PASSHE Institutions Merging

[complaint_hopeful]

Exactly. Maybe this is the size they're needed to be?

[complaint_hopeful]

Once again, the Penn State Outlet Stores are in more serious decline but the headlines are about PASSHE.

Yep. They have the big main campus to carry them.

It's interesting that PASSHE seems to disdain that. Like PASSHE calls it cross-subsidization and talks about it like it's terrible. But, say WC and 2 other schools did great and could help the others.

Instead PASSHE went the route of the mergers and the toxic press associated with them...and talked about disolving PASSHE if they were voted down. Well, with the BOG voting and it clearly being for the mergers, maybe the Chancellor could have just stayed cool publicly and not made any huge, controversial statements and kept the press as positive as possible.

[complaint_hopeful]

1 million dollars for every 100 students roughly. The other question is the breakdown of lower incoming Freshman, or lower retention. At IUP retention fall to spring was up, but I hadn't seen the retention Fall to Fall. From what I hear about students that have been through a Zoom heavy senior year, the retention won't be very good for this years incoming Freshman either. .

It's basically a death spiral. You start losing enrollment so you cut expenses. Then you get bad press from the Unions. So most of your cuts are services and not people. And you slowly erode your quality down to the point where you are buildings and classes with nothing to do for students, but you're charging a lot of money.

[IUPNation]

[complaint_hopeful]

If it ever worked. People tend to look at the schools doing well and assign things they're doing to enrollment gains. Maybe it is the reason. Maybe not.

[boatcapt]

It's basically a death spiral. You start losing enrollment so you cut expenses. Then you get bad press from the Unions. So most of your cuts are services and not people. And you slowly erode your quality down to the point where you are buildings and classes with nothing to do for students, but you're charging a lot of money.

Yea, death spirals are usually exasperated by small incremental changes. When you are in a death spiral, you often have to make a BIG change to get suficiently in front of the problem and build a firewall

[ironmaniup]

It's basically a death spiral. You start losing enrollment so you cut expenses. Then you get bad press from the Unions. So most of your cuts are services and not people. And you slowly erode your quality down to the point where you are buildings and classes with nothing to do for students, but you're charging a lot of money.

Yep, consider that Custodial staff has been cut by 75%, at its max, there were alot of people watching TV in the break room 20 years ago, but now the bathrooms are cleaned once a week whether they need it or not. The merger talk doesn't help much. Right now, there is nothing but a huge price reduction that will have decent students consider the PASSHE schools.

[complaint_hopeful]

Yea, death spirals are usually exasperated by small incremental changes. When you are in a death spiral, you often have to make a BIG change to get suficiently in front of the problem and build a firewall

They seem to be mainly blaming this on the pandemic. So the pandemic was an excuse for 2 years. Covered both sides of the fence. Students don't like online was the Year 1 excuse. Then Year 2, when campuses were in person and dropped more...it's still the pandemic. The impact was delayed!

[complaint_hopeful]

Yep, consider that Custodial staff has been cut by 75%, at its max, there were alot of people watching TV in the break room 20 years ago, but now the bathrooms are cleaned once a week whether they need it or not. The merger talk doesn't help much. Right now, there is nothing but a huge price reduction that will have decent students consider the PASSHE schools.

And that's a great point. There was inefficiency in the hiring practices for years, but I'd argue that most of the schools that are struggling in PASSHE have cut their employees way lower than it should go. Even on the Faculty side, while they may not be cutting as many employees...they're not backfilling positions, etc. And yes, some schools do retrench.

[boatcapt]

I think, worst case scenario, PASSHE merges everyone into one of two directionals with IUP and WC as hub campuses. Maybe they can force a merger between Cheyney & Lincoln.

A lot more mergers are coming. Might as well get ahead of it and give us time to get it right. Its pretty rare that PASSHE is ahead of the curve.

While Cheyney was the bellwether for the PASSHE problems, I don't think in the here and now that they are the problem. If you believe the media, they have turned the corner and are rebounding a little.

But the Cheyney issue does point at what is REALLY the measure of success...Cold hard CASH! While number of students may point at the future viability of a school, a more immediate indicator of the future of the school is it's ballance sheet. Anyone know what the year to year financials say about each PASSHE school? Any running defecate's and/or burning through their endowments to ballance their books? Increasing your freshman enrollment OR having 10,000 students are one thing...spending more money than you are bring in is quite another!

[Fightingscot82]

They seem to be mainly blaming this on the pandemic. So the pandemic was an excuse for 2 years. Covered both sides of the fence. Students don't like online was the Year 1 excuse. Then Year 2, when campuses were in person and dropped more...it's still the pandemic. The impact was delayed!

I think its a little bit of everything. Yes, the pandemic. The population decline. The erasure of the pricing gap. The general overall cost that prices out the population we were created to serve. The much easier way for adults to enroll in online for-profits. The drum beating by conservative media that every college not founded by a televangelist is a Marxist indoctrination center. The growing questioning of the value of college by the working class.

[complaint_hopeful]

While Cheyney was the bellwether for the PASSHE problems, I don't think in the here and now that they are the problem. If you believe the media, they have turned the corner and are rebounding a little.

But the Cheyney issue does point at what is REALLY the measure of success...Cold hard CASH! While number of students may point at the future viability of a school, a more immediate indicator of the future of the school is it's ballance sheet. Anyone know what the year to year financials say about each PASSHE school? Any running defecate's and/or burning through their endowments to ballance their books? Increasing your freshman enrollment OR having 10,000 students are one thing...spending more money than you are bring in is quite another!

There is a small number that have basically little to no reserves. Like 2-3ish. The Integration presentations had a lot of good metrics. Like they look at which schools have less than 6 months cash on hand, etc. It was a surprising number. They largely learned from Chaney. When you start to hit the end point of failing, the last part of the demise goes very quick. Thus, why they rushed through these Integrations.

[complaint_hopeful]

I think its a little bit of everything. Yes, the pandemic. The population decline. The erasure of the pricing gap. The general overall cost that prices out the population we were created to serve. The much easier way for adults to enroll in online for-profits. The drum beating by conservative media that every college not founded by a televangelist is a Marxist indoctrination center. The growing questioning of the value of college by the working class.

I agree. And honestly, it's really hard for me to see these schools starting to thrive again. I think it's going to continue to be a decline.

The state support is the question. Will they raise it?

[boatcapt]

There is a small number that have basically little to no reserves. Like 2-3ish. The Integration presentations had a lot of good metrics. Like they look at which schools have less than 6 months cash on hand, etc. It was a surprising number. They largely learned from Chaney. When you start to hit the end point of failing, the last part of the demise goes very quick. Thus, why they rushed through these Integrations.

Little/no reserve is close to the end state, but these schools didn't get to that point in their financial viability arc in one year. You could probably go back several years and see their progress as they burn through their reserves. Question is, which other PASSHE schools are on the same or similar arc were they are burning reserves year to year but haven't yet gotten close to the end state.

[ironmaniup]

I agree. And honestly, it's really hard for me to see these schools starting to thrive again. I think it's going to continue to be a decline.

The state support is the question. Will they raise it?