Founded in 1898, the New Hampshire Institute of Art is a small, skills-based art school, with a devoted faculty.  The goal of the founders was to cultivate an appreciation of the arts through progressive, educational instruction.  Apart from its mission as an institution of higher education, the Institute also serves as an important cultural center for the state of New Hampshire.

 

We request that the NHIA Board of Trustees honor transparency, disclosure of facts, and inclusion of the NHIA community regarding the potential merger between NHIA and SNHU, by committing to the following:

 

 

 

1. Release to the public a copy of the Memorandum of Understanding signed in June of 2014 outlining the nature of the merger;

2. Release the minutes of the NHIA and SNHU Trustee meetings during which this memorandum was approved;

3. Publish the criteria which will be used to determine whether a merger is the best option for each school;

4. Publish the summer 2014 Action Plan to evaluate the benefits for such a merger for each institution, and whether the facts support any forward-momentum of the merger.

5. Delay the September 1, 2014 timeline for solidifying the decision-making process.

6. Develop mechanisms and channels to formally receive feedback from all affected parties including current students, alumni, faculty, and staff.

7. Entertain alternatives to a full merger, such as resource-sharing through agreements, limited engagement trials, time-limited experimentation with outcome evaluation data, etc.

8. Engage the resources of both campuses to create meaningful and scientific methods of assessing outcomes, and provide escape clauses which allow these joint ventures to be dissolved if there is no evidence to support their positive impact on either institution.

 9. Grant the NHIA community an emergency meeting with the Board of Trustees before the September 1 deadline.