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  • Originally posted by Fightingscot82 View Post

    I only balk at it because its more of a facility catch-up than something that sets IUP apart. Also, this generation generally doesn't value facilities the way previous ones did. I imagine its sorely needed but not unique. Many regional universities are building or expanding science buildings.

    What I think would change IUP's slide is one or two truly nationally significant programs. Not strong. Not good. Not under the radar. Something that puts them on a list of a dozen schools with a specific program. Penn State Behrend has a few of these (actuarial science, plastics engineering) that convinces students from many states to attend a Penn State branch, along a rural road in a depressed community, with D3 sports. Cost & location don't really outweigh the initial angst that they're attending IUP instead of Pitt and Penn State (really the existential conflict of every regional university in PA). They need to somehow hire a next president who comes from the student life side of the house to invest in the student campus experience beyond facilities.
    I think you could say the same about most struggling schools.

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    • Originally posted by Fightingscot82 View Post

      There could be more there as some have said, but I can't find anything that would be unique to IUP from a facility perspective. Mostly just parroting of flowery marketing-speak. At the very least, the building will be new and impressive. Its huge. Unless there are some research-specific spaces or unspecified technology that is only found at R1 schools, then I'm not sold on it being the factor some believe it to be.

      You're right about PASSHE. Since IUP has codified immunity from mergers, PASSHE needs it to reverse course. Otherwise they're going to experience what Clarion, Edinboro, and Mansfield have been living the last few years: program, service, and staffing cuts to save money but only make the experience worse (and in turn lose more students). Humboldt State becoming Cal Poly Humboldt will be interesting to watch. In five years they've gone from losing so much enrollment they had to cut football to now not having enough dorms and leasing entire hotels. Its a clear STEM focus - but you can still study humanities and liberal arts. IUP doesn't have that bigger name to attach itself to, but if they are going down the STEM focus path, it will serve them well. I think that could have been a better path years ago - each school got a narrow specialty with its strongest or most noteworthy department/school and built around that while each school offers the humanities/liberal arts basics to serve geographic & cost needs of its region (english, history/social sciences, psychology and education).
      The building is very lab heavy, including research facilities for faculty. Kopchick has provided money for student research as well as connections to great places for students to do internships- I suspect the idea is to go after biomedical sciences, a build some similar to Geisinger Commonwealth in the east. The problem is always finding enough students that can pass calc I , physics and genetics- administrators hate stem programs because the number of students that can do these programs is limited. The trick is finding something for the students that are capable, but aren’t good enough for med school or grad schools. The environmental engineering program is doing ok from what I’m told, but it takes 5 to 6 years to get a new novelty program like cannabis science or Fermentation engineering going and paying for itself

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      • Originally posted by ironmaniup View Post

        The building is very lab heavy, including research facilities for faculty. Kopchick has provided money for student research as well as connections to great places for students to do internships- I suspect the idea is to go after biomedical sciences, a build some similar to Geisinger Commonwealth in the east. The problem is always finding enough students that can pass calc I , physics and genetics- administrators hate stem programs because the number of students that can do these programs is limited. The trick is finding something for the students that are capable, but aren’t good enough for med school or grad schools. The environmental engineering program is doing ok from what I’m told, but it takes 5 to 6 years to get a new novelty program like cannabis science or Fermentation engineering going and paying for itself
        If that's the plan, it sounds good. You're right about STEM. Biggest obstacle is the number of kids coming in with great high school grades who can't do the same subject at the college level with college style instruction. IUP needs to find money for faculty research. The feds don't give out money to regionals and the university generally doesn't have it laying around. IUP currently ranks #391 nationally in research spending. Unfortunately, 16 and 17 year olds doing career exploration in school probably aren't going to be doing research on cannabis or fermentation science LOL

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        • Originally posted by Fightingscot82 View Post
          What I think would change IUP's slide is one or two truly nationally significant programs. Not strong. Not good. Not under the radar. Something that puts them on a list of a dozen schools with a specific program. Penn State Behrend has a few of these (actuarial science, plastics engineering) that convinces students from many states to attend a Penn State branch, along a rural road in a depressed community, with D3 sports.
          You've stated this multiple times but I don't think that is a goal. Sure, it's nice to have a couple of programs that are at the top nationally but the goals have to be broader than that. Safety Science was a program of that nature when it started but the inevitable thing about programs like that is that the rest of the world catches up and ultimately saying you were the first only goes so far. That particular program has now morphed into a hybrid environmental science program in step with the times.

          Your example of Penn State-Behrend I think has a regional bias. I don't think that school has ever made it to being "on the map." At least not in the way we're talking about IUP.

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          • The president at Penn West has resigned. Clown show.

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            • Originally posted by Fightingscot82 View Post
              The president at Penn West has resigned. Clown show.
              Was her new position created for her?

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              • Originally posted by Fightingscot82 View Post
                The president at Penn West has resigned. Clown show.
                I imagine it’s a tenuous job having to cover three campuses that are not next door…it was a bad plan from
                the start. Close Clarion and reallocate the funding.

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                • Originally posted by iupgroundhog View Post

                  Was her new position created for her?
                  I believe so but I can't tell if it was created for her to get someone new in there or if she is giving up.

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                  • Originally posted by Fightingscot82 View Post
                    The president at Penn West has resigned. Clown show.
                    Sounds like she's getting off the ship immediately after the ice berg.

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                    • Originally posted by IUPNation View Post

                      I imagine it’s a tenuous job having to cover three campuses that are not next door…it was a bad plan from
                      the start. Close Clarion and reallocate the funding.
                      I'd close Edinboro before Clarion. Edinboro is on a steep decline compared to the other two campuses.

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                      • Originally posted by IUPalum View Post

                        I'd close Edinboro before Clarion. Edinboro is on a steep decline compared to the other two campuses.
                        In the last 10 years prior to merger:

                        Clarion down 44%
                        Edinboro down 51%

                        California down 31%
                        IUP down 43%

                        I'd say its about the same. Clarion probably has some protection since they are one of VERY few options for people who must commute. Edinboro has five other 4-year schools within 30 minutes - one with an international brand name attached to it (and no, I'm not talking about Gannon). Clarion's closure would be more catastrophic to its region. Edinboro would surely be a big hit but there are more big employers in Erie & Crawford counties. Clarion's campus also has some more recent critical facility projects - oddly enough some of the more glaring

                        The merger plan isn't working. Managerially, we're asking people who only knew how to do their jobs in person to suddenly manage people remotely. Some are having to commute between campus a few days a week and sleep in an empty dorm room. Plus low morale as the hits keep on coming. They're fleeing. The quality of experience for employees and students is worse now than before the mergers. Plus its more of a rebrand and stretching of resources instead of reimagining operations. On the outside it looks like the Cleveland Indians rebranding as the Guardians but its more like when all the ****ty Geo cars rebranded as Chevys. They had a new badge but the cars still sucked because nothing really changed but the name. The same people who weren't doing a good enough job recruiting & retaining students are still there (because they're those workers who just punch the time card).

                        Other parts of the plan not working are the marketing and the student experience. The Boston marketing firm hired to brand the west merger based EVERYTHING on Google search optimization and trying to merge the 3 logos & sets of colors. Its an altruistic effort but the results are poor. They went with a cute nickname but you never pick your own nickname. Pennsylvania Western, while awkward, sounds more distinguished and university-like than Penn-West. In avoiding existing business names (West Penn Power, West Penn Hospital) they failed to notice that there are dozens of small businesses named "Penn West." Just this past weekend, a gold & jewelry buying store near Wexford I had never noticed is called Penn West Gold & Diamond. There's a forklift & warehouse supply company in Beaver called Penn West. I guess those didn't come up in their Google searches. The plan saves money by combining in-person classes into large hybrid classes taught on one campus but 2 other campuses participating online. The problem is that students DON'T WANT online classes. They want in person. Some are electing to drive to the other campus to attend in person rather than stay in their dorm and attend online.

                        Its a mess and putting Dr. Dale out to pasture won't fix a crappy plan that doesn't have a likely path to success.

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                        • Originally posted by Fightingscot82 View Post

                          They went with a cute nickname but you never pick your own nickname. Pennsylvania Western, while awkward, sounds more distinguished and university-like than Penn-West. In avoiding existing business names (West Penn Power, West Penn Hospital) they failed to notice that there are dozens of small businesses named "Penn West." Just this past weekend, a gold & jewelry buying store near Wexford I had never noticed is called Penn West Gold & Diamond. There's a forklift & warehouse supply company in Beaver called Penn West. I guess those didn't come up in their Google searches. .
                          I have never thought it was a problem that a university has a name similar (or identical) to a jewelry store of an industrial supply company. That happens everywhere whether it's Southern Cal, Lehigh, Duquesne, Allegheny, or whatever. I like Penn West as a name. It's easy, it's descriptive.

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                          • Originally posted by Fightingscot82 View Post

                            I believe so but I can't tell if it was created for her to get someone new in there or if she is giving up.
                            To become president-in-residence for PASSHE, whatever that is, and CEO of PennWest Investment, whatever that is.

                            She put in her five years, since she started at Clarion in 2018.

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                            • Originally posted by Horror Child View Post

                              To become president-in-residence for PASSHE, whatever that is, and CEO of PennWest Investment, whatever that is.

                              She put in her five years, since she started at Clarion in 2018.
                              Something changed. Or she's a liar. In the fall she was telling people at all three campus homecomings that she was "in it for the long haul."

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                              • This is kind of cool, didn't know there was a PASSHE Caucus in the PA legislature.

                                https://www.pahouse.com/InTheNews/Ne...ase/?id=127509

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