Federal regulations may impact arts programs at UMass Dartmouth

Students who enroll in art programs at UMass Dartmouth may soon be at risk of losing access to federal financial aid after new Department of Education guidelines came into effect this summer.

The U.S. Department of Education finalized federal regulations on June 29 that change the eligibility criteria for federal student loans based on the earnings of recent graduates.

UMass Dartmouth’s undergraduate Visual and Performing Arts and Fine and Studio Arts programs did not meet the earnings benchmark, according to data recently released by the Department of Education that outlines earnings estimates. To pass, undergraduate programs must demonstrate that recent graduates earn more than the median earnings of working adults aged 25 to 34 with a high school degree. 

The regulations do not immediately affect these programs’ federal loan eligibility. But programs that fail the earnings test twice in three years could eventually lose access to the federal Direct Loan program under the new rules. Students could also lose access to federal grants, including the Pell grant for education, in subsequent years. 

Jordan Matsudaira, who was the chief economist at the Education Department under the Biden administration, said that effects of these regulations may be seen as early as July 2028.

“If I were running a college, I wouldn’t assume that this will go away through the political process before it has a chance to take effect,” said Matsudaira, who currently teaches public administration and policy at American University.

Matsudaira said Congress would have to pass new legislation to change the regulations, which were signed into law on July 4, 2025, as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. 

Ryan Merrill, a UMass Dartmouth spokesperson and the assistant vice chancellor of strategic communications, replied with a written statement when asked about the effects on students. 

“The University, like so many institutions across the country, is still assessing how these new regulations could potentially impact our students and programs,” he wrote.

Denise Baxter, dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts, did not respond to a direct request for an interview. Merrill did not respond to follow-up questions sent via email. 

The median earnings of graduates four years after completion were $32,222 for the Fine and Studio Arts program at UMass Dartmouth and $38,676 for the Visual and Performing Arts program, according to the estimates. Both programs fail to meet the $39,449 benchmark outlined by the new regulations.

Art students, local artists say regulations will hurt them

Current and recently graduated students from the UMass Dartmouth’s College of Visual and Performing Arts say the new regulations will undermine artists and the local economy. 

“If I had full student debt, especially if I went to a more expensive school, I don’t think I would be able to pursue a career in the arts,” said Caitlyn Harrington, a rising junior majoring in studio art and minoring in business administration.

Harrington works at a restaurant to pay tuition and said she eventually wants to run her own art business. 

Harrington said she receives less than $3,000 per year in subsidized and unsubsidized federal education loans, plus receives scholarships from the university and the John and Abigail Adams scholarship from the state. 

“Those [federal] loans have helped me to get through,” she said. “Any little bit helps.”

Harrington has avoided taking on loans beyond those provided by the federal government, hoping to graduate with as little debt as possible and have greater financial flexibility while pursuing a career in the arts. 

Without federal loans, she said she’d likely still find a way to pay for college.

Harrington is on track to graduate before the effects of the regulations are expected to begin in July 2028, but said she finds the possibility of future students losing access to federal loans “discouraging.”

“If I was still in high school choosing a career, and I wasn’t going to get [federal loans] because I’m going into an art program, it would make me not want to pursue it,” she said.

Graduate programs could be affected by the new regulations, too. 

Fallon Navarro, a recent graduate from UMass Dartmouth with a master’s degree in ceramics, echoed similar concerns, saying that programs without access to federal loans might lose their “competitive edge.” 

Matsudaira, the economist who worked for the Biden administration, said it remains unclear how many graduate programs at UMass Dartmouth would pass or fail the earnings test, because most programs had too few graduates for the Department of Education to publish earnings estimates. For graduate programs, the earnings of their recent graduates will be measured against median earnings of working adults aged 25 to 34 with a bachelor’s degree. 

Navarro, who said she benefited from federal student loans as both an undergraduate and graduate student, said that higher education could become less accessible for many prospective students without federal aid.

Many graduate art students choose to attend programs based on cost, including stipends, scholarships, and federal aid. Losing federal support could deter students from attending graduate art programs at UMass Dartmouth, Navarro said.

“It just takes away that choice for them, and if they feel like they can’t do it, maybe they won’t do art,” she said.

Navarro argued that many alumni from UMass Dartmouth contribute to the community in New Bedford. She now works as a program coordinator for the Arts & Business Council of Greater Boston, the nonprofit redeveloping the Star Store. Navarro also pointed to other creatives like Lindsay Miś, the director of the Massachusetts Design Art & Technology Institute, or DATMA.

About Miś, Navarro said, “If she wouldn’t have done the graduate program here, she wouldn’t have stayed here, and that’s a huge impact on downtown New Bedford that would have been missed.”

Miś said she works with an annual budget of around $375,000 that DATMA uses to produce art projects locally, which involves purchasing materials from local vendors and hiring local artists.

“All of that wouldn’t have happened if I didn’t come to this area,” said Miś, who graduated from UMass Dartmouth in 2013 with a master’s degree in artisanry with a focus in metalsmithing.

Miś said that she chose to attend graduate school at the university for its art facilities, as well as for her ability to receive federal loans and participate in the federal work study program.

She expressed concerns about the future of New Bedford given the potential of losing arts students.

“How are we going to continue to foster and nurture being a unique city if we don’t have this easy pool of people who are thinking and changing the place?” she said. “That happens automatically when you hire artists of any caliber.”

Matsudaira said Massachusetts’ relatively high wages could make it more difficult for some arts programs to meet the earnings benchmark. 

“That’s actually very common across other public institutions,” Matsudaira said. “The programs that most commonly fail are these [undergraduate] programs in fine arts or visual and performance.”

For schools like UMass Dartmouth, which have a majority of in-state students, the earnings of recently graduated undergraduates will be compared with the median earnings of their state’s high school graduates. 

Matsudaira said the law does not require additional penalties beyond the loss of federal loans, but some states and institutions have considered their own responses, including offering institutional loans, restricting state financial aid or closing affected programs. 

In recent years, arts students have worried about UMass Dartmouth’s commitment to the College of Visual & Performing Arts, especially owing to the sudden closure of the downtown arts campus in New Bedford. 

Kiva Bank of New Bedford is a student at Yale University who is covering arts, culture and the city as a summer intern for The Light. Email Kiva Bank at kbank@newbedfordlight.org.