THE ART OF A
COLLEGE EDUCATION
graduation rate isn’t something to
really be proud of.”
Toland says one reason the
school’s graduation rate may be
low is that some students leave
midway because they get job offers.
“We grade ourselves on how many
of our students get jobs,” she says,
“not how many get diplomas.”
Academy of Art has long been
concerned about its high dropout rate. About a decade ago, the
school created the Student Advocate Advisor program to help incoming students navigate their first
year-and-a-half at the school. “We
were the new students’ best buddies,” said Emily Esch, who worked
as one of those advisors from 2004
to 2006. “Our job was really about
retention—making sure the people
who dropped out were doing it for
the right reasons.”
Many of the problems Esch encountered stemmed from a combination of the university’s open
admissions policy and a strong recruiting surge. “Sales team’s goals
were really, really aggressive,” she
said. “They were being pushed to
get more and more students.”
A former Academy of Art academic employee said the focus on
retention was a business decision
by the school, one that encouraged
HUFFINGTON
10.28.12
its faculty to lower academic standards so underperforming students
would return for a second year.
“It wasn’t about the quality of
the portfolio packages. That was
what you said in front of the cameras,” says the former employee,
who declined to be identified to
avoid difficulties with his current employer. “Behind closed
THE PRIVATE, FORPROFIT COLLEGE HAS
BECOME, OVER THE
PAST CENTURY, THE
LARGEST ARTS SCHOOL
IN THE COUNTRY AND
ONE OF THE BIGGEST
LANDHOLDERS IN SAN
FRANCISCO.
doors, when everybody is sweating and there are stains in everyone’s armpits, it’s all about the
numbers. It was about keeping
attrition down: How do we keep
underperformers in the program,
and how do we lower our standards to include more?”
One way the school includes
more students is through heavy
international recruitment practices. Academy of Art has offices in Taipei, Taiwan; Bangkok,
Thailand; Seoul, South Korea;