PASSHE Institutions Merging

[Fightingscot82]

I've always wondered how minority students felt about Clarion. You're up in the (almost exclusively white) mountains. You go shortly outside of town and you think you're in Dixie with all the Confederate flags, etc.

It is a different world up there in Clarion, Brookville, Sigel, etc.

For the older crowd, SRU used to be a dry town. The closest college bar (term loosely used) was The Rock House. It was probably 7 miles or so from campus. Talk about a culture clash in there. On weekends it was the closest thing to Road House that I've ever seen. The local yocals and the college kids - drunk - under one roof.

Rock House actually just lost its liquor license lol. There is still really only one bar in Slippery Rock. There is the brewery and a newer moonshine distillery/restaurant but students don't go to either. On the border of town in front of Giant Eagle is the Coney Island restaurant and bar but its also lost its allure with students.

Slippery Rock is just as much of a road crossing as it is a college town. Most of the vehicular traffic is cutting from I-79 to Route 8, cutting from New Castle over to Butler, or traffic cutting the corner from I-79 north to I-80 east. There is also a significant transient workforce from oil & gas drilling, the limestone quarries, and Iron Mountain underground storage in Boyers. A lot of people also pass through on their way to their camps. Nearly all of the issues I'm aware of with racism and other discrimination have been community members, transient workers, or other unknown people directed at SRU students.

Legally, PASSHE schools can't punish hate speech or prohibit outsiders from coming onto campus for hate speech. The Klan can legally stage daily protests in the middle of Cheyney's campus and as long as the protesters don't violate the law or campus policy.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

I've always wondered how minority students felt about Clarion. You're up in the (almost exclusively white) mountains. You go shortly outside of town and you think you're in Dixie with all the Confederate flags, etc.

It is a different world up there in Clarion, Brookville, Sigel, etc.

For the older crowd, SRU used to be a dry town. The closest college bar (term loosely used) was The Rock House. It was probably 7 miles or so from campus. Talk about a culture clash in there. On weekends it was the closest thing to Road House that I've ever seen. The local yocals and the college kids - drunk - under one roof.

[Fightingscot82]

How can I access the report?

Saying it's a hostile environment for black and brown students is probably way over the line legally.

https://www.senatorhaywood.com/ENOUGH

[ctrabs74]

Why would you be hostile to the entity that is basically keeping your town from sinking?

Without that campus it’s basically Monesson.

Because a lot of the people in that town, especially the elected officials and even some of the businesses, are just a**holes and they take it out on the college students. It's no wonder a lot of them didn't stick around on weekends.

And your assessment is slightly off. Without the university, California Borough is basically a mash-up of Wilkinsburg and Clairton with a dose of Monessen thrown in. I don't miss that hell hole at all.

[IUPNation]

California Borough is a hostile enough environment towards college students in general, much less for Black college students. This report is not surprising, especially since Cal Boro is one of the most depressing college towns I've ever seen in my life. And I had the misfortune to live there for three years. Some of the businesses were borderline hostile in general towards Cal U students, regardless of race. That's not to say there isn't racism out there, but it's a general distrust and hatred towards the university that seemed to drive a lot of those incidents, though the racial component adds to the deserved reputation Cal Boro gets.

Why would you be hostile to the entity that is basically keeping your town from sinking?

Without that campus it’s basically Monesson.

[iupgroundhog]

Yeah that report from Senator Haywood was difficult to read. It specifically points out,

"Following the ENOUGH tour, Clarion, California, Edinboro (PennWest University) and Mansfield (part of Commonwealth University) were found to have the most egregious accounts of racism and should be considered hostile environments for Black and Brown students."

How can I access the report?

Saying it's a hostile environment for black and brown students is probably way over the line legally.

[Fightingscot82]

California Borough is a hostile enough environment towards college students in general, much less for Black college students. This report is not surprising, especially since Cal Boro is one of the most depressing college towns I've ever seen in my life. And I had the misfortune to live there for three years. Some of the businesses were borderline hostile in general towards Cal U students, regardless of race. That's not to say there isn't racism out there, but it's a general distrust and hatred towards the university that seemed to drive a lot of those incidents, though the racial component adds to the deserved reputation Cal Boro gets.

I'll be honest, Edinboro surprised me. It is a blue island in a sea of red rural NWPA. There are clear non-white families living in the community. But once you're outside town you're on rural roads with occasional houses in between farm fields. I've spent most of my life either living in Edinboro or being a very engaged, frequent visitor and never once witnessed racial hostility.

One of the challenges of where our schools tend to be located is worlds colliding. You have three main groups of students: mostly white kids from cosmopolitan middle class suburbia, almost exclusively white kids from rural & small working class towns, and Black students from predominantly Black communities. Three very different home environments. I can't imagine what its like going from a place where most people look & act like me to a place that not only doesn't look like home but I'm suddenly not looking or acting like most others. Even a modestly welcoming campus environment changes when you walk across the street to the off campus community.

[Bart]

California Borough is a hostile enough environment towards college students in general, much less for Black college students. This report is not surprising, especially since Cal Boro is one of the most depressing college towns I've ever seen in my life. And I had the misfortune to live there for three years. Some of the businesses were borderline hostile in general towards Cal U students, regardless of race. That's not to say there isn't racism out there, but it's a general distrust and hatred towards the university that seemed to drive a lot of those incidents, though the racial component adds to the deserved reputation Cal Boro gets.

It is in a democratic county though.

[Ship69]

California Borough is a hostile enough environment towards college students in general, much less for Black college students. This report is not surprising, especially since Cal Boro is one of the most depressing college towns I've ever seen in my life. And I had the misfortune to live there for three years. Some of the businesses were borderline hostile in general towards Cal U students, regardless of race. That's not to say there isn't racism out there, but it's a general distrust and hatred towards the university that seemed to drive a lot of those incidents, though the racial component adds to the deserved reputation Cal Boro gets.

Had the occasion to travel through Brownsville, not far from California, in about the late '80s. At the time a movie featuring Robert Mitchum that was set in the '40s was filming there. Part of the reason they picked the town was that the look of the downtown still hadn't changed much from 40-some years earlier. Obviously the area had seen better days.

[ctrabs74]

Yeah that report from Senator Haywood was difficult to read. It specifically points out,

"Following the ENOUGH tour, Clarion, California, Edinboro (PennWest University) and Mansfield (part of Commonwealth University) were found to have the most egregious accounts of racism and should be considered hostile environments for Black and Brown students."

California Borough is a hostile enough environment towards college students in general, much less for Black college students. This report is not surprising, especially since Cal Boro is one of the most depressing college towns I've ever seen in my life. And I had the misfortune to live there for three years. Some of the businesses were borderline hostile in general towards Cal U students, regardless of race. That's not to say there isn't racism out there, but it's a general distrust and hatred towards the university that seemed to drive a lot of those incidents, though the racial component adds to the deserved reputation Cal Boro gets.

[Fightingscot82]

As the demographics for school-age kids veer more toward minorities than usual, it's entirely possible that a reputation for being inhospitable to minorities will lead to a further loss in enrollment. I know at Ship probably about 15 percent of the undergrads are minority students now, and they're making extensive efforts to recruit in the Philadelphia area and other urban settings. That is a far, far cry from when I went there in the '60s and they maybe had two dozen black students on campus, if that. I had grown up in heavily white suburban areas and a conversation about jazz with a black guy in my dorm during freshman year was probably the first extended conversation I ever had with a black person.

Yeah that report from Senator Haywood was difficult to read. It specifically points out,

"Following the ENOUGH tour, Clarion, California, Edinboro (PennWest University) and Mansfield (part of Commonwealth University) were found to have the most egregious accounts of racism and should be considered hostile environments for Black and Brown students."

[Ship69]

For one, Farrell's desire to move to the WPIAL was partially motivated by racist incidents: https://www.sharonherald.com/news/fa...a25242514.html

Southern Columbia was the epicenter of an investigation around their title game against Westinghouse last year: https://www.cbsnews.com/pittsburgh/n...e-title-games/

Even just last month there was an incident at Altoona: https://www.altoonamirror.com/news/l...cial-incident/

The fact is, that these types of issues have plagued much of rural Pennsylvania for many years. Kids grow up in it, and then some of them bring it to college with them. It's on school administrations to act effectively and decisively in order to prevent these things from developing into a campus culture.

One of my wife's relatives coached basketball at his rural high school for many years. Unlike most schools in the area, he often had 2-3 black players on his team. One night at an away game some years back his team took the floor to be greeted by several of the home school's student wearing Ku Klux Klan hoods. There's obviously no way that offense could be swept under the rug as unintentional, as the offending school often tries to plead in many of these incidents.

[Ship69]

However, this type of research needs to be scrutinized. Not saying it doesn't reflect reality. There are a lot of factors that go into this and if I had to guess which schools would come out with the worst ratings without seeing this study I think I would be correct.

Remember to not confuse correlation with causation, For example, these 4 campuses have lost some of the highest percentages of students, so could it be true that those remaining are skewed towards locals more? Could a factor be the nature of the greater community, including outside of the campus?

Furthermore, this is qualitative research which always comes with a caveat that the conclusions are not necessarily statistically projectable. This article states that the results are in opposition to a quantitative survey done in 2022 and claims that this is the real deal because "participants didn't just fill in blanks." That is clearly debatable.

How in-depth did the questioners probe? The specific incidents mentioned in the article are terrible but they are anecdotal.

As the demographics for school-age kids veer more toward minorities than usual, it's entirely possible that a reputation for being inhospitable to minorities will lead to a further loss in enrollment. I know at Ship probably about 15 percent of the undergrads are minority students now, and they're making extensive efforts to recruit in the Philadelphia area and other urban settings. That is a far, far cry from when I went there in the '60s and they maybe had two dozen black students on campus, if that. I had grown up in heavily white suburban areas and a conversation about jazz with a black guy in my dorm during freshman year was probably the first extended conversation I ever had with a black person.

[Fightingscot82]

University of Arizona has a $177 million deficit.

Jamestown Business College in Jamestown, NY is closing.

[GregD]

But you know that having lived in Lock Haven and Indiana. You go a few hundred yards from campus and you swear you're having a Deliverance dream.[/QUOTE]

Good to know you know everyone living there so you can characterize an entire area with your version of their reality.