Cathy Young, President, Moore College of Art & Design

Cathy Young, president of Moore College of Art & Design, sat down with Invest: to discuss how the college has expanded its campus with new guaranteed student housing and leveraged its agile structure to set students up for success in Philadelphia.

What changes over the past year have most impacted Moore College, and how have you and your team navigated them?

Moore College of Art & Design has had an incredibly dynamic past year. In June 2024, one of our peer institutions, the University of the Arts, closed quite suddenly. The loss of UArts was heartbreaking for all of us, in Philly and beyond; however, Moore was one of the teach-out partners. This means that we were one of the schools designated to help University of the Arts students through the transition to another institution to complete their degrees. We were able to bring 115 of these students into Moore over a period of two months last summer. We are an intentionally small institution, and those 115 students represented a 35% scale up for us. This was a very successful transition, and we were able to retain 95% of our students from the fall to spring semester.

Another success has been the opening of our third and newest residence. Moore spent several years considering the purchase of an additional residence hall due to the continuous student demand for on-campus housing. We purchased a beautiful, historic, renovated building in the heart of Center City that we now call Rittenhouse Hall. This building provides apartment-style living for our students in a vibrant and thriving part of Philadelphia. For us, this is about our commitment to student success. All of the higher education data tells us that when students are able to live in a residence on campus, their retention and graduation rates are higher. 

We’ve also launched our tenth Bachelor of Fine Arts major, Entertainment Design. The program was reverse-engineered to meet labor market needs, and it is one of the fastest-growing fields in art and design. This is an interdisciplinary major that prepares students to create immersive, interactive experiences in cultural sites and venues like museums, theme parks, and stadiums. We are partnering on that program with The Franklin Institute to provide hands-on experiential learning opportunities for our students. 

Another new partnership for Moore is with Adobe — this past year, Moore was designated as an Adobe Creative Campus. We are the only independent art and design college in the United States with that designation. This provides our students with access and supports their digital literacy, creative skill building, and career readiness.

How does the opening of Rittenhouse Hall change the student experience and your ability to recruit and retain talent?

It is rare for an urban college to have enough residence space to be able to guarantee on campus housing for four years, and we are also adding housing grants to support students’ ability to live on campus. Doing so will have a big impact on the student experience and student success. The building is beautiful and in a wonderful part of Philadelphia. It plugs students into the community and the arts and culture of the city, so that Philadelphia is an extension of our campus and part of our students’ creative journeys. We want our students to graduate and apply their skills and drive for the economic benefit of this city. 

How do the college’s partnerships help prepare students for careers in a rapidly evolving creative economy?

We have many initiatives that are focused on innovation and the careers of the future, with partnerships across numerous industries. Moore provides a $1,000 paid internship to each student. We have also launched co-ops for two of our BFA majors, Photography and Film & Digital Cinema, so students are getting hands-on, semester-long work experiences. Our Entertainment Design majors will get immersive experiential learning opportunities through the partnership with The Franklin Institute. We aim to be at the forefront of innovation in the industries that we are preparing our students for, and we recognize that technology is reshaping some of these industries at warp speed. We’re preparing our students to evolve with their fields as art and design are increasingly impacted by new technologies. 

Given Philadelphia’s creative roots, how does the college’s location expand opportunities for your students and influence the college’s direction?

Moore is an intentionally small college because we believe that the individualized experience we provide sets the College apart and really helps our students to thrive. We have Philadelphia as our greater campus to provide all kinds of opportunities to enrich our students’ learning. Across the street from us are some of the most phenomenal museums in the world.  Philadelphia is home to more than 4,000 murals and the nation’s largest public art program, so our students are finding inspiration everywhere they go in the city. The energy feels vibrant, and there’s a great food scene as well as proximity to New York City and Washington D.C. 

As an industry, higher education is definitely facing some challenges nationally and locally. Education and healthcare are massive drivers of the Philadelphia economy, and we are positioned in a larger higher education ecosystem. The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is not running an undergraduate degree program now, and as we’ve discussed, the University of the Arts recently closed. Moore is now the only independent art and design college in the city of Philadelphia. We take that role very seriously as a hub for the arts and culture community, and our doors are open.

How do broader pressures in higher education show up at a smaller institution like Moore, and how are you positioning the college to adapt?

We pride ourselves on being exceptionally innovative and nimble, largely due to being a small school. Moore is like a racecar — we can move fast and adjust as needed. This is a huge strength in our industry today. Moore has been focused on career outcomes since we were founded in 1848 to give women the skills to earn a living in the textiles industry in Philadelphia, so return on investment is built into our DNA, and we do it really well. We have excellent career data, with 91% of our 2024 BFA alumni either working or in graduate school within one year of graduation.*

What are your top priorities for Moore over the next five years, and what does long-term success look like for the institution?

There is an extraordinary pressure on higher education in the United States right now. There are many factors contributing to that, some being the demographic cliff, a decrease in international students and the increased difficulty for students to receive financial aid.

Moore is unique in that we are small, financially healthy, and strong. We are in the top 18% of all colleges and universities nationwide in terms of the ratio of our endowment to full-time enrolled students, and we have run an operating surplus every year for the past 24 years. That means that we have the resources to invest in our students. One-hundred percent of Moore students get scholarships from Moore. Our Visionary Honors Program provides $100,000 in scholarships to students over four years, and our new Global Scholars Program provides fully-funded international and domestic trips for high-achieving students.  We also have a thriving continuing education program that serves children from the age of six all the way up to adults. 

We have been handling higher education challenges by investing even more in our students, providing increased scholarship and financial aid, acquiring new facilities, updating our current facilities and expanding our study abroad experiences. The arts and culture ecosystem and level of collaboration in the region are very rich and complex. Moore is a cultural anchor in Philadelphia and my aim as president is to continue to strengthen that. 

This generation of students wants to do work that is meaningful, and to build careers that make a difference in the world. We always say that our mission at Moore is to help you turn your passion into a paycheck.

*Employment percentage based on a 65% survey response rate.