Arizona State’s nonprofit film school California College of ASU has closed

A private nonprofit film school affiliated with Arizona State University and operated out of the former Los Angeles Herald Examiner building in downtown L.A. has closed, a setback for the public university’s campaign to expand into neighboring California.

The closure marks the end of the financially troubled nonprofit formerly known as Columbia College Hollywood, a 73-year-old school specializing in television and cinema-related fields, which ASU took control of in 2023. It was later rebranded as the California College of ASU. 

Arizona State University spokesperson Nikki Ripley said 42 students remained at the California College of ASU at the end of 2025. Of those, 30 are continuing their studies at ASU’s Sidney Poitier New American Film School, which also has a presence in Los Angeles, and seven graduated in December.

Officials with the college’s accreditor, the WASC Senior College and University Commission, and the California Department of Consumer Affairs’ ​​Bureau for Private and Postsecondary Education confirmed the college’s closure. The college also filed paperwork with state workforce authorities disclosing that it would lay off 75 employees by Dec. 31, including its CEO and 60 part-time adjunct instructors.

“The school’s accreditation and financial challenges, which preceded the affiliation with ASU, ultimately were not able to be resolved in a timely manner and ASU’s existing film program was desirable for transferring students,” Ripley said in an email. 

James O’Brien, the senior vice president of university affairs at ASU, described ASU’s work with California College of ASU as “an experiment” as ASU explored different models of expansion in Los Angeles. California College of ASU “seemed like a viable pathway,” he said. “After examining it, it seemed like that’s probably not the way to go, so we’re going to continue to advance our film program in other ways.”

Christian Osmeña, the vice president for enterprise planning at Arizona State University and a board member of the California College of ASU, said the university is now focused on enrolling film students at ASU directly.

Arizona State will continue several other programs in the former Herald Examiner building, including classes in its narrative and emerging media program, a Poitier School class and a newsroom for its Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. A second location on S. Grand Avenue is home to additional Poitier School classes and all classes for ASU FIDM, the university’s fashion program. Poitier School film students also use space at the Los Angeles Center Studios.

Announcing the rebrand of Columbia College Hollywood in 2023, an ASU spokesperson told the student-run State Press that the newly-renamed California College of ASU “will continue to be overseen by an independent Board of Trustees, offer their own unique degree programs and will utilize services provided by ASU, including marketing and outreach to prospective students who would find value in their programs.” 

Arizona State’s goal was to turn around the film school, then struggling with financial and accreditation challenges. The nonprofit college and the university initially agreed to share educational facilities, curriculum and instruction. Arizona State later became the nonprofit’s sole member in May 2023, effectively taking control of it. In back-to-back deals, it provided more than $5 million to the nonprofit college, a 2023 audit reported. In addition to Osmeña, ASU Provost Nancy Gonzales and ASU General Counsel Lisa Loo joined the nonprofit’s board. 

But declining enrollment and fiscal instability continued at California College of ASU. Federal data counted more than 500 students in fall 2018, which rose to about 1,000 following the acquisition of a Chicago film school. When accreditors visited in spring 2025, the Chicago school had closed and the remaining California campus’ students had dwindled to just 51. 

Revenue plummeted from $19.4 million in 2022 to $4.1 million in 2025, tax filings show. Accreditors reported that California College of ASU had become “heavily reliant on affiliate revenue from ASU.” 

A spring 2025 accreditation team cited several other emerging problems, including poor staff morale, trouble launching a liberal arts program and confusion related to the college’s rebrand. 

The transformation of Columbia College Hollywood into California College of ASU frustrated Ryan Gibbs, a graduate of the school who now works in the Chicago film industry. Gibbs said the decision to relocate the film school into ASU’s downtown Los Angeles building forced some students to brave a long commute and expensive parking, while sacrificing the sense of community and collaboration students felt on their old Tarzana campus in the San Fernando Valley, more than 20 miles northwest of downtown. 

“I think it left us all with a bad taste in our mouth,” he said. “And so you’re trying to get new students to your programs when all the students from the last four years of all your programs are just constantly dragging you through the mud. It’s not going to be beneficial to you as a college.”

O’Brien said communication with students probably could have been better, but said he did not know of “any particular thing we would have done different” at California College of ASU.