Seattle University will acquire Cornish College of the Arts

Seattle University is one step closer to absorbing Seattle’s storied Cornish College of the Arts, which will close sooner than expected — at the end of May. 

Nearly four months after the private colleges announced their intent to join forces, they reached a definitive agreement, announced Tuesday. Board members at both nonprofit institutions approved a deal for Seattle University, the largest private university in Western Washington, to acquire Cornish. 

Barring setbacks, the transaction will close May 31. The official transition will also happen by that time instead of next year, as originally anticipated. Seattle U plans to establish a new Cornish College of the Arts on the existing Cornish campus by the start of the fall academic term. 

While officials presented the move — which comes amid a larger trend of consolidation in higher learning — as a way to ensure Cornish’s future, it has created uncertainty and anxiety for Cornish staff and faculty, who will all be laid off at the end of May. 

Some will be rehired by Seattle U while others will receive severance packages, but it’s currently unclear what total staff reductions will look like. 

In her office on the Cornish campus at the edge of Denny Triangle and South Lake Union in Seattle, interim Cornish President Emily Parkhurst called it a “momentous occasion” for the 110-year-old art school, which spent most of the last decade facing a budget deficit and an uncertain future

“This is … ensuring Cornish is around for the next 100 years,” she said. 

For Seattle U, which offers some art degrees but doesn’t have a dedicated art school covering as many disciplines as Cornish, the deal presents a chance to enhance its arts education and interdisciplinary learning, said Seattle University President Eduardo Peñalver, calling it a “generational opportunity.” 

Inside the deal

School officials originally explored a merger but opted instead for an “asset contribution.” This means that Cornish will be transferring its assets to Seattle University, including its facilities, equipment, endowments, art, name and intellectual property, as well as some of its liabilities like debt and outstanding operational costs. 

In turn, Seattle U will create a new Cornish College of the Arts at Seattle University that will be required to operate for at least 10 years. Asked whether the new school could disappear after a decade, a Seattle U spokesperson said they couldn’t answer “theoretical questions” but that the university expected to continue “Cornish’s long legacy of excellence for many years to come.”

Parkhurst and Peñalver declined to share financial details, but Parkhurst said the institution’s total current debt load sits at around $10 million, and estimates the school’s properties are worth upward of $77 million. Since there is no “purchase,” legally speaking, there’s no purchase price. 

Though this agreement clears a significant legal hurdle, it is a broad-strokes deal: What’s next for staff and faculty will be hammered out by the end of May. 

“We’ve been waiting to have the deal signed. Now that it is, we can really start the work of integrating the schools,” Parkhurst said. “The hard work starts now.” 

Upon closing of the transaction on May 31 — the end of Cornish’s fiscal year — Cornish will transfer its programs and assets to Seattle U and close as a nonprofit and degree-granting institution. This means Cornish’s 40 full-time faculty members and 87 staff members will be laid off, though Seattle U said it “intends to hire some Cornish faculty and staff.” (Cornish’s adjunct faculty is hired on a per-semester basis.)

Peñalver said hiring decisions would be made in the next few weeks, that there will be no gaps in insurance coverage, and that Cornish will negotiate severance packages with employees who are not offered a job by Seattle U. He declined to specify what percentage of faculty and staff he expected to be rehired. Parkhurst stressed that “nobody will go to May 31 not knowing what this means for them.” 

The compressed timeline also means that a merger — and overhaul — of the curricula of Cornish and Seattle U’s art programs won’t happen immediately. 

Cornish’s 437 current students, as well as its incoming freshmen, will be able to join Seattle University’s 7,100-plus students in the fall of 2025, but will continue and complete their degrees as Seattle University Redhawks at the Cornish campus (while having access to Seattle U’s facilities and benefits). 

There are currently 167 students enrolled Seattle U’s art departments. They will also continue with their original curriculum for now, and there will be a shuttle service between the two campuses. 

Seattle U will also pay for any difference in tuition for both current and incoming students; school leaders said they’re not anticipating delays in awards of federal financial aid. 

Compressed timeline

The deal comes amid a shrinkage of the national higher education sector, which is facing serious headwinds. In recent years, multiple U.S. universities have absorbed smaller art colleges as peer colleges shuttered. 

Seattle U’s Peñalver said they opted for an asset contribution rather than a merger because it was quicker, more certain and simpler, largely because it bypasses labor-intensive approval steps with federal regulators. Plus, he added, it allows Cornish faculty and students to more quickly take advantage of the perks of a much larger institution, like counseling, wellness and health support, and athletic and recreational activities and facilities. 

Though some Cornish faculty members said they were excited about these potential perks, as well as higher salaries and a major, masterpiece-studded museum that’s being planned for Seattle U’s growing campus, faculty and staff will anxiously await news about their jobs, departments, tenure tracks and curricula in the coming weeks. Working groups of employees from both institutions will make recommendations about merging student services, curricula, human resources and more.

Both Cornish faculty and staff have unions; Parkhurst said the school is negotiating shutdown agreements with all seven of the Cornish unions. 

The faculty’s union contract won’t carry over, said Matthew Smucker, a professor of scenic design and the president of the Cornish Federation of Teachers. 

“Given that there isn’t collective bargaining with Seattle University … a lot of that job security is lost,” Smucker said, likening it to a trade-off. “There’s a lot of worry about Cornish and its financial status,” he said, “so I feel like there’s more institutional security in moving over to SU, but there’s less individual security.” 

Some faculty and students are also wondering how the cultural mesh will work — from differences in academic rigor and approaches to a system of semesters versus quarters and, for Cornish, being incorporated into a private, Catholic institution. Leaders said this transition “won’t happen overnight. We know this.”

But there’s also excitement, said Marc Cohen, president of Seattle U’s academic assembly, the faculty’s governing body. 

“We see universities under enormous financial distress and withdrawing commitment to the humanities and the arts,” he said. “This is Seattle U being prepared to commit itself to the arts and humanities — and there’s something kind of beautiful about it.” 

Lean budget 

Like many smaller art colleges, Cornish — which is highly tuition-dependent — had been struggling financially in recent years as enrollment declined. The organization ended seven of the last 10 years in a deficit.  

To Parkhurst, consolidation means the school can grow into its potential again. 

“There’s just so much opportunity. Some of the things that we’ve been wanting to do for a really long time, like offer business classes and talk about art therapy type degrees and things like that — maybe even MFAs at some point — we’ve not been able to do that, because that takes capital,” she said. “This allows us to dream again.” 

In an internal email to staff, Cornish leadership described the deal as the best possible outcome for the school. 

“While we initially had some Plan B options, all our eggs are now in the SU-deal basket,” the email summary reads. “The time frame that remains is just too short to execute any other potential scenarios. So, if this deal with SU doesn’t close, Cornish would be at high risk of immediate closure.” 

While Seattle U still needs to get approval from regulators, accreditors and the Washington attorney general, Peñalver said there’s little chance of the deal falling through. If it does, Cornish students will be able to enroll in a similar, existing Seattle University program and finish out their degrees at Seattle U.

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This coverage is partially underwritten by the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust. The funder plays no role in editorial decision making and The Seattle Times maintains editorial control over this and all its coverage.