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Originally Posted by pj3000
I'm not sure why the Commonwealth universities would want to be involved in any way, shape, or form in the mess that is PASSHE. How would they be involved? I mean, they're basically private universities.
That's the major issue that has uncovered all of the problems with the state school system. The numbers were no longer working to pay for all the unbelievable waste. The schools have only itself to blame. They enjoyed being fat and lazy for a long time.
The state schools were so gigantically bloated beyond belief with programs, faculty, and staff that were so out of line with the student population, in terms of numbers of students enrolled at the school and the actual demand for programs offered.
At some of the consolidating campuses, there were/are undergrad and grad programs that have had fully-staffed departments for more than a decade that have graduated less than 10 students. WTF?
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We are straying away from discussing Harrisburg related real estate development, but.....all of the PASSHE schools and the state related (Commonwealth) universities are facing the same issue...a declining number of high school graduates not just from within Pennsylvania, but from many of the surrounding states these universities draw students from as well. Of course, the state cannot compel the Commonwealth universities to institute any changes or require their involvement in the PASSHE redesign. I am suggesting the prudent thing to do would be for the state legislature, either through an existing committee or the through the creation of a new committee, to invite representatives from PASSHE’s board of governors and the state-related universities and address how this decline will impact access to affordable public higher education in the state. Because I suspect the impending PASSHE mergers are just the start and consolidation is not necessarily a bad outcome. I just worry the rate of consolidation will happen too rapidly (all within the next ten years), which may push more PA students out-of-state or to private schools (at least in the short term) with the uncertainty surrounding mergers or closures. This is why I think Pennsylvania needs a holistic approach and not a piecemeal one to the right-sizing of the state's publicly funded university systems.
As for my recommendation for including the Commonwealth universities into this discussion, they are not immune from the same demographic trends as PASSHE. For instance, while Pitt and Penn State’s main campuses have weathered the decline of high school graduates quite well so far (because of their national/international brand recognition, strong and diverse academic program offerings and research opportunities); their branch campuses have suffered just as dramatic of an enrollment decline as PASSHE. Take Penn State for example (excluding Penn State Hershey, Penn College, and Penn State Dickinson Law could not locate numbers for same timespan for Penn State Hershey, Dickinson or Penn College, but PC has seen enrollment decreases from over 5,400 in 2017 to 4,600 in 2020) out of the 20 remaining campuses, 16 saw enrollment decreases during the 2010-2019 timespan. 12 experienced decreases of greater than 30%! Penn State Hazelton saw enrollment drop 52%! Only Cheyney from PASSHE saw a greater decline in enrollment during those years. Now only a small percentage of Penn State’s, Pitt’s and Temple’s budgets are supported by state appropriations, but one has to wonder how much of Penn State’s $242.1 million in state appropriations for fiscal year 2020-21 is going to subsidize financially struggling branch campuses, which in one case enrolls 439 students (Penn State Greater Allegheny)? For example, over $24 million out of Penn State’s original $242.1 million in state appropriations was sent to Penn College alone.
Source:
https://www.inquirer.com/business/st...-20191127.html
I suspect in the next 2-5 years Penn State will start to close and consolidate some of their branch campuses following a larger trend of nationwide closures and mergers in higher education.
To your second point, every PASSHE school, with the exception of West Chester and maybe Slippery Rock, has been financially mismanaged for decades perhaps even criminally so in the case of Cheyney, but Pennsylvania actually lags behind the majority of the nation when it comes to higher education funding. I believe this was even the case before the notorious Corbett cuts. In any event, the state needed to hold PASSHE accountable for its financial waste and it has. Unfortunately, the legislature stepped in about 10 years too late because in the meantime PASSHE raised their tuition rates to close budget gaps and lost students and the affordability argument against their competitors i.e. Penn State, Pitt, and Temple along the way. Now Pennsylvania is in a financial situation, where they are unable to increase funding substantially for higher education.
Other contributing issues to PASSHE’s decline, as you alluded to, were status quo minded administrations, a bureaucratic system that took years to approve new academic programs or to place others in moratorium, a fixation over the last 15 years on constructing unnecessary new facilities (looking at you IUP), changing the tuition model to a per-credit hour system (IUP, MU, etc.), and unions (ASCUF) resistant to change.
In other words, failures have occurred at every level and without a comprehensive approach moving forward involving the state legislature, the Commonwealth universities, and PASSHE, access to affordable higher education in Pennsylvania will dwindle much to the detriment of the state’s low-income students and families.
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. All of the existing buildings date back to at least the early 1900s and are in good shape. I would hate to see any of them demolished. Perhaps, they could be renovated for commercial office space or converted to apartments? The campus is conveniently located to I-81 and downtown so it should be attractive to developers. Hopefully, the site does not sit vacant for too long.
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