By Felipe Marques, Bloomberg
Vanderbilt University is opening a new campus in San Francisco, taking over a cash-strapped arts college that Jensen Huang gave millions of dollars in an attempted rescue last year.
Vanderbilt will acquire the California College of the Arts campus in the city’s downtown, as the roughly 120-year-old school winds down its operations by 2027, according to a release.
“San Francisco offers an extraordinary environment for learning at the intersection of innovation, creativity and technology, and it provides an unparalleled setting for Vanderbilt to shape the future of higher education,” Vanderbilt Chancellor Daniel Diermeier said.
The 1,300-student California College of Arts had previously laid off 10% of its staff and instituted a series of budget cuts, illustrating the economic pressures facing small schools that are dealing with increasingly dire finances. As the last-remaining private art and design school in the Bay Area, the college’s leadership said its tuition-driven business model is not sustainable.
The school has been teetering for years. Last February it received a $22.5 million lifeline from billionaire Huang, Nvidia Corp.’ top executive, and his wife Lori and had previously gotten a $20 million grant from the state. Those measures allowed the school to avoid “a financial crisis and earn us time to plan more effectively for the future,” David Howse, the president of the California College of the Arts, said in a statement.
Now, it’s Nashville-based Vanderbilt’s turn to court California’s wealthiest to help bankroll its San Francisco expansion.
“We will now launch a fundraising campaign to cultivate the donor support that will fuel our ambition,” Diermeier continued at a press conference. “We are encouraged and heartened by the enthusiastic support we’ve already received.”
Diermeier credited San Francisco’s mayor Daniel Lurie and his chief of economic development Ned Segal with a less than 10-month push that led to Vanderbilt’s decision to expand in the city. Vanderbilt has been on a growth streak, announcing plans last year to build hubs in New York City and Florida.
In San Francisco, Vanderbilt plans to serve about 1,000 undergraduate and graduate students and anticipates opening its campus in the city around 2027 and 2028, pending regulatory approvals.
“Vanderbilt’s decision to invest in our city is a powerful testament to the fact that San Francisco is on the rise,” mayor Lurie said.
–With assistance from Eliyahu Kamisher, Janet Lorin and Amanda Albright.
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