The College of Santa Fe and a Georgia-based art school are in discussions about a possible partnership, the latest step in trying to get the financially troubled Santa Fe school back on its feet.

College of Santa Fe officials have been talking with the Savannah College of Art and Design for more than six months, but any partnership plans remain preliminary, CSF president Stuart Kirk said.

The college announced in November that to deal with financial difficulties and shrinking student numbers in some departments, it would eliminate some programs and shift its focus toward its art program.

At that time, Kirk said Savannah College could serve as a model for CSF because it, too, had a strong arts program and an athletics program, something the College of Santa Fe resurrected last fall. It also had something the CSF didn't — more students.

The Georgia school has grown from a few hundred students to 9,000, Kirk said. The College of Santa Fe has 550 full-time students and 1,200 evening and weekend students.

"The fact is that small, private schools whose student bodies are less than 700 or 800 students are not sustainable," Kirk said.

Increasing enrollment is the only way for schools to become financially stable, Kirk said, and partnering with another school could help to do it sooner. "I think it's a recognition that the path to financially stability would be quite long for us," he said. "The strengths that a school like SCAD would bring would shorten that path a lot."

If the merger were to occur, it would be the second time in less than two years that SCAD merged with another school.

About 18 months ago, the school acquired the Atlanta College of Art. Some staff and students protested the move over concerns it would mean the end of fine arts education for which ACA was known, according to reports in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The century-old ACA had a lot in common with the College of Santa Fe.

Enrollment was down, and it had only 330 students. Its budget was largely subsidized by the Woodruff Arts Center — the parent company of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, High Museum and Young Audiences of Atlanta. And it had a long history of promoting arts in its community.

SCAD initially opened a satellite campus in Atlanta in 2005 and was later approached by Woodruff about a possible partnership, said Bruce Chong, dean of communications at SCAD.

Nearly 80 percent of ACA's students transferred to SCAD, Chong said, as did a majority of the staff.

Tenured professors were guaranteed a job at SCAD and nontenured were invited to apply, Chong said. SCAD does not offer tenure for professors, Chong said, and contracts are negotiated with individual employees.

After the merger, Chong said, enrollment at SCAD-Atlanta increased to 1,200 students last fall, and is expected to be 1,700 next fall. Chong said SCAD's recruiting system could benefit a school like the College of Santa Fe if the merger were to occur.

In its effort to expand to the West, SCAD officials have talked with schools in other cities about merging, Chong said, including Dallas.

He wouldn't say whether talks with the College of Santa Fe were any further along than with other schools. Instead, he said only that the two schools are getting to know each other, and that Santa Fe is "a culturally rich area and has a commitment to artistic endeavors. "There are probably more similarities (with SCAD) than differences," Chong said.

Contact John Sena at 986-3079 or jsena@sfnewmexican.com.