Leaders of ELS Philadelphia continue to face uncertainty over housing options for their students after the sale of the Living and Learning Commons last year.
ELS Philadelphia, which has been a part of the St. Joe’s community since 1981 and was previously called the ELS center, is a for-profit language school that operates language centers on college and university campuses across the U.S., helping international students learn English.
In October 2025, St. Joe’s sold the LLC to the Belmont Neighborhood Educational Alliance, which runs a charter school network in the city. Students in the ELS Philadelphia program have continued to occupy classrooms and residential space in the building and will do so through August 2026, according to Ross Radish, J.D., vice president of student life and dean of students.
“As ELS Philadelphia plans for its future, the University remains in close communication with program leadership to support their decision-making process,” Radish wrote in a statement to The Hawk. “Should ELS explore options to remain in the LLC building beyond August 2026, those discussions would take place directly between ELS and the BNEA.”
ELS Philadelphia is now undertaking its own negotiations after efforts by the university to reach an agreement with BNEA for ELS students to continue using the LLC were unsuccessful, said John Catlett, ELS Philadelphia Center director.
“We hope to meet with them soon to then try to get in,” Catlett said. “Hopefully, we can stay where we are.”
Catlett said remaining in the LLC would allow the program to avoid another transition while long-term plans are finalized.
“At least for the time being, we would very much like to stay in the LLC,” Catlett said. “It’s a great building. Our students like it there. The classrooms are very nice. Everything is already set there.”
Mina Taniwa, an ELS Philadelphia student from Japan who has been living in the LLC since September 2025, said living in the LLC has helped her shape her social experience.
“I met my friends because they talked to me in the LLC,” Taniwa wrote in an email to The Hawk. “They invited me to go to many places, and they held the event[s]. These experiences are the charm of studying abroad for me, and those made me happy.”
Maintaining a structured living environment is important while adjusting to a new country, said Megan Fenn, the international student advisor for ELS Philadelphia. Fenn said a change in campuses would be disorienting for students.
“A lot of them don’t know what anything else is like,” Fenn said. “I think that they would want to be there just for a sense of being comfortable. They know where everything is.”
Catlett added that uncertainty surrounding housing and classroom space has affected how the program recruits students.
“In the past, these are things that we should have already known,” Catlett said. “We do sell our program as being on a university campus, that includes housing as well … So, the sooner we know those things, the better off we are.”
Regardless of the real estate negotiations, Catlett said the program plans to continue operating.
“We’re definitely committed to making it work, no matter what,” Catlett said. “I think St. Joe’s is supporting us in that and trying to help us find the spaces that we need to be able to run our programs.”
