SSHE Enrollments Down Again

[IUPNation]

You'd love the new math in schools.

2+2 = 7

[SRU 88]

Re: SSHE Enrollments Down Again

Ninety seven grand to teach gym?

Not all teach gym. I know one who coaches an overrated D2 football program.

[Horror Child]

Re: SSHE Enrollments Down Again

Funny how the "we have too many western PA state schools" mantra seems to have gone away. No doubt there will be losers in any consolidation e.g. only a certain portion of existing students in the merged school will actually transfer. Others will follow other paths. But it's a one time deal. It happens. The market adjusts. The individual schools need to be more viable. They are not all able to stand on their own now well enough to maintain the integrity of the system. Mergers should be the first step and other changes should follow, IMO.


I also have to chuckle when people constantly tout free enterprise and remind us that the schools 'need to operate more like businesses' but now say mergers of schools aren't like merging department stores. I see a lot of speculation on the why's and where for's of all this but action needs to be taken. I'm talking about making actionable changes. These board members can plug in to as any conference calls as they like and talk about the same things everybody on here is talking about but from a fiscal perspective (and let's face it it's all fiscal) they need to merge western schools and sell off or repurpose the casualty locations.

Same people?

[Horror Child]

Re: SSHE Enrollments Down Again

Yet with demand dropping, supply remains the same, and price continues to rise twice the rate of the overall inflation rate. It defies economics. Why?

[Horror Child]

Re: SSHE Enrollments Down Again

I ran outta gas.
I had a flat tire.
I didn't have enough money for cab fare.
My tux didn't come back from the cleaners.
An old friend came in from out of town.
Someone stole my car.
There was an earthquake.
A terrible flood.
Locusts.
IT WASN'T MY FAULT!!!!!!

[iupgroundhog]

Re: SSHE Enrollments Down Again

This is what they are actually doing. For anyone with some extra time on their hands. Does this meet your expectations?

http://systemredesign.passhe.edu/

[Fightingscot82]

Re: SSHE Enrollments Down Again

This is what they are actually doing. For anyone with some extra time on their hands. Does this meet your expectations?

http://systemredesign.passhe.edu/

"You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to iupgroundhog again."

[Fightingscot82]

Re: SSHE Enrollments Down Again

Yet with demand dropping, supply remains the same, and price continues to rise twice the rate of the overall inflation rate. It defies economics. Why?

Because colleges are a personnel-driven business. Their product is the people who deliver the commodity the consumers (students) are buying. Personnel costs are going through the roof - the system-wide labor contracts are like hanging chains on Michael Phelps. The contracts dictate the deductibles, copays, and employee premiums regardless of the plan cost. Throw in the "catch up" the schools must do when they skipped pension fund payments during the recession.

Once you're done throw in the construction debt service from the 2000s has been magnified by the enrollment losses.

[iupgroundhog]

Re: SSHE Enrollments Down Again

"You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to iupgroundhog again."

What did I do? What did I say?

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Re: SSHE Enrollments Down Again

What did I do? What did I say?

He's saying you're like The Dude in The Big Lebowski ... the man of his time.

[iupgroundhog]

Re: SSHE Enrollments Down Again

He's saying you're like The Dude in The Big Lebowski ... the man of his time.

I'm going to take that as a compliment.

[Fightingscot82]

Re: SSHE Enrollments Down Again

If you eliminate campuses you eliminate the only stable crop of future students.



Some will suggest increasing online degrees. Problem is nobody wants online degrees. Even the for-profit surge a decade ago was led through on the ground space in office parks.

[shipfbfan12]

Re: SSHE Enrollments Down Again

I believe the SSHE schools need to seriously think about merging especially the smaller schools. In an ideal structure you would close down a 6 schools and merge them with existing schools not too far away.

Cheyney closes and merges with WCU
Clarion closes and merges with Edinboro
Mansfield closes and merges with Bloomsburg
Lock Haven closes and merges with Shippensburg

IUP, Slippery Rock, California, East Stroudsburg, Kutztown and Millersville all survive and thrive and it also would strengthen athletics across the board within the conference.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Re: SSHE Enrollments Down Again

I believe the SSHE schools need to seriously think about merging especially the smaller schools. In an ideal structure you would close down a 6 schools and merge them with existing schools not too far away.

Cheyney closes and merges with WCU
Clarion closes and merges with Edinboro
Mansfield closes and merges with Bloomsburg
Lock Haven closes and merges with Shippensburg

IUP, Slippery Rock, California, East Stroudsburg, Kutztown and Millersville all survive and thrive and it also would strengthen athletics across the board within the conference.

Clarion is larger than Edinboro right now. I assume you're basing this off of geography since Clarion and SRU are fairly close together?

[jrshooter]

Re: SSHE Enrollments Down Again

I believe the SSHE schools need to seriously think about merging especially the smaller schools. In an ideal structure you would close down a 6 schools and merge them with existing schools not too far away.

Cheyney closes and merges with WCU
Clarion closes and merges with Edinboro
Mansfield closes and merges with Bloomsburg
Lock Haven closes and merges with Shippensburg

IUP, Slippery Rock, California, East Stroudsburg, Kutztown and Millersville all survive and thrive and it also would strengthen athletics across the board within the conference.

First of all, throw athletics out the window as a reason. It should not be a reason. As much as we tend to forget, this is an academic institution.

And several good reasons have been provided why you're not "merging" schools. One, you will never get value back on the land and bulidings you're shuttering. Two, you will basically drop a hydrogen bomb on those small towns you're talking about losing schools. Three, the student who will drive 15 miles each day to attend Mansfield very well may not opt to pack up and live on-campus at another institution.

The best thing about the SSHE has been that you touch almost any part of this state, and there's a four-year school relatively nearby. We have NOT reached the point where that can be thrown out the window.