PASSHE Institutions Merging

[iupgroundhog]

https://www.lockhaven.com/opinion/le...-universities/

Initially, the thinking is that the smaller schools are destined to become satellites of the biggest school. The administration is at the biggest school. Obviously, if it ends up that they can only have one athletics program that would be a game-changer.

But it is true that we don't know how decisions will be made. How will the unified admissions program function? That's a big thing. Do applicants apply to a specific campus? Do students get assigned a campus? (When Penn State said 'groundhog, you're going to do 2 years of hard labor in Altoona' I said no thanks.).

How will the marketing and promoting the brand work?

I understand your concerns. Since LHU and MU are the schools with excess capacity will they try to fill in the gap at those schools?

I guess we have to wait until the end of April to find out more.

Interestingly, I just checked. BU has 57 undergrad majors, LHU has 47 and MU has 27. Fields of study overlap to a great extent at Bloom and Lock Haven.

[IUPNation]

The point is rural public education needs help. They aren't Ivies or Penn State. It's not about going backward, only about maintaining access.

[Bart]

And it went nowhere.

There can be no reform of the state system schools until the reform the way Harrisburg funds higher education. Penn State and Pitt should not get more state money. They cord needs to be cut.

Can anyone give me one reason why Penn State needs hundreds of millions of state money every year? Jesus Mary and Joseph they get more money from their BIG Earnings than Pee Sack schools get from Harrisburg.

Its a joke.

The point is rural public education needs help. They aren't Ivies or Penn State. It's not about going backward, only about maintaining access.

[IUPNation]

Remember West Chester's bid to leave the system?



https://ragingchickenpress.org/2014/...eers-on-stage/

And it went nowhere.

There can be no reform of the state system schools until the reform the way Harrisburg funds higher education. Penn State and Pitt should not get more state money. They cord needs to be cut.

Can anyone give me one reason why Penn State needs hundreds of millions of state money every year? Jesus Mary and Joseph they get more money from their BIG Earnings than Pee Sack schools get from Harrisburg.

Its a joke.

[Bart]

Do the people at Lock Haven.com know that not every Ivy League University is in a city? Dartmouth and Cornell are both in the boonies. They could leave out the rural sneering to make their point that this guy doesn't have a good plan.

Plus...he can't just declare them dissolved and Wolf isn't going to sign off on it.

If anything, it's just bluster on his part to get people in this Commonwealth who are so resistant to change to wake up. To many in the state hang on to the past and it's why this Commonwealth lags behind other states when it shouldn't. The good old days are not coming back. The mill Pop Pop worked at in 1955 is gone. The industry is not coming back. We need people who can vision what a new Pennsylvania looks like without coal and steel having to be propped up in front and center.

Still...instead of saying nonsense like dissolve the system...he should be questioning why Penn State needs more state money than the state system receives for all 14 schools combined?

Penn State is the Number 1 Problem. The University of Pittsburgh is the Number 2 problem.

They don't need that much money. If Penn State cost 40 grand a year...these kids will still go into hock for it just because they want to be part of the crowd on Saturday's in the fall. They have a brand and it sells itself.

Remember West Chester's bid to leave the system?

https://ragingchickenpress.org/2014/...eers-on-stage/

[IUPNation]

https://www.lockhaven.com/opinion/le...-universities/

Do the people at Lock Haven.com know that not every Ivy League University is in a city? Dartmouth and Cornell are both in the boonies. They could leave out the rural sneering to make their point that this guy doesn't have a good plan.

Plus...he can't just declare them dissolved and Wolf isn't going to sign off on it.

If anything, it's just bluster on his part to get people in this Commonwealth who are so resistant to change to wake up. To many in the state hang on to the past and it's why this Commonwealth lags behind other states when it shouldn't. The good old days are not coming back. The mill Pop Pop worked at in 1955 is gone. The industry is not coming back. We need people who can vision what a new Pennsylvania looks like without coal and steel having to be propped up in front and center.

Still...instead of saying nonsense like dissolve the system...he should be questioning why Penn State needs more state money than the state system receives for all 14 schools combined?

Penn State is the Number 1 Problem. The University of Pittsburgh is the Number 2 problem.

They don't need that much money. If Penn State cost 40 grand a year...these kids will still go into hock for it just because they want to be part of the crowd on Saturday's in the fall. They have a brand and it sells itself.

[IUPNation]

I believe they're transitioning away from each campus doing it themselves. Above a certain dollar amount it is run by a state-run bidding process.

To me, that should have been the first step of reform, to get all non educational operating expenses like that well under control, so that each school can benefit from bulk purchasing power by Harrisburg.

You don't need people in Sutton Hall making those deals.

[Bart]

Thanks, Bart.

Problem is that we know all about the financial and enrollment issues. That's all been regurgitated over and over.

However, there was a credible plan for LHU prior to Greenstein's switcheroo with adding Bloom to the equation. The merger with Mansfield would have helped LHU. More importantly, they had who I consider to be the best educational mind in the system (Pignatello) at the helm and his plan for recruitment, retention and cutting costs was already starting to show dividends.

https://www.lockhaven.com/opinion/le...-universities/

[Fightingscot82]

Can you blame anyone not wanting to be beneath Slimey Pebble?

How do these schools buy various supplies? Do they each do their own ordering or does Harrisburg have contracts that each school uses?

Like say campus computers...does each school buy their own or is there a contract? Cleaning supplies for the cleaning staff? I go list a lot of stuff but my point is that there could be a lot of cost saving if there were contracts negotiated by Harrisburg that produced a lot of cost savings. I don't think the President of IUP needs to worry about getting the best price for stuff...he should be focused on delivering an education to his students.

I believe they're transitioning away from each campus doing it themselves. Above a certain dollar amount it is run by a state-run bidding process.

[IUPNation]

That is untrue. In his initial rollout of the plan for the West there was so much resistance that, according to you, Edinboro did not want to go along with the plan for fear of being subservient to Slippery Rock, and Slippery Rock did not want to go along with the plan unless the other campuses were 2nd tier under SRU direction. Confronted with that resistance it's clear that Greenstein attempted to follow the path of least resistance which he thought was adding Bloom into a Northeast triad. Mainly due to the size difference between LH and Bloom his plan is unfairly detrimental to LHU and the LH community. That's why there is the resistance.

Can you blame anyone not wanting to be beneath Slimey Pebble?

How do these schools buy various supplies? Do they each do their own ordering or does Harrisburg have contracts that each school uses?

Like say campus computers...does each school buy their own or is there a contract? Cleaning supplies for the cleaning staff? I go list a lot of stuff but my point is that there could be a lot of cost saving if there were contracts negotiated by Harrisburg that produced a lot of cost savings. I don't think the President of IUP needs to worry about getting the best price for stuff...he should be focused on delivering an education to his students.

[IUPNation]

To do the merger, they have to revise curriculum, To revise the curriculum, faculty have to approve those revisions, and follow contractual guidelines as the change occurs. Many of the changes required are not even allowed by the faculty contract, and needless to say the faculty have their heels dug in regarding what changes they will accept . This is plain and simple a threat. Greenstein is not used to people saying no to him.

In other news, IUP is selling the Northpointe campus - essential a school building. I suppose someone will get a good deal, if you have a use for the facility.

I'm glad I did the Summer-January freshman year instead of a year in Kittanning or Punxsutawney. I doubt I would have stayed at IUP.

[IUPNation]

https://www.pennlive.com/news/2021/0...mpression=true

...or stop giving two large "state related" schools with billions in endowment any more taxpayer money.

It's really an easy fix. There is only so much money available, your first priority should be to the system you own and control...not to schools of which one has a foosball team that funds the rest of the sports at that school;

The problem is there are too many Centre County Community College booster in ranks in the cesspool that is out commonwealth government that they would rather see the state schools die off to protect the only school they actually care about...

[Fightingscot82]

I think with the number of unknowns the plan should be presented by 2023 for possible 2025 implementation. Yeah I know the current state doesn't allow that much time but there are big time untested assumptions with the basic tenets of this plan on marketing, accreditation, athletics, etc. All of this could iron out and the faculty union could still raise hell to put an 11th hour kibosh on the whole thing.

I agree with Greenstein to a degree. Radical change is needed. Crazy to realize this big plan is much more feasible than the state adequately funding the system. A plan to increase funding in exchange for a reciprocal tuition adjustment would end all of this, but PA would rather overfund legislature operations and prisons.

[iupgroundhog]

https://www.sungazette.com/news/top-...ve-for-future/

Thanks, Bart.

Problem is that we know all about the financial and enrollment issues. That's all been regurgitated over and over.

However, there was a credible plan for LHU prior to Greenstein's switcheroo with adding Bloom to the equation. The merger with Mansfield would have helped LHU. More importantly, they had who I consider to be the best educational mind in the system (Pignatello) at the helm and his plan for recruitment, retention and cutting costs was already starting to show dividends.

Normally, you can't go back and fix past mistakes. In this case, though, you actually could. Pignatello is still around (in Harrisburg) and you could easily drop Bloom out of it.

Right now, as it stands, Greenstein is just rolling the dice on the well-being of an entire community and county. The LH City Council has every right to demand that a comprehensive study of the potential outcomes be undertaken. In fact, anything less is unacceptable. Obviously, that money to study and implement the integration that was denied by the state is imperative to have. Anything less will be doing this half-a##ed.

We need the NCAA to make a ruling on athletics before the rest of this is undertaken. Anything less is a recipe for disaster. Plus, you can't project the outcome without that information.

Will LHU and the surrounding community be served better by continuing on with Greenstein's speculative plan, or other alternatives, such as dropping Bloom out? We don't know that. There has been no study of it. Should everybody put their faith in the scheming of this one man?

The NE Triad was not formulated with the interests of the 3 schools in mind (primarily). It was assembled for the purpose of getting the 14 school budget in line.

Don't let Greenstein tell you any different.

[Bart]

https://www.sungazette.com/news/top-...ve-for-future/