Cal U part of PASSHE plan to pair universities
By Deb Erdley
derdley@yourmvi.com
The financially struggling Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education on Thursday took the first step in a two-year redesign process that could see six of its 14 universities integrated into three operating units.
The 20-member State System Board of Governors unanimously approved a resolution instructing Chancellor Daniel Greenstein to launch a three-month financial review into yoking California and Clarion; Slippery Rock and Edinboro; and Lock Haven and Mansfield universities.
The proposed integration plan calls for the schools to remain open but with each of the paired institutions operating with a single leadership team, faculty and staff and academic program.
The board approved the study two weeks after Gov. Tom Wolf signed Act 50, a bill that created a template for PASSHE to “create, expand, consolidate, transfer or affiliate” institutions with fewer than 10,000 students. The law prohibited closing any campuses. The enrollment cap means all PASSHE universities except West Chester and Indiana could be subject to dramatic changes.
Other universities in the state system, created in 1982, include: Bloomsburg, Cheyney, East Stroudsburg, Kutztown, Millersville and Shippensburg.
Hearty endorsements of the plan came from California University President Geraldine Jones and Clarion President Dale-Elizabeth Pehrsson. The two said they already work together on plans to enhance online offerings. Greenstein said such a plan has the potential to recapture some of the 50,000 Pennsylvanians who now look to out-of-state institutions to fill such needs.
Greenstein said integrating Lock Haven and Mansfield would allow them to grow to meet the demand for expanded offerings for non-degree credentials in the state’s northern tier.
An Edinboro-Slippery Rock pairing would take advantage of their geographic proximity to ensure that Edinboro could continue to offer a full range of programs. Edinboro has seen its enrollment drop by nearly half over the last decade, while Slippery Rock, a financially stronger school, has maintained enrollment numbers.
Sally Johnstone is president of the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems (NCHEMS), the Colorado-based consulting group that conducted a study of PASSHE three years ago. She said the processes set out in Act 50 are ”consistent with paving the pathway” to implement the kind of collaboration across the system recommended in her group’s report.
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