ATTENTION San Francisco Community:
If you care about CCA, students, workers and the arts in SF, take action now.
Go to our link and send an email to Mayor Lurie
Tell him:
Vague promises are not enough. Both Vanderbilt and CCA administration claim they will
“honor CCA’s legacy,” but these commitments lack concrete details. The CCA
community deserves a say in what honoring that legacy actually looks like.
Urge the Mayor Lurie to:
Use his office to hold CCA and Vanderbilt accountable to specific, concrete
commitments to workers, students, and the San Francisco arts community by
ensuring:
●
CCA workforce retention
union recognition: Vanderbilt must recognize and negotiate with the
unions on campus.
worker protections,
continuity for students, and
community input in this transition
Provide critical support and funding for artists, including opportunities for
emerging artists to work, create, and showcase in San Francisco
Link to quick email action in the linktr.ee in our bio
Or /mayorluriecca
#californiacollegeofthearts @cca_staff_union@cca_student_union@ccarankedfacultyunion
“The expansion that was meant to secure CCA’s future instead hastened its collapse.”
Excerpts from Kate Talerico’s Feb 4 article in the SF Chronicle. Link to the full article in our linktr.ee in bio.
“For more than a century, CCA had been one of California’s most prominent arts schools, serving 1,500 students in fine arts, architecture and design. Its leaders hoped the San Francisco expansion would elevate the school’s size and status, allowing it to
grow enrollment and align CCA more closely with the Bay Area’s tech economy.”
“CCA said it had raised $123 million through a philanthropic campaign for the two-acre addition,
known as Double Ground. What it did not say in its public messaging was that it was borrowing
heavily.”
“The college had taken out a $40 million loan for the project, adding to $95 million the school
had borrowed in 2019 for a new dormitory and dining hall across the street, not to mention another $30 million in existing debt. As collateral, CCA pledged nearly all of its San Francisco real estate.”
“Within three years, the college would find itself unable to refinance its staggering debt load,
scrambling to meet its obligations and ultimately appealing to Gov. Gavin Newsom for a $20
million taxpayer-funded bailout.”
“It was not just a story of bad timing. Since the late 1990s, the college’s growth in San Francisco
had increasingly overlapped with the personal financial interests of several trustees, some of whom owned property in Potrero Hill and entered into real estate deals with the school, blurring the line between fiduciary stewardship and private gain.” Link to the full article in our linktr.ee in bio
#californiacollegeofthearts @seiu1021@cca_student_union@cca_staff_union union
@ccarankedfacultyunion
It is well worth revisiting Corey Sherman and Lisa Cody’s prescient 2020 article. @cca_adjunctuion and @cca_staffunion have been screaming at the top of our lungs for more than 5 years about CCA board’s reckless financial management and disproportionate debt-to-endowment ratio that has been steadily growing with the debt service. Link to article in our linktr.ee in bio.
Article highlights:
“SEIU 1021 has been working with Bargaining for the Common Good to support union members at colleges and universities to research their institutions’ debt. Institutional debt is the means by which universities extract wealth from workers and students to generate profits for developers and banks — all while claiming the mantle of social justice and enjoying tax-exempt status.”
“In the Bay Area, the current crisis in private colleges started in the years after the mortgage-backed securities crisis of 2008. By 2018, four of the seven schools that employ SEIU Local 1021 members had accumulated debt amounting to more than 50 percent of their endowments: San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) (55 percent), St. Mary’s College of California (71 percent), California College of the Arts (CCA) (110 percent), and Dominican University (78 percent).”
“Colleges financed and refinanced debt by leveraging significant portions of their property in one of the hottest real estate markets in the country. SFAI, for example, used its historic Russian Hill campus as well as its collection of Works Progress Administration murals as collateral for a loan.... CCA leveraged an entire city block in San Francisco — the site of its main academic buildings — which it could lose if it fails to meet enrollment minimums required by its loan from First Republic Bank. Mills College and Notre Dame de Namur also leveraged property for loans with First Republic Bank.”
“The research…has shown that, around the country, both public and private institutions shift the debt burden directly onto students.”
“In the worst cases, debt can result in the collapse of an institution altogether. #californiacollegeofthearts @cca_staff_union@cca_student_union
Happy International Workers Day! May Day (May 1st) honors and celebrates the struggles and gains made by workers and the labor movement. It commemorates the Haymarket Riot in Chicago, May 1st 1986. Striking workers were fighting for the 8-hour work day. The struggle for workers continues. Photo: CCA student during the 2022 CCA Union Strike. Stencil T-shirt activity was part of @taranehhemami ‘s People Power project. See you in the streets #maydaystrong #workersoverbillionaires #californiacollegeofthearts @seiu1021@cca_staff_union@cca_student_union@ccarankedfacultyunion
CCA workers are losing our livelihoods. If you need support or want to offer support, please fill out the form in our linktr.ee in our bio. @cca_staff_union@cca_student_union@ccarankedfacultyunion #californiacollegeofthearts #faircontractnow
In the wake of the announcement of CCA’s impending closure and acquisition by Vanderbilt University, those most impacted are being sidelined. tell Mayor Lurie and Chancellor Diermeier: there’s no “honor “ in an undemocratic, opaque process of back-room deals and hand-picked committees. We demand the following: 1) Release the full agreement with Vanderbilt to the community. 2) Retain workers 3) Recognize the Staff, Adjunct and Ranked Faculty unions 4) Bargain in good faith. Link in the linktr.ee in our bio. #californiacollegeofthearts #vanderbiltuniversity @cca_staff_union@ccarankedfacultyunion@cca_student_union
🖊️SIGN THE PETITION: CCA IS A COMMUNITY, NOT A COMMODITY
Click the link in our bio to sign the petition and join concerned San Franciscans in demanding that Mayor Lurie do right by the California College of the Arts (CCA) community.
On January 13, 2026, California College of the Arts President David Howse, Mayor Daniel Lurie, and Vanderbilt Chancellor Daniel Diermeier announced that CCA will close after the spring 2027 semester and the campus will be acquired by Vanderbilt University. This deal triggers a profound interruption in education for over 1,100 students and the loss of livelihoods for 700+ Bay Area arts workers and faculty. It marks the end of a 120-year run for a legacy arts, crafts, and design college.
The timing of this announcement is suspect: the deal with Vanderbilt was announced just a few weeks after the ranked faculty ratified their first union contract, and while the staff and adjunct faculty were working hard toward new contracts with the school. This begs the question: how could the CCA administration and their lawyer have been bargaining in good faith with their workers if a deal of this magnitude was imminent?
California College of the Art’s legacy has been created by the people: the Students, Faculty, and Staff of this historic art college. CCA and Vanderbilt administrators will be defined by how they meet their obligations to the college community in this final year. Course cancellations, layoffs, and program reductions harm student learning conditions and guarantee lasting reputational harm. Secret dealings ensure community erosion, not resilience.
On Tuesday March 31, CCA staff and faculty received an email from President David Howse
addressed to the college community. CCA administration has a terrible track record when it
comes to transparency, yet this communication does not even meet the low bar of clarity.
The Board of Trustees, President Howse, and Mayor Lurie continue to hide behind an insistence
that the deal with Vanderbilt is private and confidential. The email proposes additional layers of
management committees while acknowledging that Vanderbilt could simply disregard any
recommendations. For what little impact these committees may have, even the members of the
committees and the process for choosing them are not disclosed.
This is just an email saying there will be another email forthcoming. And to add insult, CCA
workers and students who made it to the end of this email found euphemisms for the impending
loss of their livelihoods and interruption of their education.
So, since we are educators at heart, we decided to read through with our teacher hats on and
red pens in hand. President Howse, you might want to reach out to us before hitting send next
time.
#ccastaffunion
#ccaadjunctunion
#ccastudentunion
#thepeoplearethelegacy
#californiacollegeofthearts
Insightful interview on @artyap_podcast now available. Link in our linktr.er in bio. CCA — California College of the Arts — is closing. Vanderbilt is buying the campuses. And decades of art education, community, and institutional memory are being sold off with them.
I sat down with two people who lived it from the inside: Elizabeth Travelslight, who taught at CCA and was present for the closure of SFAI, and Melissa Leventon, who has taught at CCA for 27 years. We talked about the risky financial bets that brought the institution down, what it means when places like this disappear, and what the Bay Area keeps losing.
What you won’t find in the headlines: the Mariana Trench of financial decisions that made this inevitable. The class dynamics between the people who made the calls and the people who lived with them. The adjunct bargaining team that saw it coming. The architecture students already imagining what CCA could become next. And a Magic 8-Ball that had something to say about it all.
SFAI is gone. Now CCA. The question is what we’re willing to lose next. #californiacollegeofthearts @cca_staff_union@cca_student_union@ccarankedfacultyunion
‘What is going to happen to us?’: CCA students and faculty rally ahead of closure
Excerpts from Lucy Hodgman’s Feb 3 article in “The San Francisco Chronicle,” with photos by Giselle Garza Lerma
“The 119-year-old institution has announced that it would transfer its Design District campus to Vanderbilt University after years of financial turmoil and floundering enrollment.”
“How are the students going to be provided an education? How are the staff and faculty going to be assured a position that is going to help them sustain their art practice? What is going to happen to us?” ~ Thea Sizemore, CCA alumna & letterpress printing artist
“When staff member Tanya Yeck asked the crowd, ‘Is Vanderbilt going to respect who we were?,’ they responded with a decisive chorus of ‘no.’”
Full article at Linktree in bio
#californiacollegeofthearts @seiu1021@cca_student_union@cca_staff_union@ccarankedfacultyunion
Calling CCA Workers and Students!
Come stitch on our ENOUGH Protest Banner
2:30-3:30 —join in anytime and leave when you need to
Thursday, February 12
Wednesday, February 18
In the Main Building Nave, near the courtyard entrance.
Reflect on the many meanings of ENOUGH with CCA Senior Adjunct Professor Anne Wolf, while we stitch on the ENOUGH Protest Banner — originally created on the picket lines of the CCA Staff and Adjunct Strike in 2022. What does Enough mean to you? How does it relate to our current experience at CCA? This is one final opportunity to contribute to our collective, handcrafted statement of ENOUGH.
Materials will be provided. No sewing experience necessary.
#californiacollegeofthearts @cca_adjunctunion@cca_staff_union@cca_student_union@ccarankedfacultyunion #enough
