PASSHE Institutions Merging

[Fightingscot82]

That's not going to happen. IUP still has a very strong education department, with Ph.D's and everything. Regarding Clarion (and Edinboro), there is no "saving grace."

There is an element to all this that relies on market-based dynamics. It doesn't make sense to remove that from the equation.

One of IUP's struggles has been that several other PASSHE schools now offer doctoral programs, just not a PhD. West Chester has the highest enrollment education doctorate in the system, but no less than Cal, Kutztown, Slippery Rock, and West Chester offer doctoral programs in education. Most are online. As someone shopping for a PhD program, IUP's insistence that theirs meet in person crosses it out to me. Pitt and Slippery Rock are online.

[IUPNation]

The state's goal is to maximize revenue. Demand for using the Turnpike is highly inelastic. It won't change based on the price of using it. In the Phila. region people have to use the Turnpike to get to work in a timely manner or do other things efficiently. So, Southeastern Pennsylvanians are exploited. That's the way it works.

By the same token, the "I-80 corridor" politicians were blowin' smoke when they said that people in their constituencies wouldn't be able to go to work if the interstate was tolled. They would have and they would have contributed to paying their fair share.

We get exploited and then called “the problem” by the Trumpy counties who pay diddly squat.

[IUPNation]

It wasn't that way before, is private business running it now?

Nope.

Its just bend over SEPA residents a bit more.

[Ship69]

14 schools plus nearly every other school. They won't market themselves aggressively. A degree from PASSHE and one from a more expensive school like Penn State or a private doesn't pay any more. There are other fields like this too like nursing. They should market as the lowest cost pathway to a job that pays the same no matter where you went.

Elementary education is still very popular, usually top 3 or top 5 at all the schools. Pretty sure business administration is the most popular systemwide. At SRU its Exercise Science (basically pre-PT), Safety Science, and Elementary Education.

Ship is one of the only schools in the state with a lab elementary school, which they run in conjunction with the Shippensburg school district. Last I heard, education wasn't one of the top five majors, but that might have changed. If you want a teaching degree, the PASSHE schools are still as good as it gets for the cost.

[Fightingscot82]

Ship is one of the only schools in the state with a lab elementary school, which they run in conjunction with the Shippensburg school district. Last I heard, education wasn't one of the top five majors, but that might have changed. If you want a teaching degree, the PASSHE schools are still as good as it gets for the cost.

That's great that they've made it work. Every PASSHE school had one for decades but usually they got too expensive and were cut. Ship might be the last one.

[IUPNation]

Ship is one of the only schools in the state with a lab elementary school, which they run in conjunction with the Shippensburg school district. Last I heard, education wasn't one of the top five majors, but that might have changed. If you want a teaching degree, the PASSHE schools are still as good as it gets for the cost.

IUP had one when I was there..I guess it’s just easier to make them go student teach in the school districts.

[Ship69]

IUP had one when I was there..I guess it’s just easier to make them go student teach in the school districts.

Ship elementary ed students are teaching in the Shippensburg School District as the lab school is part of it.

[Fightingscot82]

https://www.wesa.fm/education/2023-0...gton-jefferson

Private colleges along the I-79 corridor are exploring shared backend administrative services. A lot of them already use Eat n Park for food service. Everyone on this side of the state is struggling except those who have truly national and international reach. All of these schools are under 4,000 students and have endowments under $150 million and use 50% off tuition discounts to attract students.

Incidentally, the consultant working on the report is an Edinboro alumnus.

[IUPNation]

https://www.wesa.fm/education/2023-0...gton-jefferson

Private colleges along the I-79 corridor are exploring shared backend administrative services. A lot of them already use Eat n Park for food service. Everyone on this side of the state is struggling except those who have truly national and international reach. All of these schools are under 4,000 students and have endowments under $150 million and use 50% off tuition discounts to attract students.

Incidentally, the consultant working on the report is an Edinboro alumnus.

Park N Eat? For realsies?

Smiley Cookies for everybody!!

I wish they would open up in SEPA.

Yinzer chains seem scared to open up in the 5 county Philly area. We had Hoss’s for about 20 years in Lionville but they petered out. It was part of the Hampton Inn right off the Turnpike.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Park N Eat? For realsies?

Smiley Cookies for everybody!!

I wish they would open up in SEPA.

Yinzer chains seem scared to open up in the 5 county Philly area. We had Hoss’s for about 20 years in Lionville but they petered out. It was part of the Hampton Inn right off the Turnpike.

The Hoss's in Indiana still does pretty well. It's pretty nostalgic ... hasn't changed a bit in 30 years. Bob's Pizza is also like that. It's like walking back in to 1987. That's the charm of it to me.

[IUPNation]

The Hoss's in Indiana still does pretty well. It's pretty nostalgic ... hasn't changed a bit in 30 years. Bob's Pizza is also like that. It's like walking back in to 1987. That's the charm of it to me.

The Hoss’s in Chester County was an outlier for them. It didn’t get the business like the ones out west normally do in the end. In this part of Chester County if you don’t keep it fresh thry stop coming. It was part of a hotel so it should have been able to stay afloat.

Same thing happened with Isaacs. Remember that on Philly Street? We had one here and just never that busy.

Park N East was as close as Lancaster City but that closed.

Sheetz is a mile from the Chester County border and seems literally frightened to open in Wawa’s 5 County Turf because if they do you’ll have Wawa’s in The Yinzerlands. They are now bulking up on Sheetz’s market share in South Central PA.

[Fightingscot82]

The Hoss’s in Chester County was an outlier for them. It didn’t get the business like the ones out west normally do in the end. In this part of Chester County if you don’t keep it fresh thry stop coming. It was part of a hotel so it should have been able to stay afloat.

Same thing happened with Isaacs. Remember that on Philly Street? We had one here and just never that busy.

Park N East was as close as Lancaster City but that closed.

Sheetz is a mile from the Chester County border and seems literally frightened to open in Wawa’s 5 County Turf because if they do you’ll have Wawa’s in The Yinzerlands. They are now bulking up on Sheetz’s market share in South Central PA.

Eat n Park said somewhere that they really don't want to expand far beyond Pittsburgh. They passed on the opportunity to buy a few other regional chains that would have put them in new places and they passed. When I worked at Robert Morris they had EnP food and it was pretty good. I did get sick of smiley cookies everywhere. But they were pretty successful in shaking down the Broadhurst family for money.

Sheetz is very particular about where they're located. They will only build at a traffic light even if their presence forces a traffic light to be installed. Plus alcohol is such a big part of stores. If they're all the way down to southern VA and northern NC they're waiting for the right location. BTW, #1 Sheetz store in the country for theft is Slippery Rock, PA.

[IUPNation]

Eat n Park said somewhere that they really don't want to expand far beyond Pittsburgh. They passed on the opportunity to buy a few other regional chains that would have put them in new places and they passed. When I worked at Robert Morris they had EnP food and it was pretty good. I did get sick of smiley cookies everywhere. But they were pretty successful in shaking down the Broadhurst family for money.

Sheetz is very particular about where they're located. They will only build at a traffic light even if their presence forces a traffic light to be installed. Plus alcohol is such a big part of stores. If they're all the way down to southern VA and northern NC they're waiting for the right location. BTW, #1 Sheetz store in the country for theft is Slippery Rock, PA.

Wawa jumped over The Yinzerlands to expand in the future to the Midwest. They are not yet ready to enter Pittsburgh but they will if Sheetz crosses the DMZ at the Chester/Montgomery/Bucks County lines.

Im not shocked gym teacher students are thieving. Those who act holier than thou tend to be guilty. :-)

Im bummed about Park N Eat but keeping it regional keeps up their quality. That’s why Wawa hoagies are not what they used to be…once they started expanding it wasn’t as good.

[Bart]

Bloom really got screwed in this deal. Some quotes from below mentions article:

"First-time enrollment at Commonwealth—which is made up of the former Lock Haven, Bloomsburg and Mansfield University campuses in the rural center and northeast of the state—rose by 11.8 percent this fall, even as total enrollment fell by a little over 8 percent. At PennWest, a union of the former Clarion, California and Edinboro University campuses in the more sparsely populated western regions of the state, the news was more bleak: first-time enrollment dropped by over 20 percent, contributing to an 11.5 percent overall enrollment decline.

“Often the consolidation efforts don’t result in a true merger: the institutions will still be largely separate, hesitant to shed their own identities. I think that’s a little bit of PASSHE’s issue,” he said.

But Greenstein said it was PennWest, not Commonwealth, that committed more aggressively to its rebranding.


This was an issue of necessity, he explained; PennWest, in more dire financial straits than Commonwealth, was more willing to commit wholeheartedly to any potential solution. Commonwealth, whose largest campus at Bloomsburg was financially stable before consolidation despite precipitous enrollment declines since 2010, is still easing into its new identity."

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/...lvania-mergers

[Ship69]

Bloom really got screwed in this deal. Some quotes from below mentions article:

"First-time enrollment at Commonwealth—which is made up of the former Lock Haven, Bloomsburg and Mansfield University campuses in the rural center and northeast of the state—rose by 11.8 percent this fall, even as total enrollment fell by a little over 8 percent. At PennWest, a union of the former Clarion, California and Edinboro University campuses in the more sparsely populated western regions of the state, the news was more bleak: first-time enrollment dropped by over 20 percent, contributing to an 11.5 percent overall enrollment decline.

“Often the consolidation efforts don’t result in a true merger: the institutions will still be largely separate, hesitant to shed their own identities. I think that’s a little bit of PASSHE’s issue,” he said.

But Greenstein said it was PennWest, not Commonwealth, that committed more aggressively to its rebranding.


This was an issue of necessity, he explained; PennWest, in more dire financial straits than Commonwealth, was more willing to commit wholeheartedly to any potential solution. Commonwealth, whose largest campus at Bloomsburg was financially stable before consolidation despite precipitous enrollment declines since 2010, is still easing into its new identity."

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/...lvania-mergers

There does need to be some sort of deadline, if there isn't at present, as to when some of the campuses need to fish or cut bait. I'm all for trying to keep the system intact, but institutions that are going belly up can't be allowed to drag the rest of PASSHE with them.