comment.
A successful peace agreement would hinge upon Hezbollah halting attacks, which Lebanon’s government has little power to enforce because it does not control the militia. Lebanon’s military has mostly stayed out of the fighting and is not at war with Israel.
The cease-fire, which was scheduled to end on April 26, would last until May 17 if it takes effect as Mr. Trump described it. Before the cease-fire was brokered last week, nearly 2,300 people were killed in Lebanon and 13 in Israel. Since then, the number of Israeli airstrikes and Hezbollah attacks have been dramatically reduced, though the two sides have continued exchanging fire.
The Lebanese Ambassador to the United States, Nada Hamadeh, credited Mr. Trump for extending the cease-fire, saying that “with your help and support, we can make Lebanon great again.” Mr. Trump replied, “I like that phrase, it’s a good phrase.”
Asked about the potential of a lasting peace agreement between Israel and Lebanon, Mr. Trump said that “I think there’s a great chance. They are friends about the same things and they are enemies on the same things.”
But Lebanon and Israel have periodically been at war since Israel’s founding in 1948. Israel has invaded Lebanon for the fifth time since 1978, incursions that have destabilized the country and the delicate balance of power between Muslim, Christian and Druze communities.
In the hours before the president’s announcement on social media, Israel and Hezbollah were trading attacks in southern Lebanon, testing the existing cease-fire.
Mr. Trump said the meeting at the White House had been attended by high-ranking U.S. officials, including Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the U.S. ambassadors to Israel and Lebanon.
Earlier on Thursday, an Israeli strike near the southern Lebanese city of Nabatieh killed three people, according to Lebanon’s health ministry. Hezbollah claimed three separate attacks on Israeli troops who are occupying southern Lebanon, though none were wounded or killed.
Hezbollah set off the latest round of fighting last month by attacking Israel soon after the start of the U.S.-Israeli bombing campaign in Iran. Israel responded to Hezbollah’s attacks by launching airstrikes across Lebanon and widening a ground invasion of the country’s south.
News
U.S. soldier charged with suspected Polymarket insider trading over Maduro raid
Smoke rises from Port of La Guaira in Venezuela on Jan. 3, 2026 after U.S. forces seized the country’s president, Nicolas Maduro and his wife.
Jesus Vargas/Getty Images
hide caption
toggle caption
Jesus Vargas/Getty Images
Federal prosecutors on Thursday unsealed an indictment against a U.S. Army soldier, accusing him of using his insider knowledge of the clandestine military operation to capture Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in January to reap more than $400,000 in profits on the popular prediction market site Polymarket.
The Justice Department says Gannon Ken Van Dyke, 38, who was stationed at Fort Bragg, in North Carolina, was part of the team that planned and carried out the predawn raid in Caracas earlier this year that resulted in the apprehension of Maduro.
The Department of Justice and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed the actions against Van Dyke, the first time U.S. officials have leveled criminal charges against someone over prediction market wagers.
According to the indictment, Van Dyke now faces counts of wire fraud, commodities fraud, misusing non-public government information and other charges.
Trading under numerous usernames including “Burdensome-Mix,” Van Dyke allegedly traded about $32,000 on the arrest of Maduro, resulting in profits exceeding $400,000.
“Prediction markets are not a haven for using misappropriated confidential or classified information for personal gain,” said U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton for the Southern District of New York. “Those entrusted to safeguard our nation’s secrets have a duty to protect them and our armed service members, and not to use that information for personal financial gain.”
Van Dyke’s defense lawyer is not yet publicly known. Polymarket did not return a request for comment.
The charges against Van Dyke come at a sensitive time for the prediction market industry, which has been growing exponentially, despite calls in Washington and among state leaders for the sites to be reined in.
Van Dyke is the first to be charged in the U.S. for suspected Polymarket insider trading, but Israeli authorities in February arrested several people and charged two on suspicion of using classified information to place bets about military operations in Iran on Polymarket.
News
Senate Adopts GOP Budget, Laying the Groundwork to Fund ICE and Reopen DHS
The Senate early Thursday morning adopted a Republican budget blueprint that would pave the way for a $70 billion increase for immigration enforcement and the eventual reopening of the Department of Homeland Security.
Republicans pushed through the plan on a nearly party-line vote of 50 to 48. It came after an overnight marathon of rapid-fire votes, known as a vote-a-rama, in which the G.O.P. beat back a series of Democratic proposals aimed at addressing the high cost of health care, housing, food and energy. The debate put the two parties’ dueling messages on vivid display six months before the midterm elections.
Republicans, who are using the budget plan to lay the groundwork to eventually push through a filibuster-proof bill providing a multiyear funding stream for President Trump’s immigration crackdown, used the all-night session to highlight their hard-line stance on border security, seeking to portray Democrats as unwilling to safeguard the country.
Democrats tried and failed to add a series of changes aimed at addressing cost-of-living issues, seizing the opportunity to hammer Republicans as out of touch with and unwilling to act on the concerns of everyday Americans.
Here’s what to know about the budget plan and the nocturnal ritual senators engaged in before adopting it.
Republicans are seeking a way around a filibuster on D.H.S. funding.
The budget blueprint is a crucial piece of Republicans’ plan to fund the Department of Homeland Security and end a shutdown that has lasted for more than two months. After Democrats refused to fund immigration enforcement without new restrictions on agents’ tactics and conduct, the G.O.P. struck a deal with them to pass a spending bill that would fund everything but ICE and the Border Patrol. Republicans said they would fund those agencies through a special budget bill that Democrats could not block.
“We can fix this with Republican votes, and we will,” said Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina and the Budget Committee chairman. “Every Democrat has opposed money for the Border Patrol and ICE at a time of great peril.”
In resorting to a new budget blueprint, Republicans laid the groundwork to deny Democrats a chance to stop the immigration enforcement funding. But they also submitted themselves to a vote-a-rama, in which any senator can propose unlimited changes to such a measure before it is adopted.
The budget measure now goes to the House, which must adopt it before lawmakers in both chambers can draft the legislation funding immigration enforcement. That bill will provide yet another opportunity for a vote-a-rama even closer to the November election.
Democrats used the moment to hammer Republicans on affordability.
Democrats took to the floor to criticize Republicans for supercharging funding for federal immigration enforcement rather than moving legislation that would address Americans’ concerns over affordability.
“This is what Republicans are fighting for,” said Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the Democratic leader. “To maintain two unchecked rogue agencies that are dreaded in all corners of this country instead of reducing your health care costs, your housing costs, your grocery costs, your gas costs.”
Democrats offered a host of amendments along those lines, all of which were defeated by Republicans — and that was the point. The proposals were meant to put the G.O.P. in a tough political spot, showcasing their opposition to helping Americans afford high living costs. Fewer than a handful of G.O.P. senators crossed party lines to support them.
Republicans blocked Democrats’ proposals to address high living costs.
The G.O.P. thwarted an effort by Mr. Schumer to require that the budget measure lower out-of-pocket health care costs for Americans. Two Republicans who are up for re-election this year, Senators Susan Collins of Maine and Dan Sullivan of Alaska, voted with Democrats, but the proposal was still defeated.
Republicans also squelched a move by Senator Ben Ray Lujan, Democrat of New Mexico, to create a fund that would lower grocery costs and reverse cuts to food aid programs that Republicans enacted last year. Ms. Collins and Mr. Sullivan again joined Democrats.
Also defeated by the G.O.P.: a proposal by Senator John Hickenlooper, Democrat of Colorado, to address rising consumer prices brought on by Mr. Trump’s tariffs and the war in Iran; one by Senator Edward J. Markey, Democrat of Massachusetts, to require the budget measure to address rising electricity prices, and another by Mr. Markey to create a fund to bring down housing costs.
Senator Jon Ossoff, a Democrat who is up for re-election in Georgia, also sought to add language requiring the budget plan to address health insurance companies denying or delaying access to care, but that, too was blocked by Republicans.
Republicans sought to amplify their hard-line messages on immigration, voter I.D. and transgender care.
While Republicans had fewer proposals for changes to their own budget plan, they also sought to offer measures that would underscore their aggressive stance on immigration enforcement and dare Democrats to vote against them.
Mr. Graham offered an amendment to allocate funds toward a deficit-neutral reserve fund relating to the apprehension and deportation of adult immigrants convicted of rape, murder, or sexual abuse of a minor after illegally entering the United States. It passed unanimously.
Senator Josh Hawley, Republican of Missouri, sought to bar Medicaid payments to Planned Parenthood, which provides abortion and other services, and criticized the organization for providing transgender care to minors. Senator John Kennedy, Republican of Louisiana, also attempted to tack on the G.O.P. voter identification bill, known as the SAVE America Act. Both proposals were blocked when Democrats, joined by a few Republicans, voted to strike them as unrelated to the budget plan.
The Republicans who crossed party lines to oppose their own party’s proposals for new voting requirements were Ms. Collins along with Senators Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Thom Tillis of North Carolina.
Ms. Collins and Ms. Murkowski also opposed the effort to block payments to Planned Parenthood.
-
New York1 hour agoShould a Straight Person Represent Stonewall’s City Council District?
-
Detroit, MI2 hours agoBlake Miller has high floor, big upside, says Lions GM Brad Holmes
-
San Francisco, CA2 hours agoHighway 1 closure in San Francisco expected to snarl Sunset traffic all weekend
-
Dallas, TX2 hours agoHow UCF EDGE Malachi Lawrence Fits With The Dallas Cowboys
-
Miami, FL2 hours ago
Dolphins Select Two Players in The First Round of The 2026 NFL Draft
-
Boston, MA2 hours agoIn-Store Only
-
Denver, CO3 hours agoWolves Back Up the Big Talk With Blowout Win Over Denver in Game 3
-
Seattle, WA3 hours ago‘Rare’ Tiny-Home Compound Featuring 3 Adorable Abodes Hits the Market in Seattle for Just $900K