SEIU 1021 members at California College of the Arts speak out against announced closure
Staff, faculty, and students face uncertain futures
On Tuesday, January 13, California College of the Arts President David Howse announced CCA will close its doors by the end of the ‘26-’27 school year.
For 119 years, CCA’s faculty and staff have shaped the Bay Area’s arts community. With the announcement of this closure, all 304 SEIU Local 1021 adjunct faculty and staff, as well as 110 tenure-track faculty represented by the California Federation of Teachers, face layoffs.
For years, SEIU 1021 has been sounding the alarm that the closure of the last remaining art and design college in Northern California was coming after years of mismanagement and real estate speculation.
The CCA campus is being purchased by Vanderbilt University, a Nashville-based private university founded by one of the original robber barons, and has faced ongoing criticism for its union-busting efforts against graduate student workers, its controversial handling of DEI initiatives, and its punishment of pro-Palestinian student activities.
In addition to this upsetting news, it is disappointing to read accounts of San Francisco’s Mayor Daniel Lurie and Supervisor Matt Dorsey celebrating this deal without any consideration for the impact on the lives of hundreds of CCA workers and students.
Vanderbilt’s plans to swoop in on the empty campus are touted as a victory by the tone-deaf facilitators of this purchase, disregarding the fact that there are no current plans to offer positions to current staff or faculty or reopen the college to former CCA students, offering the courses current students would need to complete their degrees after this abrupt closure.
Vanderbilt and SF elected officials must not treat workers as an afterthought, and any agreements moving forward must prioritize the jobs and voices of the students, faculty, and staff.
“If President Howse and Mayor Lurie truly value the legacy of CCA, they will prioritize the people. Retaining the workforce and recognizing the unions is the first step toward continuity for current students, and the future of art and design education in the Bay Area,” said Piper Alldredge, vice president of the SEIU 1021 CCA chapter for staff and adjunct faculty.
As staff and faculty unions move forward to try to mitigate the damage to hundreds of students’ and workers’ futures, we call on Vanderbilt, Mayor Lurie, Supervisor Dorsey, and other city leaders to commit to fair labor practices and collaboration with workers so this transition strengthens, not displaces, San Francisco’s arts community.
Click here to read recent coverage of this closure in the San Francisco Chronicle