PASSHE Institutions Merging

[complaint_hopeful]

I don't know ... Clarion is a nice school with a nice town/campus. It's not for everybody. It's remote. It's extremely white. You're in the mountains. The winters are awful up there. Clarion was never going to be a big school like IUP, but they were OK with what they were. I had a lot of friends go there and spent a lot of weekends up there. It's very different than our other campuses. Indiana feels like a big city compared to Clarion. If you're in to the whole mountain lifestyle -- hunting, fishing, kayaks, outdoors, etc., ... it would be great.

It goes back to the state funding. If PA would invest a little more in schools, they'd be just fine. Really all of the schools would be.

Probably no system in the US would be doing well if you took their state funding down to 2000 funding levels.

[complaint_hopeful]

Sounds a lot like the American housing market in 2005-2008. Oh, you make $80,000 a year ... you're approved up to $575,000 for a house. Take out this ARM mortgage. Let us know how it works out in 5 years. By 2011 those fancy new developments were abandoned ghost towns.

You can kind of see an ironic connection.

No doubt. That's a good analogy.

So while the Universities didn't have sound plans. There was a lack of governance at PASSHE for how to navigate the upcoming rough times.

[complaint_hopeful]

Long ago the Census Bureau data foretold the demographics that schools now are lamenting. It was not a hidden secret or something that took a PHD to understand.

Indeed. It was pretty easy to spot coming. But, I think a lot of the schools thought their growth was coming due to things they did. ie Build new Residence Halls. And that even when the demographic fell, they would thrive...thru online or other similar things.

And obviously, it didn't play out that way.

And the decreased state funding was a trend that was recognized too. Armenti and his 'Privatized without a plan' talks. He was basically saying that by the state decreasing support, they were making these schools private...without a plan of actually making them private and how they survive. So now 10-15 years later, Greenstein comes in with the merger plan.

Their period of growth was essentially a bubble.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

I don't know ... Clarion is a nice school with a nice town/campus. It's not for everybody. It's remote. It's extremely white. You're in the mountains. The winters are awful up there. Clarion was never going to be a big school like IUP, but they were OK with what they were. I had a lot of friends go there and spent a lot of weekends up there. It's very different than our other campuses. Indiana feels like a big city compared to Clarion. If you're in to the whole mountain lifestyle -- hunting, fishing, kayaks, outdoors, etc., ... it would be great.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Cal is on track to run out of money by 2023. Their problem is the same as Edinboro, albatross debt payments combined with steady decreases in tuition revenue.

Passive governance at all levels. Benign neglect from the legislature.

They could be an episode on American Greed.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

One thing I want to point out about the ill-advised construction...and it was terrible. Certain schools built buildings taking on massive debt at their peak, when the demographic forecast showed rough times ahead. It wasn't just these schools that approved the construction. I believe that PASSHE and the BOG had to sign off too. So there were checks and balances...that failed.

Sounds a lot like the American housing market in 2005-2008. Oh, you make $80,000 a year ... you're approved up to $575,000 for a house. Take out this ARM mortgage. Let us know how it works out in 5 years. By 2011 those fancy new developments were abandoned ghost towns.

You can kind of see an ironic connection.

[GregD]

One thing I want to point out about the ill-advised construction...and it was terrible. Certain schools built buildings taking on massive debt at their peak, when the demographic forecast showed rough times ahead. It wasn't just these schools that approved the construction. I believe that PASSHE and the BOG had to sign off too. So there were checks and balances...that failed.

Long ago the Census Bureau data foretold the demographics that schools now are lamenting. It was not a hidden secret or something that took a PHD to understand.

[SW_Mustang]

*edit* error on my end, I apologize for the clutter.

[complaint_hopeful]

One thing I want to point out about the ill-advised construction...and it was terrible. Certain schools built buildings taking on massive debt at their peak, when the demographic forecast showed rough times ahead. It wasn't just these schools that approved the construction. I believe that PASSHE and the BOG had to sign off too. So there were checks and balances...that failed.

[Fightingscot82]

Cal is on track to run out of money by 2023. Their problem is the same as Edinboro, albatross debt payments combined with steady decreases in tuition revenue.

Passive governance at all levels. Benign neglect from the legislature.

[GregD]

In one way or another, I have been associated with IUP for more than 50 years. In this period I have made a reasonable attempt to stay informed on SSHE issues.
This entire approach to "fixing" the system's problems is doomed to fail since it largely fails to address some of the crucial underlying problems that plagued the system for decades.
In IUP's reference, it created, or maybe better phrased, ignored its problems. The lethargy that allowed this situation to arise is unforgivable.
SSHE serves a valid purpose, which the legislature has ignored for many years - probably too many to fix all that is wrong.
This entire situation makes me extremely sad as many of the problems could have been avoided if only some people cared enough and others were wise enough to look beyond the obvious.

[complaint_hopeful]

10 years ago many of these schools were at peak enrollment and I think they thought it was because of what they were doing and that it would continue...despite demographic evidence showing otherwise.

Then debt from $59 million buildings hurts. Their location isn't great. Neither is Clarions.

They are the most stable financially in that Triad and have way more students than the other 2 schools. But, overall they're not doing well financially either.

I just don't see how that Triad thrives. I think it's in trouble. It's going to sell online at probably the worst time ever to as the pandemic made every school an online school.

[IUPNation]

[complaint_hopeful]

That's just it. I think Wolf rejected year 2 of the special funding.

But, wow $30 million up front costs! I knew they were high, but I wasn't thinking that hight. A decent bit of that likely goes to consultants.

People tend to think this is all savings and no costs.

This thing is going to take years to break even. The Wests chart showed break even was essentially off the chart as far as time. And that's with 2% enrollment growth. These schools generally lose enrollment year over year. How realistic is 2% growth?

What if they lose 5-10% in Year 1?

[IUPNation]

https://www.penncapital-star.com/blo...sities-to-two/