Northwestern will not renew the lease on its San Francisco campus, and will officially move out of the space in Spring 2026, according to a University spokesperson.
Located at 44 Montgomery St., the campus hosted multiple academic programs from different NU schools throughout the year since 2016, including through the Pritzker School of Law, Medill School of Journalism, Kellogg School of Management, Segal Design Institute and Farley Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation.
Now, all academic programs currently being hosted in the space will wind down.
“The demand for academic program activity in that location no longer supports the need for a dedicated space,” a University spokesperson said. “Moving forward, Northwestern will continue to thoughtfully consider strategic educational opportunities that serve the institution’s mission and priorities.”
The lease closure was a decision made by the Office of the Provost, without input from the directors of the academic programs. As a result, the news of the campus closing came abruptly to many.
JP Salvador, the site manager at the San Francisco campus, said he was notified three weeks ago that the University wouldn’t renew its lease.
According to Salvador, NU’s uncertain financial climate — including the federal funding freeze — was one of the key reasons for the program’s closure.
“When there’s uncertainty in the economy, people don’t donate as much,” Salvador said. “And a lot of the programs are donor-funded.”
NU doesn’t charge undergraduate students any additional fees beyond standard tuition for academic programs in San Francisco. However, the programs often incur additional costs to the University due to the cost of relocating faculty and providing offsite programming, according to Salvador.
The biggest cost to the University, however, is the $1,750 room and board stipend that NU offers each undergraduate participant to offset San Francisco’s additional living expenses.
“It all comes down to money,” Salvador said. “If you don’t have it or you’re running out of it, then you have to make some cuts here and there. And San Francisco is not a core part of Northwestern.”
Kim Hoffmann is the design education and strategic initiatives lead for Segal and one of the main coordinators of the Bay Area Immersion Program, a program jointly run by Segal and Medill, which is now being discontinued.
Every Winter Quarter for the past nine years, aside from 2021 due to the pandemic, undergraduate students took experiential learning courses in San Francisco to explore the intersection between journalism and design.
According to Hoffmann, Segal was already reevaluating the impact of the program within McCormick and potentially changing its format. The news of the lease ending and financial uncertainty were catalysts for the program’s closure.
Although the program could have technically been run for another year, Hoffmann said coordinating the program was difficult because the directors of the program from both schools didn’t know what to expect regarding the lease.
“We didn’t have our answer until the Spring Quarter had started, and we were still scrambling to try and get the (program) application together,” Hoffmann said.
The program application is usually released at the beginning of Spring Quarter to give students ample time to register for the prerequisite classes. Amid the uncertain time frame, Hoffmann said “it was too much to ask.”
Beth Bennett, associate dean of journalism and primary coordinator of the Bay Area program for Medill, said although there was high student demand for the program, the lease decision was entirely outside of Medill’s control.
“It was a very successful program that we didn’t anticipate closing,” Bennett said. “We had strong enrollment, really strong student interest and excitement.”
When Medill learned the lease was going to expire, she said it made sense to wind the program down.
McCormick Prof. Pam Daniels has been the design professor for the Bay Area Immersion Program since 2020. Many of Daniels’ students told her that their experience in the Bay Area was “life-changing.”
Last week, two first-year students approached Daniels about the program, and she said having to let them know that it was getting shut down was “painful.”
“I don’t even have words to describe to you how sad I am if people don’t get to grow in the dramatic ways that I saw students grow,” Daniels said. “How could you stop it? How can you turn that off? It’s hard for me to understand.”
Weinberg junior Laura Félix only applied to the program because her girlfriend was also applying, and had no plans on pursuing design academically.
After the time in the Bay Area though, she said she was inspired to complete the Segal Design Certificate.
“This is such a huge opportunity that shaped my academic career at Northwestern, and I feel sad that other people won’t get to do it,” Félix said.
Weinberg sophomore Maddie Wang planned on attending the program next year and had been taking classes to fit that academic plan.
Now, her plans are disrupted.
“I wish that the administration were more transparent about their (decision) and (had) taken student feedback into consideration,” Wang said.
Daniels said the way the University announced the closure of the Bay Area campus was inconsiderate of the four-year student experience, in which students often plan their academic career around an off-campus program.
She added when the University advertises rich, immersive offerings for students, and then shuts them down, it feels like a “bait and switch.”
“We may be making sensible financial choices, but our investment belongs (to) our students,” Daniels said. “Any decisions that are taken that are going to impact the student experience should be made with a great deal more forethought, collaboration and involvement, so that we’re not disappointing the people we’re here to serve.”
Ultimately, Hoffmann said she hopes that the current situation will be more of a “pause” than a “twilight.”
“In-context learning is really important, and that’s something that’s not going to go away,” Hoffmann said. “It (will be) a challenge if we’re going to be limited in funding, but we want to try and continue that.”
Email: [email protected]
X: @jerry7hou
Related Stories:
— New Northwestern campus brings together journalists, engineers in San Francisco
— Pritzker, Kellogg collaborate on San Francisco Immersion Program
