PASSHE Institutions Merging

[Ship69]

US News college rankings came out yesterday. They're bogus, but US News underwrites the magazines being in many grocery store and drug store magazine sections, so many parents put weight on them where most colleges scoff at them but reluctantly participate. The reason I bring this up is because it highlights the total marketing debacle that is Penn West.

When you go to search for a specific college and put in "Penn West", nothing comes up. Maybe its "PennWest"? Nada. Zero results. Search "California", "Clarion", or "Edinboro" with Pennsylvania filtered? Nothing. You finally get results by searching "Pennsylvania Western", which is almost never used in branding and marketing. Better yet, it comes up as Pennsylvania Western University in California, Pennsylvania. If someone is a little naïve, that may throw them off if they're looking for info on Penn West but only for the Clarion or Edinboro campuses.

Way to go, PASSHE. You trusted a Boston marketing agency citing Google analytics over the students, employees, and alumni who screamed that Penn West was dumb, there are too many entities going by "West Penn" and "Penn West" already, and Pennsylvania Western sounded more like a legit university if they had to pick a new name. Clown show from top to bottom.

It was certainly a mistake to eliminate the names of the long-established colleges and morph them into an ambiguous entity called Penn West. At worst, they should have Penn West-Clarion Campus or some similar construction. Edinboro, Clarion, and California are familiar names to many Pennsylvania residents. Many persons I talk to in my region don't know what three schools have been placed under the Penn West banner or that Penn West even exists. For that matter I'm often asked which schools are part of the Commonwealth triad at eastern half of the state. They need to get this situation corrected. PASSHE can't keep shoveling funds into Penn West and Cheyney to the detriment of the rest of the system, especially since several of the other schools aren't in particularly robust shape. Whether the process can be completely turned around is questionable as Pa. has a lot of colleges and a declining number of students. Something eventually will have to give.

[Fightingscot82]

You're in the know here ... do actual students say they go to school at the Penn West nonsense or do they just still call it Clarion, Cal and Edinboro?

Do students even consider the triad as one school or, to the student, is it just as it was before?

You know, I don't know. Athletes still say Cal, Clarion, Edinboro because that's what the jerseys say. This year, Edinboro's paper football tickets still say Edinboro University.

Next weekend at Edinboro's homecoming parade, I bet the Penn West Edinboro banner/flag/whatever will get loudly booed.

[iupgroundhog]

US News college rankings came out yesterday. They're bogus, but US News underwrites the magazines being in many grocery store and drug store magazine sections, so many parents put weight on them where most colleges scoff at them but reluctantly participate. The reason I bring this up is because it highlights the total marketing debacle that is Penn West.

When you go to search for a specific college and put in "Penn West", nothing comes up. Maybe its "PennWest"? Nada. Zero results. Search "California", "Clarion", or "Edinboro" with Pennsylvania filtered? Nothing. You finally get results by searching "Pennsylvania Western", which is almost never used in branding and marketing. Better yet, it comes up as Pennsylvania Western University in California, Pennsylvania. If someone is a little naïve, that may throw them off if they're looking for info on Penn West but only for the Clarion or Edinboro campuses.

Way to go, PASSHE. You trusted a Boston marketing agency citing Google analytics over the students, employees, and alumni who screamed that Penn West was dumb, there are too many entities going by "West Penn" and "Penn West" already, and Pennsylvania Western sounded more like a legit university if they had to pick a new name. Clown show from top to bottom.

I feel for ya, man. You are not wrong. But the purpose of the merger is not to grow the school(s). It is to more efficiently manage their demise.

The first mistake was allowing SRU to opt out of it. That was nearsighted from both PASSHE's point of view and from SRU's. SRU is not in the same position as WCU, although they seem to think they are.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

US News college rankings came out yesterday. They're bogus, but US News underwrites the magazines being in many grocery store and drug store magazine sections, so many parents put weight on them where most colleges scoff at them but reluctantly participate. The reason I bring this up is because it highlights the total marketing debacle that is Penn West.

When you go to search for a specific college and put in "Penn West", nothing comes up. Maybe its "PennWest"? Nada. Zero results. Search "California", "Clarion", or "Edinboro" with Pennsylvania filtered? Nothing. You finally get results by searching "Pennsylvania Western", which is almost never used in branding and marketing. Better yet, it comes up as Pennsylvania Western University in California, Pennsylvania. If someone is a little naïve, that may throw them off if they're looking for info on Penn West but only for the Clarion or Edinboro campuses.

Way to go, PASSHE. You trusted a Boston marketing agency citing Google analytics over the students, employees, and alumni who screamed that Penn West was dumb, there are too many entities going by "West Penn" and "Penn West" already, and Pennsylvania Western sounded more like a legit university if they had to pick a new name. Clown show from top to bottom.

You're in the know here ... do actual students say they go to school at the Penn West nonsense or do they just still call it Clarion, Cal and Edinboro?

Do students even consider the triad as one school or, to the student, is it just as it was before?

[Fightingscot82]

US News college rankings came out yesterday. They're bogus, but US News underwrites the magazines being in many grocery store and drug store magazine sections, so many parents put weight on them where most colleges scoff at them but reluctantly participate. The reason I bring this up is because it highlights the total marketing debacle that is Penn West.

When you go to search for a specific college and put in "Penn West", nothing comes up. Maybe its "PennWest"? Nada. Zero results. Search "California", "Clarion", or "Edinboro" with Pennsylvania filtered? Nothing. You finally get results by searching "Pennsylvania Western", which is almost never used in branding and marketing. Better yet, it comes up as Pennsylvania Western University in California, Pennsylvania. If someone is a little naïve, that may throw them off if they're looking for info on Penn West but only for the Clarion or Edinboro campuses.

Way to go, PASSHE. You trusted a Boston marketing agency citing Google analytics over the students, employees, and alumni who screamed that Penn West was dumb, there are too many entities going by "West Penn" and "Penn West" already, and Pennsylvania Western sounded more like a legit university if they had to pick a new name. Clown show from top to bottom.

[iupgroundhog]

Agreed. It's an admission that a four-year degree is not adequately preparing students for today's careers. Eventually, students will realize that the technical certification is less expensive and more valuable than the four-year degree, and doesn't require them to pass art history, so they'll skip college altogether.

Probably good to choose a field of study that won't be replaced by AI (good luck with that).

[Fightingscot82]

West Chester capitalizes on its urban location, a rarity among PASSHE schools. A lot of money in PASSHE's current budget is going toward debt relief for Penn West.

Part of the state appropriation was money specifically earmarked for Penn West debt. Unfortunately, the managers are working to balance the budget - not correct the ongoing revenue shortfalls. So they'll just keep cutting, keep losing students, then cut some more to balance the budget. Rinse, repeat.

[Ship69]

The hits keep coming for Penn West. Their interim president is now leaving to be the interim back at West Chester.

https://www.inquirer.com/education/w...-20230907.html

West Chester capitalizes on its urban location, a rarity among PASSHE schools. A lot of money in PASSHE's current budget is going toward debt relief for Penn West.

[Ship69]

Agreed. It's an admission that a four-year degree is not adequately preparing students for today's careers. Eventually, students will realize that the technical certification is less expensive and more valuable than the four-year degree, and doesn't require them to pass art history, so they'll skip college altogether.

Depends on the career path, the school, and the cost. Technical certification works for some careers, not so much for others. I agree you shouldn't be going to college if you think it's a vocational school.

[Horror Child]

To quote POTUS from his VP days, this is a big f'n deal

https://www.post-gazette.com/news/ed...s/202308290127

Agreed. It's an admission that a four-year degree is not adequately preparing students for today's careers. Eventually, students will realize that the technical certification is less expensive and more valuable than the four-year degree, and doesn't require them to pass art history, so they'll skip college altogether.

[Fightingscot82]

The hits keep coming for Penn West. Their interim president is now leaving to be the interim back at West Chester.

https://www.inquirer.com/education/w...-20230907.html

[iupgroundhog]

To quote POTUS from his VP days, this is a big f'n deal

https://www.post-gazette.com/news/ed...s/202308290127

It's interesting that the two schools not participating are WCU and Cheyney.

I think we are starting to see real collaboration and PASSHE is fortunate to have Governor Shapiro on its side. It seems that Greenstein and Shapiro are developing a productive relationship.

[Fightingscot82]

To quote POTUS from his VP days, this is a big f'n deal

https://www.post-gazette.com/news/ed...s/202308290127

[IUPNation]

Walk On U welcomed its largest incoming freshmen class in school history..

[IUPNation]

Got rid of the clown and bam.

The new director actually recruited.

I wonder if the band is fully funded.

:-)