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It was supposed to be a trip of a lifetime.
Instead, nine University of the Arts students traveling through Italy for a month-long study abroad program are watching their school collapse from 5,000 miles away.
Last Friday, two weeks into the trip, several students spent the night dancing in a nightclub in Rome, oblivious to what was unfolding in Philadelphia. When they returned at 2 a.m., their phones came back online, erupting with texts and phone messages.
“It was the most out-of-body experience to be in the streets of Rome at two in the morning, crying and calling our loved ones,” said Evie Bondon, a rising senior studying dance. “Trying to break the news with still such little information to pass down to them.”
Last Friday was when news broke that leadership of UArts decided to shut the school down permanently in just seven days, citing a still undisclosed financial crisis. The sudden announcement shocked faculty and the student body, who had no notion such a closure was on the horizon.
The UArts faculty member who organized and is in Italy leading the trip, Mara Flamm, went into a panic.
“I was, like, the date is not 2024. They have to mean 2025,” she said. “I had to find other sources that said June 7th, 2024, because I was so shocked that it would just be a week.”
They spent the rest of the night hunkered in an apartment trying to figure out what to do next. Most of the students are rising seniors who no longer know where they will complete their studies. Some are international students whose visas are contingent on an institution like UArts. One had just signed a lease for an apartment she will likely be unable to use. They will be traveling until June 13, but their university health insurance expires June 7.
“I had two campus jobs that I adored, I was creative director of the UArts Ballet Ensemble, and was prepping to present my senior thesis,” said Jennesa Elise Lincke, who is studying dance. “All the things I was looking forward to and proud of are vanishing before my eyes, and I can’t be there to witness or say goodbye to it all.”