PASSHE Institutions Merging

[Fightingscot82]

The Gannon-Ursuline merger is official and begins this June.

https://www.post-gazette.com/news/ed...s/202501020080

I'm still not exactly sure what the benefit is here for Gannon. I guess it gets their health programs visibility in the Cleveland market.

[Ship69]

I've never heard of Harrisburg University. Not joking ... didn't know such a place existed.

I think there was another "never heard of this" thread, possibly with Nation. They've gotten a lot of publicity on Harrisburg area TV stations. It was most irritating when they got several stories featuring their e-sports team, when area PSAC schools such as Ship and Millersville can't get pub for any of their sports teams — not even team previews or announcing scores on the air. Apparently there was something magnetic about nerds sitting on their butts playing video games.

[iupgroundhog]

Probably because they weren't founded until 2001.

Full name is Harrisburg University of Science and Technology. 6,500 students. They pay their president more than PASSHE pays the Chancellor. Go figure.

HUST?

[IUPNation]

While our schools struggle with high school level facilities, don't worry - Pennsylvania just granted private university RMU $7 million toward construction of an on-campus hockey arena.

https://www.post-gazette.com/busines...s/202411040058

They haven’t healed from all of the burns they received for paying in full for the Angelo Dome.

[Fightingscot82]

I've never heard of Harrisburg University. Not joking ... didn't know such a place existed.

Probably because they weren't founded until 2001.

Full name is Harrisburg University of Science and Technology. 6,500 students. They pay their president more than PASSHE pays the Chancellor. Go figure.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Harrisburg University continues to struggle. Their president has abruptly resigned - but this is usually a condition of emergency financing to stay afloat. Similar things have happened at AB and elsewhere.

https://www.pennlive.com/news/2024/1...president.html

I've never heard of Harrisburg University. Not joking ... didn't know such a place existed.

[Fightingscot82]

While our schools struggle with high school level facilities, don't worry - Pennsylvania just granted private university RMU $7 million toward construction of an on-campus hockey arena.

https://www.post-gazette.com/busines...s/202411040058

[Fightingscot82]

Harrisburg University continues to struggle. Their president has abruptly resigned - but this is usually a condition of emergency financing to stay afloat. Similar things have happened at AB and elsewhere.

https://www.pennlive.com/news/2024/1...president.html

[ironmaniup]

It is frustrating. Young people don't realize that your education is largely what you make of it, and whether the guy sitting next to you wants to do much doesn't really matter. I went to school years ago when there was a lot less separation of kids into academic groups, and the bright kids always found a way to shine. And they actually pulled up the less motivated kids to an extent because most people don't want to look like a dummy.

Hard work can overcome a lot of things. One of my grandsons was not a college prep student in high school and wasn't encouraged all that much (the average kids, more than the AP or special ed kids, are the ones who often fall through the cracks). But out of high school he got two assembly line jobs where he got laid off (last hired, first gone). He got tired of that and enrolled in the Penn State Harrisburg engineering program. The math wasn't easy for him (he'd had no advanced math in HS), but he soldiered his way through it, and he always showed some mechanical aptitude, even as a kid. He not only got the engineering degree, but recently got his MBA from Ship. Today, he has an engineering job in the Volvo Mack Trucks plant and gets good performance reviews.

So sometimes the kid taking geometry his senior year is doing that because he never was really encouraged to do much else. You're right, though, in that this is a hard thing to get across to students.

Absolutely, My favorite students have always been the under dogs, that find themselves and catch fire. I agree students get the education that they make of it. But there's been alot made of collaboration, cooperation, group work, and then the connections that places like Penn State advertise. And then there is the status that certain colleges bring. There is also a true impact of the weaker students, because statistically, these students cause problems in the classroom, with things like more cheating, and more unfair accommodations in these days of worshiping retention. There are a lot of students that go to college that should not, and that does have impacts, especially on the less driven, more immature student. Any individual student might succeed, but statistically, there is a cost for enrolling too many weak students

[Ship69]

The thing that always undermines that is the lack of any selectivity of the incoming class. I've made all the arguments to families. You can show good facilities, you can give examples of wildly successful students, you can show the honors programs, and on. But when they see students they know with horrible SATs and remedial HS classes getting accepted, the better students just don't want to be associated with them. If you take AP calculus, you are skeptical of a program that admits the kid taking Geometry their senior year.

It is frustrating. Young people don't realize that your education is largely what you make of it, and whether the guy sitting next to you wants to do much doesn't really matter. I went to school years ago when there was a lot less separation of kids into academic groups, and the bright kids always found a way to shine. And they actually pulled up the less motivated kids to an extent because most people don't want to look like a dummy.

Hard work can overcome a lot of things. One of my grandsons was not a college prep student in high school and wasn't encouraged all that much (the average kids, more than the AP or special ed kids, are the ones who often fall through the cracks). But out of high school he got two assembly line jobs where he got laid off (last hired, first gone). He got tired of that and enrolled in the Penn State Harrisburg engineering program. The math wasn't easy for him (he'd had no advanced math in HS), but he soldiered his way through it, and he always showed some mechanical aptitude, even as a kid. He not only got the engineering degree, but recently got his MBA from Ship. Today, he has an engineering job in the Volvo Mack Trucks plant and gets good performance reviews.

So sometimes the kid taking geometry his senior year is doing that because he never was really encouraged to do much else. You're right, though, in that this is a hard thing to get across to students.

[ironmaniup]

I'm with you. Most households are low information consumers of a college education. They only know what they know - and most of it is just taking what they're told at face value. This is why blue collar people flock to the desperate privates who advertise those "free tuition" programs without the fine print. Its also why the Pitt and Penn State branches (diploma outlet stores) still have students. There are so many options that most don't understand why Westminster is charging $40,000 and IUP is charging $15,000, why St. Vincent is offering $20,000 in grants but IUP is only offering $1,500, and what the true lowest cost is.

Privates used to sell more personal staffing, smaller spaces, and amenities. They don't have the lock on that claim anymore. In other words, you no longer need to pay more for a Buick or Cadillac to get leather seats and the 12 speaker stereo.

My metaphor is always Aldi. For years, Aldi was known as a lower income community grocery store. Then Aldi started moving into the suburbs people started realizing that Aldi sells a lot of the same for less without the brand names & bags you want to reuse so people know you shop there. PASSHE is Aldi: largely the same education at a fraction of the name brands. If PASSHE can figure out how to market that, they're golden. At the least, they should test it with the failing Penn West model. They can't get students in the door, so sell out on cost savings. They have more to sell because they can show how they're mostly online to save money.

The thing that always undermines that is the lack of any selectivity of the incoming class. I've made all the arguments to families. You can show good facilities, you can give examples of wildly successful students, you can show the honors programs, and on. But when they see students they know with horrible SATs and remedial HS classes getting accepted, the better students just don't want to be associated with them. If you take AP calculus, you are skeptical of a program that admits the kid taking Geometry their senior year.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Well...one problem our schools can't fight is the allure of suburban kids wanting to go to southern schools. It's a thing around here...they see the games on TV...hear about the cocktail parties in the parking lots and getting into the frats and sororities. They aren't paying that much either...and kids in my area are going to Alabamastan, Auburn, Tennesseeastan, Clemson...etc. The University of Tampa...a D2 school...is now one of the IT schools (well..maybe not after these storms) kids from up here are heading to....

Those schools are hot. There was actually just an article about it in (if I recall) USA Today.

I've been to many of the 'big' name schools in the South. It's just different. I can definitely understand the allure.

[IUPNation]

I'm with you. Most households are low information consumers of a college education. They only know what they know - and most of it is just taking what they're told at face value. This is why blue collar people flock to the desperate privates who advertise those "free tuition" programs without the fine print. Its also why the Pitt and Penn State branches (diploma outlet stores) still have students. There are so many options that most don't understand why Westminster is charging $40,000 and IUP is charging $15,000, why St. Vincent is offering $20,000 in grants but IUP is only offering $1,500, and what the true lowest cost is.

Privates used to sell more personal staffing, smaller spaces, and amenities. They don't have the lock on that claim anymore. In other words, you no longer need to pay more for a Buick or Cadillac to get leather seats and the 12 speaker stereo.

My metaphor is always Aldi. For years, Aldi was known as a lower income community grocery store. Then Aldi started moving into the suburbs people started realizing that Aldi sells a lot of the same for less without the brand names & bags you want to reuse so people know you shop there. PASSHE is Aldi: largely the same education at a fraction of the name brands. If PASSHE can figure out how to market that, they're golden. At the least, they should test it with the failing Penn West model. They can't get students in the door, so sell out on cost savings. They have more to sell because they can show how they're mostly online to save money.

Well...one problem our schools can't fight is the allure of suburban kids wanting to go to southern schools. It's a thing around here...they see the games on TV...hear about the cocktail parties in the parking lots and getting into the frats and sororities. They aren't paying that much either...and kids in my area are going to Alabamastan, Auburn, Tennesseeastan, Clemson...etc. The University of Tampa...a D2 school...is now one of the IT schools (well..maybe not after these storms) kids from up here are heading to....

[Fightingscot82]

I don't get that ... people already assume lowest quality. I hate to say it being an alumni and all, but, it is what it is. That's the public perception.

So, why not sell it as the lowest cost? There's ways to do it without sounding like it's a blue-light special.

I'm with you. Most households are low information consumers of a college education. They only know what they know - and most of it is just taking what they're told at face value. This is why blue collar people flock to the desperate privates who advertise those "free tuition" programs without the fine print. Its also why the Pitt and Penn State branches (diploma outlet stores) still have students. There are so many options that most don't understand why Westminster is charging $40,000 and IUP is charging $15,000, why St. Vincent is offering $20,000 in grants but IUP is only offering $1,500, and what the true lowest cost is.

Privates used to sell more personal staffing, smaller spaces, and amenities. They don't have the lock on that claim anymore. In other words, you no longer need to pay more for a Buick or Cadillac to get leather seats and the 12 speaker stereo.

My metaphor is always Aldi. For years, Aldi was known as a lower income community grocery store. Then Aldi started moving into the suburbs people started realizing that Aldi sells a lot of the same for less without the brand names & bags you want to reuse so people know you shop there. PASSHE is Aldi: largely the same education at a fraction of the name brands. If PASSHE can figure out how to market that, they're golden. At the least, they should test it with the failing Penn West model. They can't get students in the door, so sell out on cost savings. They have more to sell because they can show how they're mostly online to save money.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

I've been told a million times that they're afraid to sell "lowest cost" because they don't want people to assume lowest quality. But the #1 grievance with a college education is the cost, so...

I don't get that ... people already assume lowest quality. I hate to say it being an alumni and all, but, it is what it is. That's the public perception.

So, why not sell it as the lowest cost? There's ways to do it without sounding like it's a blue-light special.