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  • Originally posted by complaint_hopeful View Post

    Indeed. It was pretty easy to spot coming. But, I think a lot of the schools thought their growth was coming due to things they did. ie Build new Residence Halls. And that even when the demographic fell, they would thrive...thru online or other similar things.

    And obviously, it didn't play out that way.

    And the decreased state funding was a trend that was recognized too. Armenti and his 'Privatized without a plan' talks. He was basically saying that by the state decreasing support, they were making these schools private...without a plan of actually making them private and how they survive. So now 10-15 years later, Greenstein comes in with the merger plan.

    Their period of growth was essentially a bubble.
    And let's be honest, University presidents and VPs don't get noticed by implementing a conservative austerity program while all the other universities are in a building bloom. Trustees don't get their name on a building by voting against proposed building projects. The fear was that by not building new dorms they would lose market share of the current students. The new dorms did increase enrollment for IUP initially, since the other western universities felt the pain first. Then we got the idea that raising the prices and bringing in poorer students at the same time was a good idea.

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    • I think that's a great point. Schools felt they had to take on more debt to construct buildings in order to keep enrollment high. And they felt that the improvements they were making was the reason for the growth so they wanted to do more and more.

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      • Greenstein took his show to the PA Senate today. Some interesting quotes:

        From @APSCUF Twitter -

        @ScottFMartin asks motivation and accountability to meet sustainability goals. Goals to be achieved by June 2022, @dan_greenstein says. Universities determine how to meet, he says. Four making less progress than one would hope, chancellor says. Watching with interest, he says.

        I wonder which 4???

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        • From @APSCUF Twitter -

          @SenSharifStreet
          asks about "new normal" after process is complete. When will that happen?
          @dan_greenstein projects 5 years in NE and longer in W. Says he wants to manage expectations. Students, needs continue to change. Thing 1: Education evolves; Thing 2: State investment.

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          • From @APSCUF Twitter -

            @SenWilliamsPA talks about @PERIatUMass report and asks why impacts are not in plan. Reductions from sustainability plans are not part of consolidation, @dan_greenstein says. "Convenient and confusing to the public," Williams says.

            Chancellor says integration and sustainability are not the same. @SenWilliamsPA says they are connected.

            "I appreciate the challenge," @dan_greenstein says. Sustainability will happen. Williams asks if economic study was conducted for sustainability plan. Chancellor is silent for several seconds.


            I'm now watching this live. Green says layoffs from Sustainability plans will happen whether the Integration is voted in or not.

            He said that the West will take 6-7 years to recover.

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            • There is some pretty good propaganda coming out against this:

              Raging Chicken Media @RCpress
              Indiana University of PA is facing cuts of up to 383 jobs as part of @statesystem Chancellor Greenstein's "system redesign." His little experiment will result in the loss of over 1,500 PASSHE jobs & hurt the PA economy. We are not your lab rats.

              #SLASSHE

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              • From the @APSCUF Twitter -

                @SenWilliamsPA asks about plans' projected student savings. She runs down list of suggestions in plans (dual enrollment, community college transfer, etc.) and asks can't all these be done already?

                @dan_greenstein they can be but aren't being done at scale.


                So yes - Some of the cost saving things for students...could be done without Integrating!

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                • Originally posted by Fightingscot82 View Post

                  Cal is on track to run out of money by 2023. Their problem is the same as Edinboro, albatross debt payments combined with steady decreases in tuition revenue.

                  Passive governance at all levels. Benign neglect from the legislature.
                  The AngeloDome is the gift that keeps on giving.

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                  • Originally posted by IUPbigINDIANS View Post


                    I don't know ... Clarion is a nice school with a nice town/campus. It's not for everybody. It's remote. It's extremely white. You're in the mountains. The winters are awful up there. Clarion was never going to be a big school like IUP, but they were OK with what they were. I had a lot of friends go there and spent a lot of weekends up there. It's very different than our other campuses. Indiana feels like a big city compared to Clarion. If you're in to the whole mountain lifestyle -- hunting, fishing, kayaks, outdoors, etc., ... it would be great.

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                    • Originally posted by ironmaniup View Post

                      I'm not sure how much was under PASSHE supervision. At IUP, the Dorms were built through the Foundation, with the expectation they would make money, so PASSHE was not directly involved -though there are indirect connections. Then, at IUP anyway, they made the clever move of raising housing costs to try to cover the loan debt. They have also done some restructuring, but you can bet that the banks who got the deals to finance this aren't going to be taking a loss on them.
                      Even though the new dorms everywhere were financed by the foundations (or student government at Cal), as affiliates the plans still go approval of local trustees (appointed by the governor) and the system board (also appointed by the governor). The MOUs between the affiliate groups (SGA, co-ops, foundations, alumni associations, etc) are all reviewed by PASSHE lawyers and approved by the legislature. Everyone knew the plans and the idea of borrowing against the endowment to finance dorms. Everyone knew. Passive governance. These boards will get excited about anything remotely positive presented to them. At Edinboro, current and former trustees now say that a former president lied to them about finances. If everything is subject to public record, how the hell did they take the finances at face value?

                      That's the one piece of sympathy that I have for Armenti. He financed that arena (stupid) but as chief executive of a state agency that has to be approved at many levels. The devil may be in the details but again this stuff isn't secret. I can do a FOI request for every time the president at Edinboro talks about me. That won't go over well and I don't care, but everything is public. Some friends at PASSHE schools won't text because their phone is covered by the school and texts on a work cell are subject to FOI.

                      A lot of schools took on the auxiliary-financed debt recently because rates are generally better now and as much bigger entities they can get better terms. Edinboro's Foundation borrowed $115M against $25M in assets during the Great Recession. They got terrible terms. They also overbuilt & overborrowed. Because a former president convinced everyone he had the formula to take Edinboro to 10,000 students.

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                      • I saw the 2 public hearings for this when people can make comments are like 1.5 hours each. Doesn't seem like enough time.

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                        • Originally posted by complaint_hopeful View Post
                          I saw the 2 public hearings for this when people can make comments are like 1.5 hours each. Doesn't seem like enough time.
                          Isn't there a way to submit written comments?

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                          • Originally posted by iupgroundhog View Post

                            Isn't there a way to submit written comments?
                            passhe.edu/publiccomment

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                            • Originally posted by iupgroundhog View Post

                              Isn't there a way to submit written comments?
                              Several ways. I just think the hearings will be the most impactful. I wish they were longer sessions.

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                              • https://www.inquirer.com/education/s...-20210504.html

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