#systemreview

Sometime last year, PASSHE voluntarily chose to partake in a complete review of their fourteen state schools. The reviewing consultant, National Center for Higher Education Management Systems or NCHEMS, was brought in by PASSHE to help the system get outside perspectives and opinions on what should be done to begin correcting some of the issues that are plaguing the system. Before the review was done, Frank Brogan, the previous Chancellor said, “We know this: the current approach as to how we do things - how we're organized, how we're funded, how we operate - all of it we know is unsustainable; that is an undeniable fact.” NCHEMS report was completed on July 12. The reviewers took time to visit each campus of the 14 state universities and held meetings with faculty, students, alumni, business leaders in the community and elected officials at all of them.

Currently, PASSHE is experiencing hard times, if you will. One of the many problems the state system of higher education is seeing, is a lack of funding from the state. In the most recently passed budget the state receives $444.2 million dollars in funding from the state. That is $60 million less than PASSHE was receiving before the recession. Currently around the country, there are other public universities looking into how they can restructure their universities due to similar problems as PASSHE.

Another problem among PASSHE is falling numbers in enrollment. Enrollment numbers have dropped 12% since the systems peak enrollment in 2010. In 2010 the enrollment numbers were around 119,513 and are currently around 104,779. That is a large decline and could hurt any organization. Something that universities across the board are victim to is the number of students entering higher education from high school. In 2010 there were about 131,000 high school graduates in Pa; about 95,000 continued onto post-secondary education. However, in 2016 there were around 125,000 high school graduates with only 83,542 heading off to college. Penn State over the past couple of years has expanded many of their four year degree programs to their branch campuses. This is another suspected reason for falling enrollment in the State System. Due to issues like these, specific schools in PASSHE are struggling more than others. Cheyney with 746 students, Clarion with 5,224 students, and Mansfield with 2,198 are three Pa state schools that are really seeing the effects of the issues listed above.

When designing the review, NCHEMS made principles to focus on and use to guide their inquiry when conducting their review. Those principles were, priority of the needs of all students in the state system, solutions that fit into all post-secondary education markets in Pennsylvania, ensure high quality affordable education is available to residents in all parts of the state, recognize that all 14 universities have unique differences and needs, respect Pa’s history of organized labor and collective bargaining, and to energize the capacity of the system. The first principle the NCHEMS listed is to lookout for students and what is best for us. Certainly something students should take comfort in.  

The consultants who reviewed PASSHE called for a rewrite of the 1983 law that knit the current system together. The rewrite would change the current system by having fewer political appointees. This would make for a better flow of powers for the system, according to the consultants.

One of the things NCHEMS said in their report was, “All parties have had a hand in digging the hole the state system is in. All parties will have to work together to dig their way out.”

Some of the major findings from the report that most threaten the state system are, demographic changes that are unfavorable, lack of financial support from the state, a longtime lack of trust among key stakeholders in the system, problems in the approach to the systems management, a dysfunctional governance system, and the absence of a roll that is responsible for policy leadership in all post-secondary education in Pa.

The report also gave a list of things PASSHE should not do. They include, not to eliminate the office of the Chancellor, no closing of any schools, no merging of any of the state schools, no universities should separate themselves from the system and become free standing, and no attempt should be made to undermine any collective bargaining units. A relief to many to hear that an outside organization does not believe we should close any schools or even merge any of them. While they called for no schools to be closed, NCHEMS suggested making some of the school that are really struggling a great deal smaller. Meaning, getting rid of many of the majors they offer and just keeping the core majors that have good enrollment numbers. They also suggested for the struggling schools to better focus on their distance education at their schools. Online schooling is becoming more and more prevalent, it would be a great way to get enrollment up and would offer a great alternative to nontraditional students.  

Implementations of suggestions made by NCHEMS will begin taking place this fall. PASSHE will decide what steps are most important to the running of the state schools and begin from there. Students will probably not see any noticeable changes this fall. As time goes on however, more changes will be implemented.

Kenneth Mash, the President of APSCUF said, "I'm willing to bet that our enrollment problems would disappear somewhat if the tuition was really reasonable" He believes that the NCHEMS may have looked over the fact the state needs to better financially support its students.

The review done of the state system should be a good thing to many. Our current system is obviously struggling. PASSHE is extremely beneficial to so many in that is provides students with a quality education that is affordable; most would like to keep it that way. We can be hopeful that this review will help improve our schools. However, State Senator, Dave Argall is calling for another review to be done of the state system. Senator Argall is asking for the state’s Legislative Budget and Finance committee to do a long term viability study of the system. The Senate Education Committee approved this with a 9-0 vote. Senator Argall acknowledges that the NCHEMS were a good first step in mending the system but also said "However, there are always some concerns when a system studies itself as to how independent, no matter how hard they try, their study may be, so our suggestion is to do a parallel study at the same time and not only look at their results but also ask some questions from the outside."

Hopefully the state system will take the report and make great change to our educational system along with continuing to put students first.

-Mary Gittens, Public Administration ‘17