After financial difficulties in 2009, the college closed and the campus was purchased by the City of Santa Fe, the State of New Mexico, and Laureate Education, and reopened with a narrowed focus on film, theater, graphic design, and fine arts.

[5] St. Michael's College was established at the behest of Archbishop Jean-Baptiste Lamy, who had arrived in New Mexico in 1851 to find that formal schooling in the territory was nonexistent.

After establishing the Loretto Academy for girls in 1852, Lamy recruited the De La Salle Christian Brothers to open a similar school for boys, and St. Michael's held its first classes in the fall of 1859.

However, in the 1940s, the school's former principal Brother Benildus of Mary decided to re-establish St. Michael's College as an institution of higher learning.

However, he got a second chance when the former Bruns Army General Hospital on Cerrillos Road was declared surplus property at the end of World War II.

In 1947, Benildus managed to secure a portion of the hospital complex totaling 125 acres (51 ha) and 39 semi-permanent wooden buildings for the new college, which was ready to begin classes in the fall.

It screens international, artistic, and independent films, and also streams performances of operas, ballets, and plays via satellite.

In late November 2022 the Santa Fe Mayor and City Council approved a legislative package that would rezone the campus to mixed use and adopted a master plan that includes 1,100 housing units.