PASSHE Institutions Merging

[boatcapt]

Yep. There was a lot of bad going on behind the scenes. For having 95% of operations covered by Freedom of Information Act, there is some really piss poor oversight of details by local Councils of Trustees and the PASSHE Board of Governors. Cheyney especially had terrible management. There was the lack of oversight with university purchasing cards (people buying millions in personal items on university dollars) and abuse of mileage & per diem rates for travel (people claiming per diem when meals were covered or mileage unnecessary). Then there was the federal financial aid fiasco that they weren't monitoring that the money was spent and returned properly. Then the bottom fell out on enrollment and they didn't know how to fix it. They balanced the budget by cutting almost all sports and outsourcing several functions to West Chester.

Hummm...A proven pathway to recovery? For some reason, the PASSHE seems unwilling to cut athletics at any of the other State Schools to help with their solvency problems. Here's a question for people in the know, have any athletic scholarships been cut at the struggling schools?

[Fightingscot82]

Cheyney might be in better shape now, but it took a helluva lot of money and fiddling around to get them there.

Yep. There was a lot of bad going on behind the scenes. For having 95% of operations covered by Freedom of Information Act, there is some really piss poor oversight of details by local Councils of Trustees and the PASSHE Board of Governors. Cheyney especially had terrible management. There was the lack of oversight with university purchasing cards (people buying millions in personal items on university dollars) and abuse of mileage & per diem rates for travel (people claiming per diem when meals were covered or mileage unnecessary). Then there was the federal financial aid fiasco that they weren't monitoring that the money was spent and returned properly. Then the bottom fell out on enrollment and they didn't know how to fix it. They balanced the budget by cutting almost all sports and outsourcing several functions to West Chester.

[Ship69]

Ok, gotta find more students. Thanks. (I'm just being cynical)

Current enrollment at Ship looks to be up slightly from the same time last year. They likely will beat their PASSHE-designated enrollment goal by more than 100 students.

[Ship69]

Cheyney is operating in the black. Most of that is because they get back end functions handled by West Chester. In fact, Cheyney has experienced a 13% enrollment growth in the last two years. Yes, they were a mess, but when you're hemorrhaging students (i.e. source of 70% of your revenue) in this system they take the easy way (eliminating functions to cut costs) instead of the hard way (figuring out how to improve enrollment/revenue).

The future is adults. A lot of working adults only need a skills certificate for a position or career change, not an entire other degree. The Google certificates are a nod in that direction. The other HUGE population is the 20+ million adults with college credits but no degree. The students that dropped out, failed out, kicked out, or just changed their minds. Degree completion programs and programs designed for working adults who are making a major career change but need an actual degree will be essential as the number of high school students continues to decline. Colleges should be the credential industry leaders. They can't move as quickly as Google or LinkedIn nor do they have the disposable and movable cash to start something like this.

Cheyney might be in better shape now, but it took a helluva lot of money and fiddling around to get them there.

[Fightingscot82]

Ok, gotta find more students. Thanks. (I'm just being cynical)

I mentioned it in another post - they've gotta adjust a lot to recruit adult students. Interestingly, while the number of high school students is declining rapidly, the number of working age adults is relatively stable.

[iupgroundhog]

Slippery Rock is the only healthy school in the west. They're still down from pre-covid enrollment but are up this year and were over capacity in the halls plus over $60M in the "bank."

Cheyney, East Stroudsburg, Kutztown, and Millersville are showing some good signs. West Chester is down enrollment-wise but is otherwise pretty healthy. Last I saw they had over $200M in reserves.

Everyone else is in bad shape. I'm really waiting to see the October report on enrollment. 70% of revenue is student-derived. A state increase might help one year but can't be counted on. A ton of union contracts are still in negotiation and they aren't going for 2% raises. Gotta find more students.

Ok, gotta find more students. Thanks. (I'm just being cynical)

[Fightingscot82]

Conclusions? Recommendations?

Slippery Rock is the only healthy school in the west. They're still down from pre-covid enrollment but are up this year and were over capacity in the halls plus over $60M in the "bank."

Cheyney, East Stroudsburg, Kutztown, and Millersville are showing some good signs. West Chester is down enrollment-wise but is otherwise pretty healthy. Last I saw they had over $200M in reserves.

Everyone else is in bad shape. I'm really waiting to see the October report on enrollment. 70% of revenue is student-derived. A state increase might help one year but can't be counted on. A ton of union contracts are still in negotiation and they aren't going for 2% raises. Gotta find more students.

[iupgroundhog]

Since it came up, I'll share some quasi-public metrics on the PASSHE schools.

Positive Average Full Time Equivalency Enrollment (Two Year Average): Cheyney

Positive Adjusted Annual Operating Margin at least 2% (Three Year Average): East Stroudsburg, Slippery Rock

Reserves to Operate at least 40% of Fiscal Year without Revenue (Three Year Average): East Stroudsburg, Millersville, Slippery Rock, West Chester

Reserves to Operate at least 200 Days without Revenue (Three Year Average): East Stroudsburg, Kutztown, Slippery Rock, West Chester

Conclusions? Recommendations?

[Fightingscot82]

Since it came up, I'll share some quasi-public metrics on the PASSHE schools.

Positive Average Full Time Equivalency Enrollment (Two Year Average): Cheyney

Positive Adjusted Annual Operating Margin at least 2% (Three Year Average): East Stroudsburg, Slippery Rock

Reserves to Operate at least 40% of Fiscal Year without Revenue (Three Year Average): East Stroudsburg, Millersville, Slippery Rock, West Chester

Reserves to Operate at least 200 Days without Revenue (Three Year Average): East Stroudsburg, Kutztown, Slippery Rock, West Chester

[Fightingscot82]

It was certainly a mistake to eliminate the names of the long-established colleges and morph them into an ambiguous entity called Penn West. At worst, they should have Penn West-Clarion Campus or some similar construction. Edinboro, Clarion, and California are familiar names to many Pennsylvania residents. Many persons I talk to in my region don't know what three schools have been placed under the Penn West banner or that Penn West even exists. For that matter I'm often asked which schools are part of the Commonwealth triad at eastern half of the state. They need to get this situation corrected. PASSHE can't keep shoveling funds into Penn West and Cheyney to the detriment of the rest of the system, especially since several of the other schools aren't in particularly robust shape. Whether the process can be completely turned around is questionable as Pa. has a lot of colleges and a declining number of students. Something eventually will have to give.

Cheyney is operating in the black. Most of that is because they get back end functions handled by West Chester. In fact, Cheyney has experienced a 13% enrollment growth in the last two years. Yes, they were a mess, but when you're hemorrhaging students (i.e. source of 70% of your revenue) in this system they take the easy way (eliminating functions to cut costs) instead of the hard way (figuring out how to improve enrollment/revenue).

The future is adults. A lot of working adults only need a skills certificate for a position or career change, not an entire other degree. The Google certificates are a nod in that direction. The other HUGE population is the 20+ million adults with college credits but no degree. The students that dropped out, failed out, kicked out, or just changed their minds. Degree completion programs and programs designed for working adults who are making a major career change but need an actual degree will be essential as the number of high school students continues to decline. Colleges should be the credential industry leaders. They can't move as quickly as Google or LinkedIn nor do they have the disposable and movable cash to start something like this.

[Ship69]

US News college rankings came out yesterday. They're bogus, but US News underwrites the magazines being in many grocery store and drug store magazine sections, so many parents put weight on them where most colleges scoff at them but reluctantly participate. The reason I bring this up is because it highlights the total marketing debacle that is Penn West.

When you go to search for a specific college and put in "Penn West", nothing comes up. Maybe its "PennWest"? Nada. Zero results. Search "California", "Clarion", or "Edinboro" with Pennsylvania filtered? Nothing. You finally get results by searching "Pennsylvania Western", which is almost never used in branding and marketing. Better yet, it comes up as Pennsylvania Western University in California, Pennsylvania. If someone is a little naïve, that may throw them off if they're looking for info on Penn West but only for the Clarion or Edinboro campuses.

Way to go, PASSHE. You trusted a Boston marketing agency citing Google analytics over the students, employees, and alumni who screamed that Penn West was dumb, there are too many entities going by "West Penn" and "Penn West" already, and Pennsylvania Western sounded more like a legit university if they had to pick a new name. Clown show from top to bottom.

It was certainly a mistake to eliminate the names of the long-established colleges and morph them into an ambiguous entity called Penn West. At worst, they should have Penn West-Clarion Campus or some similar construction. Edinboro, Clarion, and California are familiar names to many Pennsylvania residents. Many persons I talk to in my region don't know what three schools have been placed under the Penn West banner or that Penn West even exists. For that matter I'm often asked which schools are part of the Commonwealth triad at eastern half of the state. They need to get this situation corrected. PASSHE can't keep shoveling funds into Penn West and Cheyney to the detriment of the rest of the system, especially since several of the other schools aren't in particularly robust shape. Whether the process can be completely turned around is questionable as Pa. has a lot of colleges and a declining number of students. Something eventually will have to give.

[Fightingscot82]

You're in the know here ... do actual students say they go to school at the Penn West nonsense or do they just still call it Clarion, Cal and Edinboro?

Do students even consider the triad as one school or, to the student, is it just as it was before?

You know, I don't know. Athletes still say Cal, Clarion, Edinboro because that's what the jerseys say. This year, Edinboro's paper football tickets still say Edinboro University.

Next weekend at Edinboro's homecoming parade, I bet the Penn West Edinboro banner/flag/whatever will get loudly booed.

[iupgroundhog]

US News college rankings came out yesterday. They're bogus, but US News underwrites the magazines being in many grocery store and drug store magazine sections, so many parents put weight on them where most colleges scoff at them but reluctantly participate. The reason I bring this up is because it highlights the total marketing debacle that is Penn West.

When you go to search for a specific college and put in "Penn West", nothing comes up. Maybe its "PennWest"? Nada. Zero results. Search "California", "Clarion", or "Edinboro" with Pennsylvania filtered? Nothing. You finally get results by searching "Pennsylvania Western", which is almost never used in branding and marketing. Better yet, it comes up as Pennsylvania Western University in California, Pennsylvania. If someone is a little naïve, that may throw them off if they're looking for info on Penn West but only for the Clarion or Edinboro campuses.

Way to go, PASSHE. You trusted a Boston marketing agency citing Google analytics over the students, employees, and alumni who screamed that Penn West was dumb, there are too many entities going by "West Penn" and "Penn West" already, and Pennsylvania Western sounded more like a legit university if they had to pick a new name. Clown show from top to bottom.

I feel for ya, man. You are not wrong. But the purpose of the merger is not to grow the school(s). It is to more efficiently manage their demise.

The first mistake was allowing SRU to opt out of it. That was nearsighted from both PASSHE's point of view and from SRU's. SRU is not in the same position as WCU, although they seem to think they are.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

US News college rankings came out yesterday. They're bogus, but US News underwrites the magazines being in many grocery store and drug store magazine sections, so many parents put weight on them where most colleges scoff at them but reluctantly participate. The reason I bring this up is because it highlights the total marketing debacle that is Penn West.

When you go to search for a specific college and put in "Penn West", nothing comes up. Maybe its "PennWest"? Nada. Zero results. Search "California", "Clarion", or "Edinboro" with Pennsylvania filtered? Nothing. You finally get results by searching "Pennsylvania Western", which is almost never used in branding and marketing. Better yet, it comes up as Pennsylvania Western University in California, Pennsylvania. If someone is a little naïve, that may throw them off if they're looking for info on Penn West but only for the Clarion or Edinboro campuses.

Way to go, PASSHE. You trusted a Boston marketing agency citing Google analytics over the students, employees, and alumni who screamed that Penn West was dumb, there are too many entities going by "West Penn" and "Penn West" already, and Pennsylvania Western sounded more like a legit university if they had to pick a new name. Clown show from top to bottom.

You're in the know here ... do actual students say they go to school at the Penn West nonsense or do they just still call it Clarion, Cal and Edinboro?

Do students even consider the triad as one school or, to the student, is it just as it was before?

[Fightingscot82]

US News college rankings came out yesterday. They're bogus, but US News underwrites the magazines being in many grocery store and drug store magazine sections, so many parents put weight on them where most colleges scoff at them but reluctantly participate. The reason I bring this up is because it highlights the total marketing debacle that is Penn West.

When you go to search for a specific college and put in "Penn West", nothing comes up. Maybe its "PennWest"? Nada. Zero results. Search "California", "Clarion", or "Edinboro" with Pennsylvania filtered? Nothing. You finally get results by searching "Pennsylvania Western", which is almost never used in branding and marketing. Better yet, it comes up as Pennsylvania Western University in California, Pennsylvania. If someone is a little naïve, that may throw them off if they're looking for info on Penn West but only for the Clarion or Edinboro campuses.

Way to go, PASSHE. You trusted a Boston marketing agency citing Google analytics over the students, employees, and alumni who screamed that Penn West was dumb, there are too many entities going by "West Penn" and "Penn West" already, and Pennsylvania Western sounded more like a legit university if they had to pick a new name. Clown show from top to bottom.