Philadelphia’s historic University of the Arts will shut down Friday after years of declining enrollment, budget shortfalls and the recent loss of its accreditation.

The campus, founded in the 1870s in the city’s central business district, is the longtime home of feminist cultural critic Camille Paglia and one of the oldest arts and music colleges in the country. Notable alumni include Hollywood filmmaker Joe Dante, the director of “Gremlins.”

In a statement, UArts officials said the board of trustees approved the closure Saturday after learning the school would lose its accreditation. Accreditation certifies that a college meets academic standards recognized by the Education Department.

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“Like you, we are struggling to make sense of the present moment,” President Kerry Walk and board Chairman Judson Aaron said in the statement. “But like many institutions of higher learning, UArts has been in a fragile financial state, with many years of declining enrollments, declining revenues and increasing expenses.”

The statement said officials would help returning students transfer to Temple University, Drexel University, Moore College of Art and Design and other institutions.

According to the UArts website, the private university had 1,300 students and 77 full-time faculty members in 2022. Programs include music, theater and art.

The news comes as high inflation, falling application numbers and the end of pandemic stimulus funding have sparked a surge in closures among private liberal arts institutions the past year.

The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit education news outlet, tracked at least one college a week announcing from Jan. 1 to April 26 that it would close or merge. In the mix are Goddard College in Vermont and Fontbonne University in St. Louis.

That’s almost twice the pace of closures in 2023 when the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association said a little over two universities per month announced they would shutter.

In Philadelphia on Monday, some UArts students protested the closure, prompting administrators to cancel a 4 p.m. question-and-answer session.

“As the situation continues to unfold rapidly, we cannot adequately answer your questions today,” the university said in a statement released minutes before the session.

On Tuesday, the UArts website directed students, faculty, alumni and others to submit their questions through a web form.

A spokesperson for Ms. Paglia, who retired last year, said the bestselling author declined to comment on “the current crisis.”

The Middle States Commission on Higher Education told local ABC affiliate WPVI-TV that it withdrew the university’s accreditation on Saturday because administrators failed to give adequate notice of the closure or provide a plan for students.

“This is absurd. They refused to answer our questions in the first place. And now they’re refusing to answer them after we begged, begged for answers,” rising junior Sarah McLeod told the television outlet Monday.