PASSHE Institutions Merging

[DawgPound]

That's easier said that done, however. Who is really going to buy up those buildings in remote places like Clarion? California is a dump aside from campus.

It's a mess.

True.... But figure if PASSHE dumps the buildings (fire sale of sorts) .... The operating and maintenance cost is gone. Enrollment at another school could actually climb....and offset some cost. But I'm looking at the solution logically....

[IUPNation]

Have you been to Slippery Rock?

The Death Star Campus is south of 80…off of 79 and close enough to the North Hills burbs to make it attractive enough to students who make poor personal choices. :-)

IUP would be in way worse shape if Indiana was as small as Clymer. The Borough of Indiana is attractive as a place to go to school even with the few incidents of late. I was out in West Chester on Friday night for dinner and you’d thought it was Center City with foot traffic on the streets ..people packing restaurants and bars. It was really nice and students were not the majority but I’m sure they didn’t care and just enjoyed the scene too.

[iupgroundhog]

Have you been to Slippery Rock?

No, but I have slipped on a rock quite a few times.

[Fightingscot82]

Institutions in the bottom third or 3rd of 4 quartiles always overestimate their ability to change because most were able to grow to their current state without much resistance. But a 30% enrollment increase at an urban school without any parking is laughable and dangerous. Our group is the most susceptible to demographic changes - and the demographic changes are going to get us eaten alive by the schools above us on the food chain. Penn State won't scale down their megalith university; they'll just take more students that were our top end applicants. We've already learned that we can't open up our standards any more.

https://triblive.com/news/point-park...-older-adults/

[Fightingscot82]

I think merging three schools together was too much. Clarion and Edinboro are fairly close together as are Lock Haven and Mansfield. Clarion and Mansfield were the weakest links. Edinboro and Lock Haven would have been the control schools. Maybe merging would have been smoother.

The fact is there are too many schools north of 80. It’s too remote and kids from the suburbs generally don’t want to be stuck on a campus where there is nothing around it.

Have you been to Slippery Rock?

[iupgroundhog]

I think merging three schools together was too much. Clarion and Edinboro are fairly close together as are Lock Haven and Mansfield. Clarion and Mansfield were the weakest links. Edinboro and Lock Haven would have been the control schools. Maybe merging would have been smoother.

The fact is there are too many schools north of 80. It’s too remote and kids from the suburbs generally don’t want to be stuck on a campus where there is nothing around it.

Don't forget that the original formal plan was for LH and Mansfield. It made all the sense in the world. Then when Slippery Rock pulled out of the western arrangement Greenstein brought Bloom into the NE merger. That didn't make so much sense.

I think the bottom line for Commonwealth is that it has already happened. Nobody can take it back in time. What helps Commonwealth, in my opinion, is the complementary nature of Bloom and LHU's academic programs, the way all 3 schools are woven into their communities, and the way the triad interfaces with the regional economy. I can't answer whether adding Bloom in was good or bad but it's done and I think Commonwealth has a chance to be a model for these kinds of mergers.

[iupgroundhog]

The loss of degree programs, increased virtual classes, sharing of campus news outlets, identity issues, and more. Bloom's size makes the others look better. Bloom's number is down about -3.71% or 261 students. LHU dropped 244 students or -8.53. Mansfield dropped 480, down -26.77. Yet Bloom gets marked with an 8% drop because of the others. Bloom had a 17% increase in first year students, while Mansfield's first year students dropped 9%, but when everything is averaged under Commonwealth, it doesn't look as bad.

Not to mention Bloom's sports teams have taken a dive under Commonwealth. (funny stuff)

You make good points but Bloom was well on its way to a slide when they got pulled into Commonwealth. As far as sports go, the decline started years before Commonwealth. For athletics, don't go by what I say, ask long-time Bloom supporters (e.g. Blue Jay et al).

[IUPNation]

I don't see how that's much different than what was done.

I think merging three schools together was too much. Clarion and Edinboro are fairly close together as are Lock Haven and Mansfield. Clarion and Mansfield were the weakest links. Edinboro and Lock Haven would have been the control schools. Maybe merging would have been smoother.

The fact is there are too many schools north of 80. It’s too remote and kids from the suburbs generally don’t want to be stuck on a campus where there is nothing around it.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

If those are the actual total enrollments, the "My God" is warranted.

It's also becoming clear they are becoming 'athletic colleges'. A huge percentage of the enrollment, based on those numbers, are athletes.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Cabrini will close at the end of the school year with an enrollment of ~3, 300. The public schools will go under as tax rolls continue to shrink and the endownments can't sustain the money demands to Jeep the school a float. The smart thing to do would be to sale the campuses and move the students to other PASSHE schools. But that's the smart thing to do and politicians have never followed financial common sense.

That's easier said that done, however. Who is really going to buy up those buildings in remote places like Clarion? California is a dump aside from campus.

It's a mess.

[Ship69]

My God.

If those are the actual total enrollments, the "My God" is warranted.

[DawgPound]

No they don't report that out. Media in Pittsburgh had to do a FOIA request to get overall campus-level enrollment for this fall:

California - 2,981
Clarion - 2,034
Edinboro - 2,532
Global Online - 3,758

Cabrini will close at the end of the school year with an enrollment of ~3, 300. The public schools will go under as tax rolls continue to shrink and the endownments can't sustain the money demands to Jeep the school a float. The smart thing to do would be to sale the campuses and move the students to other PASSHE schools. But that's the smart thing to do and politicians have never followed financial common sense.

[Fightingscot82]

My God.

Clarion has 1,745 dorm beds and 2,034 students. If they were a private liberal arts college with a huge endowment catering to rich kids, that wouldn't be terrible.

[Fightingscot82]

Bart, LHU didn't need to be "fostered" in any way. They were fine on their own. They had perhaps the most effective school President in the PASSHE and they were showing positive trends. LHU is small and always has been. That is not a problem. Remember that LHU didn't want the merger, either. It's hard to say which schools benefit or are hurt by the merger into the future. It is working a lot better than PennWest, though. Also, remember that Bloom got pulled in after SRU basically told Greenstein that they didn't want to be part of the western merger. I am not sure whether Bloom is hurt by the merger or not.

Mansfield was saved by the merger.

Commonwealth has stronger and stable executive management. They also have a better (and more attractive) variety of degree programs. Mansfield hurts the most because their degree programs are the most traditional (humanities and liberal arts), which are not popular with middle and working class Gen Z. This is the same problem at Penn West. The three campuses have very similar degree programs (so much overlap) but there's a lot that our core students want anymore. Penn West also has three campuses that were already doing poorly at recruiting students and after the merger they still have the same teams of poor recruiters now recruiting for this Penn West sh*t show. Slippery Rock was able to throw off the merger arguing that point exactly - the academic menu doesn't play nicely with Edinboro or Clarion. If anyone, SRU's overlays nicely with IUP.

Nobody wanted the merger. Some presidents had the fortitude to speak out publicly. Those who wanted a chance at the permanent job played along nicely. Lock Haven's alumni were the most vocal but alumni have absolutely no power at our schools. We don't elect alumni trustees. The affiliate groups (foundation, alumni association, co-op, SGA, etc) don't have the money to bully their agendas. We generally don't have scion alumni who can dictate strategic initiatives.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

No they don't report that out. Media in Pittsburgh had to do a FOIA request to get overall campus-level enrollment for this fall:

California - 2,981
Clarion - 2,034
Edinboro - 2,532
Global Online - 3,758

My God.