A problem is that the types of jobs that these regional campuses focus on (at least in my state- early childhood education, nursing, etc.) are NOT jobs that can be performed remotely. Yes- an experienced RN can get a job at a health insurance company doing case review-- a terrific “work from home” job-- but that takes years of experience doing hospital, hands-on nursing before you are qualified.
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If you add-up all the branch campuses for PSU, Pitt and Temple along with the PASSHE schools the total is around 50. That doesn’t even include community colleges or small privates. Pa’s populations is around 13 million and the college age demographic has been dropping for decades.
Compare that to the CA system. They probably have around 30 UC/CSU campuses? for a population of around 40 million and I’m guessing a growing demographic. CA also covers an area 4 times the size of PA.
PA schools have always acted independently without coordination. They’ve had decades to clean this up. Shame on them.
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9 UCs (with undergraduates), 23 CSUs, and 116 community colleges.
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We have about 50 campuses for flagship/PASSHE schools. That’s a lot. Lots of new buildings and facilities for the campuses I’ve seen. All while they’ve known the demographics were awful for PA.
Some of the PASSHE schools are nicer than our flagships. Lot’s of well-paid state jobs at these schools as well. I’m not sure I’d say “underinvestment by state governments” is true.
If they had cleaned this up years ago and been able to get some of the nat gas revenue via tax I bet PA could be like other states that offer free/cheap tuition to residents.
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I think most states are going to face a reckoning of some sort in higher ed. The demographic cliff is going to force it. So what does “cleaning it up” really mean? There were no incentives for the President/Chancellor of the higher ed systems at the state level to forge ahead with a strategic plan which included cutting programs, closing campuses, selling off buildings. Very sad for the communities (often rural) who depended on these small colleges for jobs, cultural activities, athletic facilities.
I grew up in a college town and learned to swim in the college pool. “Membership” in the gorgeous athletic facility was free to the locals from June-Labor Day, and boy, did we love it!
Then why is enrollment down?
I don’t see the investment issues as infrastructure, I see it as ignoring the customer. When I say under-investment… I’m referring to the price of attendance for local students. I’m not interested in “good paying” administrator jobs today, it’s about competing on a national level for a stronger tax base in 10-20 years+.
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My best guess why enrollment is down because of demographics and cost. Bad locations might be another reason.
The state didn’t underinvest. It invested in the wrong areas. It didn’t consolidate and cut costs when it should’ve have. It built expensive new dorms and facilities when they knew enrollment was decreasing. The demographic cliff hit PA earlier than the other states.
Look at the salaries/pensions for some of these PASSHE admins, instructors and coaches. There’s bloat. It also makes you ask what exactly is the role of the PASSHE schools?
The state spent money on education. It just should’ve been more efficient, with more (lots more?) going towards students.
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Texas has 38 public 4 year colleges. It would seem PA just has too many schools for a smaller population.
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From the linked article above…
Those schools are quick to point out that Pennsylvania is ranked 49th nationally in average taxpayer appropriation per full-time student, at $6,100. The national average is $10,200, according to the State Higher Education Finance Report.
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The biggest problem in PA state education is when Penn state decided to offer 4 year education at its regional campuses. Those campuses had the Penn state brand and started to compete with the other universities. These campuses were designed to offer the first two years at the local campus so kids can help at the farms or local jobs and then decide if they wanted to continue to the main campus.
Penn state Law is the first trial of a consolidation that’s happening at Penn state. I think if they continue to follow in enrollment at the regional level some campuses will be forced to close.
Altoona is 40 minutes away from Penn state enrollment has been dropping every year. You have campuses with 400 students offering bachelor degrees that I bet most want to move to UP after their sophomore year.
Every state has its issues and private schools in PA are now struggling as they compete for students. St Joseph merged with the Uof Science and total enrollment dropped and now they are merging again with another school.
I can only think of three private schools that survived a closure Hampshire college, Bennington college and Sweet Briar College. Hampshire just lost what I think is the alum who saved them James Crown just like Kings College in NY which survived with the help of Henry Devos who after his passing the school has struggled and now is looking to merge or close
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What was the reason that PSU and Pitt opened what are effectively their own (more expensive) community college feeders instead of working with the actual community colleges to build transfer pathways?
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Pitt branches were originally and still are 4-year schools (except for Titusville). Most students at these branches stay there until they graduate (or until they drop out). Penn State’s commonwealth (branch) campuses were set up to allow students to do the 2+2 program, two years at a branch, then transfer to main campus. I think both Pitt and Penn State tried to provide greater access to a “flagship” degree. I don’t know why Penn State hasn’t worked with the community colleges to provide transfer pathways to main campus. Currently, there are transfer pathways from community colleges to the commonwealth campuses’ 4-year degree programs (for example, HACC to Penn State Harrisburg) but not to main campus.
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Making state higher education more efficient and additional funding are two different issues.
Cleaning-up the higher ed system years ago would’ve put more money in the pocket of the students. It should’ve made tuition costs lower, maybe much lower.
To increase funding the state should’ve tried for some tax money from nat gas to help fund lower tuition.
As for the the appropriation per student what is in the calculation and how is that calculated? If the cost savings over the years were part of the numerator the amount per student would go up.
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No argument about the impact of doing things better years ago.
As for funding, PA just passed $1B in tax credits for gas production…the gas money is going to the gas companies…not students. PA also has a lower income tax rate than neighboring states. My point was that they need to invest in the students, which doesn’t seem to be a priority.
As for the calculation…send the guy who wrote the article an email. [BILL SCHACKNER] bschackner@triblive.com
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I don’t think Pitt’s branches were originally 4 years. I think they started as 2 year schools with the intent to transfer to Pitt. That said, they’ve been 4 year schools for as long as I can remember.
Pitt has a pathway from CCAC. It’s a pretty seamless process. They line-up the classes. If you met the requirements it’s a guaranteed transfer. At least it used to be. I’m assuming it still is.
I’ll take a shot at what does “clean-up” mean.
Pitt should’ve divested its branches years ago. Pitt should also consider going private. They could do well with 17k undergrads, tons of research money and a $5B+ endowment. Temple should consider the same but I’m not that familiar with the school.
PSU and PASSHE should be merged in some form. It would be the new state higher ed system.
Keep PSU Main Campus. Pick another 4-8 locations and make them PSU 4 year schools. Keep a few PSU branches and PASSHE schools as 2 year programs with a transfer option to one of the 4 year schools. Increase agreements with CC’s and invest in online learning. The rest of the schools would close or be bought by other schools. The footprint would be about half the size of the current structure.
I grew-up fairly close to one of the PASSHE schools. Good memories. Summer programs in HS along with a few classes. A neighbor was a history professor with a wealth of knowledge. His history discussions weren’t the ones you got from a textbook.
Request: Can the discussions of campuses by population, and of branch campus systems, be spun off into new threads?
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Will be interesting to see how this automatic acceptance from the SUNYs impact small private colleges.
Not sure what this says about Hampshire’s viability. So much for nurturing a caring environment.
Entire Hampshire College IT department to be laid off pending third party take over - masslive.com
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Interesting. Ellucian has been in the financial aid software business for years, so they have experience with security issues. Schools are rightfully worried about cybersecurity issues, and it’s not easy (or necessarily cost effective) to hire qualified staff. I don’t know how it would be less expensive to hire someone from Ellucian than it would be to hire someone directly. The people I know at Ellucian are very well compensated.
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