Miami art university to close, leaving hundreds of students scrambling. A week’s notice

Miami International University of Art & Design, along with its Tampa branch and six other Art Institute campuses, will shutter its doors, effective Saturday, leaving nearly 2,000 students and faculty members displaced and scrambling.

The Miami campus, 1501 Biscayne Blvd. in the former Omni mall site, and its Tampa branch are two of eight Art Institute schools. The other six campuses are in Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio in Texas, and Virginia Beach.

The Art Institutes consisted of a private, for-profit system of art schools, offering programs at the certificate, associate, bachelor and master’s levels. As of 2012, there were approximately 50 campuses nationwide, according to Inside Higher Ed. The Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale, which closed in 2018, included among its alumni Venus Williams.

A 2021 document on the Miami university’s website lists the approximate total cost for a bachelor’s degree at $103,500 over 12 quarters. The school’s graduation rate is 33%, according to the College Board.

The schools gave students seven days’ notice of the closure. In total, 1,700 students will be affected, according to The New York Times.

The websites for both Florida-based campuses redirect to a page with information about the closing, including instructions for transcript and diploma requests. Students are encouraged to complete their education elsewhere, although a transfer of academic credits to a new institution is not guaranteed.

The site also links to a Department of Education page titled “Has Your School Closed? Here’s What to Do.” The eight Art Institute campuses will join the 58 schools already listed on the DOE’s page, including South Florida’s Dade Medical College and Argosy University, a branch of The Art Institute that had a campus in California.

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The Miami campus was hosting virtual open houses as recently as July of this year.

Students took to TikTok and X (formerly Twitter) to voice frustrations with the abrupt closures.

“When I thought things couldn’t get worse, my dream fashion school sent an email about an hour ago telling us they’re permanently closing in 7 days,” a Miami International University freshman, Ana Beatriz Baú, posted in a TikTok video Friday. “I just finished my first quarter. What am I supposed to do?”

Neither The Art Institutes nor the Miami campus could be reached for comment.

In a 2022 note to students, the university’s president, Leslie Baughman, wrote, “we ask that you dedicate yourself to the University and your studies and assume responsibility by involving yourself in all that we have to offer. You have a unique opportunity to learn from experts in the field in a hands-on environment while cultivating professional contacts and lifelong friendships.”

‘The timing was difficult’

The closing also devastated faculty.

Judith King has been a member of the visual arts department faculty at the Miami school since 2006. She learned of her employer’s closure, along with students and fellow faculty members, via email on Friday.

“Of course, the first reaction was shock and surprise,” she said.

King is on a WhatsApp group chat with students who have been exchanging messages since the announcement. The initial reaction was not bitterness but rather an acknowledgment of how positive their experiences have been up until this point.

The main concern of faculty right now, she said, is the students. The semester ended Friday. Many other universities have already started their new semesters, making it more challenging for those at Miami International University to transfer.

“The timing was difficult,” King said.

Baú, the Miami International University freshman who spoke out via TikTok, also criticized the timing. She was just finishing her first semester studying fashion merchandising when she learned of the closing.

“It’s a little bit sad because it was very fast and they just sent us an email,” she said in an interview with the Miami Herald. “We were very confused. When I was talking to my friends — as soon as I got the email — everyone was like ‘What are we supposed to do? What’s next?’ That kind of gave me a little bit of uncertainty with art school.”

Baú wishes the university had delivered the news to students in person and had shared why they were closing. She noted that applications for most other schools have closed for the fall semester. Now, she said, she’ll have to wait until January to enroll in a new school.

“It makes me feel very anxious… I had this whole thing planned and it was working out so far. It was just so sudden. No one prepared me for that.”

Baú is particularly concerned about her friends who are international students whose visas are dependent on their status as students. She is speaking out to support her peers.

Faculty, too, are working behind the scenes to assist students.

“There’s a number of faculty that are actively working on connecting them with other schools and finding them other opportunities,” said King, the professor. She described this movement as “a grassroots effort.”

In the meantime, professors are also struggling to find new opportunities. “For a lot of faculty it will be pretty crucial to find something fairly quickly,” King said. And yet, King described her overall experience at the school as “incredible.”

“From my point of view, I have never worked with a better bunch than the teachers and administration here in Miami,” she said. “And the students were as outstanding as I can possibly imagine students to be. Really, really talented and exceptional in that they were doing what they loved.”

“And hopefully,” she went on, “they will be able to continue.”

A troubled history

The Art Institutes were formerly operated by Education Management Corp, which agreed to a $95.5 million settlement with the U.S. Justice Department in 2015, in response to multiple lawsuits alleging it broke federal law in how it paid its recruiters.

The Dream Center Education Holdings later acquired the Art Institutes and was eventually sued over claims that it misled students on the institute’s accreditation, according to reporting from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. In 2012, the system of schools saw enrollment drop by about 16%, according to the Post-Gazette. In 2015, 15 Art Institute locations were shuttered.

The Miami campus initially opened in 1965 as the International Fine Arts College, which was accredited in 1979 to award associate degrees and, eventually, baccalaureate degrees. The name was officially changed to Miami International University in 2002, and a second campus was ultimately opened in Tampa. In 2016, the university also acquired The Art Institute of Dallas.

According to its mission statement, Miami International University of Art & Design is a multi-campus institution that focuses on the applied arts and design industries. The school has a 100% acceptance rate and an undergraduate student body of 535 students, according to Niche, a website that provides profiles and ranking of schools and colleges across the country.

The Florida campuses are accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges to award associate, baccalaureate, and master’s degrees.

King, the visual arts professor, noted how important it is to make sure students are placed in accredited universities. She said she’s spending the day supporting students and writing recommendation letters to aid in their transfers.

“And I can’t think of a better way to spend the day,” she said.