A group of former students, faculty and community members is fighting the closure of the Los Angeles campus of The American Academy of Dramatic Arts, which revealed in April that it was closing its doors at the end of the 2024-25 school year.
Leaders of the 140-year-old institution, which opened the L.A. campus in 2000 on part of the old Charlie Chaplin Studios on La Brea Avenue, blames the pandemic, a decrease in enrollment for smaller institutions and “national birthrate calculations” for the closure. Incoming students this fall will have the option to complete their first year in L.A. and transfer to the New York campus for their second year.
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“Enrollments are down across the country and national birthrate calculations and other key data show that colleges, especially smaller institutions, must adapt to changing conditions,” according to a statement released in April by President Susan Zech and Board Chair Robert E. Wankel. “After a thorough evaluation of our enrollment and financial forecasts, the Board of Trustees determined that closing our LA branch is the only path forward that will ensure the Academy will endure and truly thrive. We are committed to facilitating a transition that will be supportive for all.
“Returning to a single campus model will allow the Academy to consolidate resources and focus on investing in its programs and infrastructure in a manner that advances our mission and creates new opportunities to optimally serve our students for generations to come,” the statement continued.
But the group that calls itself Fight for AADA Los Angeles (FALA) blames a lack of fundraising efforts and poor marketing for the school’s demise. It also notes how the school never replaced its Director of Advancement, who is responsible for raising money, and believes the board decision to close the school was not a unanimous one.
FALA, which has retained legal counsel, is calling for the removal of Zech and Wankel.
“They did not respond to the request to show documents that support their reasoning in that were things like declining enrollment, post covid, higher education problems, nothing,” said Corie Fiebiger, the co-chair of FALA that includes alumni, faculty, parents and AADA supporters. “They didn’t show any supporting documents. Faculty has also asked for such documents and nothing has been shared. There has been no communication or transparency on the actual thought or situation that got the school into this place. All that has been said is that it’s dire and it’s happening. They will not discuss any ways around it, any ways to collaborate. We would love to work with them. Ultimately, this institution is amazing. It’s important to the entertainment industry and it’s vital that it remains in Los Angeles. So that is our ultimate goal. If it was in collaboration with the board, that would be great. If in fact a dire financial situation is where the LA campus is at, the current leadership got it there. So why should anyone think that that current leadership would be able to maintain the school in general moving forward?”
Fiebiger also questioning the school’s decision to sell Sycamore House, an AADA dorm that has been placed on the market for $17.5 million. (You can find the recent campus real estate listing here.) “If the financial insecurity of the LA campus was really the true reason [for the closure], the income from the sale of the dorm would cover the stated property tax three times over.”
Deadline contacted Zech for an interview but was instead provided with this joint statement from both her and Wankel: “This decision was an incredibly painful one, and I know that our community is hurting. We face a radically changing higher education environment where national enrollment is projected to continue to decline significantly, especially for small, arts-focused schools like the Academy. Our Board made this difficult decision solely to protect the long-term viability of the Academy for future generations. In announcing this to our community and in the months since, our priority has been to make the transition as smooth as possible by ensuring that the LA branch campus operates as normal through the 2024-2025 academic year.”
Over its 140-year history, AADA has schooled the likes of Robert Redford, Grace Kelly, Paul Rudd, Jessica Chastain, Adrien Brody, Dennis Haysbert, Jennifer Coolidge, and Anne Bancroft. “This school needs to stay open,” said alumnus Robert Gossett in a statement. “L.A. needs this school to stay open, the industry needs this school to stay open. The two years I spent at the Academy prepared me well for this industry.”