Faculty and staff members at the Atlanta College of Art have joined students and alumni in opposing a decision by the college’s Board of Directors to seek a merger with the larger Savannah College of Art and Design.
Meanwhile, the Atlanta college’s students and alumni continued a series of street protests aimed at forestalling the merger, which is scheduled to be voted on Wednesday by the Board of Trustees of the Savannah institution and by the Board of Trustees of Atlanta’s Woodruff Arts Center, of which the Atlanta College of Art is a part. The Atlanta college’s board narrowly approved the merger last month, but that vote has been challenged and the board is scheduled to reconsider it today.
The Savannah College of Art and Design enrolls nearly 7,000 students at its main campus in Savannah, Ga. In March, it opened an Atlanta campus about five blocks from the Atlanta college.
The Atlanta College of Art has about 350 students. John Spiegel, chairman of its Board of Directors, said that conversations about a collaboration between the two institutions began last fall.
“Atlanta College of Art and Savannah College of Art and Design have been exploring a broad spectrum of ways the institutions can collaborate to advance arts education and cultural opportunities for students, Atlanta, the State of Georgia, and the entire Southeast,” Mr. Spiegel said in a written statement. “The possibility of combining the distinct offerings of each college would bring enhanced benefits to students, faculty, staff, and alumni,” he said.
Many people at the Atlanta college, however, feel threatened by the prospective merger, which they said came as a complete surprise. They pointed out that a merger would likely mean giving up their institution’s accreditation by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design. The Savannah institution is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.
Opponents of the merger also say that the Atlanta college would lose its membership in the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design, to which the Savannah college does not belong. Membership in that association allows students to earn credits at other member institutions.
In a 13-page document sent last week to the boards of the Atlanta college and the Woodruff Arts Center, faculty and staff members emphasized the “radically different educational philosophies” of the two institutions. The document cited the Atlanta college’s focus on faculty-student interaction and characterized the Savannah college as more “vocationally directed.”
Also, Savannah has been on the censure list of the American Association of University Professors since 1993, the Atlanta college faculty and staff members noted.
Students and alumni of the Atlanta college criticized the Savannah institution more sharply. The larger institution is a “cookie-cutter, machine-like educational institution” that is “basically coming in and trying to unilaterally eliminate strong competition,” said Jess Bowling, a 2005 alumnus of the Atlanta College of Art who helped organize ACA100, a coalition of students and alumni who are lobbying against the proposed merger.
The group has been protesting on Peachtree Street, outside the Woodruff Arts Center, every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoon this month. Last week about 40 students and alumni distributed pamphlets to pedestrians and carried bold red signs -- depicting a claw-like hand and the words “Save ACA” -- that were designed by an Atlanta College student, said Mr. Bowling.
Bill Barrett, executive director of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design, also expressed concern over the proposed merger. The Atlanta College of Art has been facing debt pressures, he said, and “the speculation is that they just decided to fold the tent.” He added that some opponents of the merger were characterizing it as “Wal-Mart coming into town and putting the small merchants out of business.”
The move is “being described as a merger, collaboration, alliance, whatever, but the reality is that Atlanta as a college is going to close,” he said. “We don’t think it’s a good deal.”
A statement from the Atlanta college maintained that merging the two institutions would “provide additional resources crucial to today’s academic experience” and “open new opportunities for cultural and academic programming.”
The Atlanta college’s board had approved the merger by a 10-to-9 vote last month, but the validity of that vote has been called into question. An arts weekly newspaper in Atlanta reported that the tally included votes by three honorary board members, who are not permitted to vote under the board’s bylaws. The newspaper also said that the July meeting at which the vote was taken had been called too hastily, violating requirements for advance notice for board meetings.
Background articles from The Chronicle:
