PASSHE Institutions Merging

[IUPNation]

Safe for now. I don't know enough to understand the methodology - Slippery Rock was downgraded to a branch program but they were one of the top programs for producing PA Guard officers. Honestly, nothing in federal or state government seems to make sense anymore if one's paid attention to the past several decades.

As fate would have it, Slippery Rock's Army ROTC unit has been merged with IUP's. How does that even make sense?

ROTC was yuuuggee at IUP in the Old Turd Reagan years. I’m guessing they no longer have their own building. It was at 11th and Maple.

[boatcapt]

My understanding is that if and what size ROTC a college has is based on the needs of the service branch, the willingness to support the ROTC unit by the college and the interest from the students. If you have all three at a high level pretty good chance you'll get a unit.

[Tdobson]

Speaking of combining ROTC, I believe that I read somewhere that Carnegie Mellon and Pitt share Navy ROTC, so I would think it would be natural for them to share Army ROTC. Just my thoughts.

[Horror Child]

DOGE cuts in the Department of Defense resulted in the elimination and reduction of ROTC programs on several PSAC campuses.

Two PSAC schools are totally losing their Army ROTC program: Clarion and Millersville, and some other D2 schools that are include Truman State, Elizabeth City State, St. Augustine's, and West Virginia State.

Some schools are having their ROTC units downgraded to "Extension Units" meaning they'll still exist but the administration will be handled by staff at another schools. These include Lock Haven, Slippery Rock, Drexel, and Dickinson. Unsure what schools these units will be extensions of.

Another classification is "Crosstown Units" where everything will be merged with neighboring schools. A hypothetical example would be Pitt and Carnegie Mellon sharing a unit since they're across the street from another. No PSAC schools affected, but one D2, Central State, will likely share with Cedarville and Wilberforce.

I'm not sure how this helps anything. A dripping faucet isn't the cause of water bill problems.

That's not what the government says. https://water.phila.gov/drops/leaks/

High water bills can be caused by small leaks from household fixtures like toilets, sinks, or hoses, or with a change in your regular water use.

[Fightingscot82]

That's not what the government says. https://water.phila.gov/drops/leaks/

LOL Thanks. And welcome back to the board after an extended absence.

[Fightingscot82]

Tuition is going up for the first time in 7 years, but just $278 per year. Base tuition is just $8,000 a year. That's a lot of money but its the least expensive bachelor's degree in Pennsylvania.

If the state budget grants the full requested funding increase, they'll refund or credit the increase to students.

https://triblive.com/news/pennsylvan...state-funding/

[Fightingscot82]

Albright seems to have followed the Penn West survival plan: just cut spending to balance the budget instead of fixing the revenue problem (fewer students)

https://www.spotlightpa.org/berks/20...survival-plan/

[Ship69]

Albright seems to have followed the Penn West survival plan: just cut spending to balance the budget instead of fixing the revenue problem (fewer students)

https://www.spotlightpa.org/berks/20...survival-plan/

You can't argue with the demographics and we're definitely going to see some more colleges fall by the wayside. The PASSHE schools have seen their state aid as a percentage of income drop like a brick over the years, but the small privates are even more dependent on tuition income.

[TheBigCat2192]

Albright seems to have followed the Penn West survival plan: just cut spending to balance the budget instead of fixing the revenue problem (fewer students)

https://www.spotlightpa.org/berks/20...survival-plan/

Albright says that they’re going to emphasize athletics for enrollment but last year they cut both swim teams. I suppose adding two wrestling programs and a stunt program might be cheaper than maintaining two swim teams but it strikes me as inconsistent decision making. I also expect the “cybersecurity” program probably won’t be any better than what you can get at a PASSHE school or one of the PSU branch campuses and will ultimately turn into a visa mill similar to Gannon’s computer science program since foreign students pay more.

[cwfenn]

Albright seems to have followed the Penn West survival plan: just cut spending to balance the budget instead of fixing the revenue problem (fewer students)

https://www.spotlightpa.org/berks/20...survival-plan/

Having worked in Reading (I teach at the community college) for a while, I wondered how there could be two private colleges and a PSU campus there and have it all work out. I don't even think Harrisburg has that many.

The community college is thriving, it's been the best enrollment year since at least before the COVID break. Maybe there's a shift to more "practical" college education? I can't tell you how many hundreds of students we have who think they're going to be in nursing school every year.

[Fightingscot82]

Having worked in Reading (I teach at the community college) for a while, I wondered how there could be two private colleges and a PSU campus there and have it all work out. I don't even think Harrisburg has that many.

The community college is thriving, it's been the best enrollment year since at least before the COVID break. Maybe there's a shift to more "practical" college education? I can't tell you how many hundreds of students we have who think they're going to be in nursing school every year.

Oh cool. I work in higher ed as well on the administrative side.

Clearly York's economy isn't what it once was. Pennsylvania is littered with big towns and small cities that once were something and much like the rest of the state have infrastructure the current population is struggling to support. Fortunately they're adjacent to Harrisburg and Lancaster, two population stable regions of the state. I do think more kids are going the community college route and to some extent the trade school route, but its hard to tell because the population of that age is decreasing so rapidly that its hard to tell if there's a higher percentage or not. The community college is public - as is the HACC campus - so that helps with some stability and long-term viability. Privates like Albright can no longer cater to the wealthier of the region and have to start competing with the upstart privates like York in the discounting game, which is kind of like a mix of car dealership pricing and the old Bed Bath & Beyond everyone gets a 40% off coupon strategy, but even then their average price is still thousands more every year than PASSHE schools like Ship and Millersville. The same goes for Penn State York, its roughly $5k a year more than those PASSHE schools to get a brand name on your diploma and not get the same education the jawns get in State College.

[Fightingscot82]

"It's not across the board. We have 25% (cuts) in non-revenue areas. And so areas like development, fundraising, and admission, we're not cutting budgets there. We're not cutting athletic budgets the same way, because we've used athletics to drive a lot of our enrollment."

https://www.ideastream.org/education...ader-reckoning

[iupgroundhog]

"It's not across the board. We have 25% (cuts) in non-revenue areas. And so areas like development, fundraising, and admission, we're not cutting budgets there. We're not cutting athletic budgets the same way, because we've used athletics to drive a lot of our enrollment."

https://www.ideastream.org/education...ader-reckoning

I don't think any school should "use athletics to drive a lot of our enrollment." If they can't achieve their core mission any other way, they should close up. It isn't viable.

And it's one thing to do that but to actually say that is astonishing.

[Ship69]

I don't think any school should "use athletics to drive a lot of our enrollment." If they can't achieve their core mission any other way, they should close up. It isn't viable.

And it's one thing to do that but to actually say that is astonishing.

Yeah, you're basically saying your college can't make it on the basis of its academic programs.

[Fightingscot82]

I don't think any school should "use athletics to drive a lot of our enrollment." If they can't achieve their core mission any other way, they should close up. It isn't viable.

And it's one thing to do that but to actually say that is astonishing.

For the overwhelming majority of schools, it doesn't matter where you go academically. Its the environment that should be your best match and brings out the best. But an offer to play a sport at one of the also-ran schools in this category gets kids in the door. If not for the recruiting effort, they're not going to Nowhere State University of Pennsylvania or McDingleberry College. So a small college like Hiram can pay a golf coach $25,000 a year and maybe another $25,000 in expenses and for $50,000 can bring in 12-15 tuition paying students who never would have been attending Hiram. Suddenly the net revenue increases surpass the expenses, especially at schools where nearly every student lives on campus at least a year or two. Now do that for women's golf, women's wrestling, water polo, pickleball, flip cup, etc.