PASSHE Institutions Merging

[Matt Burglund]

This article in the IG a few days ago says IUP's Spring enrollment is 7,399.

I believe that total is full-time students who have registered already for the spring semester. Many, many students do not register until later, and that total does not include part-time and clock-hour students. I believe.

[complaint_hopeful]

That's $10M

Yes. And there will be some schools in PASSHE that do bad, but when the historically strong schools start to lose lots of enrollment too...that could spell PASSHE's demise.

[Fightingscot82]

Even if they get to 8000...that's a 1000+ student drop. That's huge. This is a shame and I do hope it improves quickly.

That's $10M

[complaint_hopeful]

The spring is always alot less than fall, but the Gazette article is using some very positive spin by comparing to registrations at this time.

The thing is, typically there are alot more students enrolled between now and the start of the semester - usually 10% or so. Last spring enrollment ended up with 9162 total students. The question is will that happen this year. Rumors are that there are significant percentages of failing and not participating students, so the increase between now and january will not be very good. that rumor is the problem is system wide but perhaps is just complaining about students lack of interest, . We'll see what happens, the hope is that IUP will get over 8000, but no one is holding their breath.

Even if they get to 8000...that's a 1000+ student drop. That's huge. This is a shame and I do hope it improves quickly.

[ironmaniup]

This article in the IG a few days ago says IUP's Spring enrollment is 7,399. This shocks me, to say the least. Yes, it should be interesting to see what it is at all of the schools. 7400 is less than half of what it was in 2010. Wow!

https://www.indianagazette.com/news/...2d7239dce.html

The spring is always alot less than fall, but the Gazette article is using some very positive spin by comparing to registrations at this time.

The thing is, typically there are alot more students enrolled between now and the start of the semester - usually 10% or so. Last spring enrollment ended up with 9162 total students. The question is will that happen this year. Rumors are that there are significant percentages of failing and not participating students, so the increase between now and january will not be very good. that rumor is the problem is system wide but perhaps is just complaining about students lack of interest, . We'll see what happens, the hope is that IUP will get over 8000, but no one is holding their breath.

[Fightingscot82]

This article in the IG a few days ago says IUP's Spring enrollment is 7,399. This shocks me, to say the least. Yes, it should be interesting to see what it is at all of the schools. 7400 is less than half of what it was in 2010. Wow!

https://www.indianagazette.com/news/...2d7239dce.html

Spring is usually lower than fall but that number is still shocking.

[iupgroundhog]

IUP is a ghost town. It doesn't even remotely resemble the IUP many of us experienced 10, 20 or 30+ years ago.

Word around town, too, is a somewhat large percent of IUP's enrollment is online. I know the rumored plan is they aren't even planning to open a couple of the new dorms next Fall.

If you avoid the 7th Street area from Sheetz down to the KCAC ... you wouldn't even know there was still a college here on weekends. Philly Street is dead at night.

I hope it can come back. There are some enrollment positives in that article once you get past the overall numbers.

IUP BigIndians, what you are describing must be devastating for the local economy.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

This article in the IG a few days ago says IUP's Spring enrollment is 7,399. This shocks me, to say the least. Yes, it should be interesting to see what it is at all of the schools. 7400 is less than half of what it was in 2010. Wow!

https://www.indianagazette.com/news/...2d7239dce.html

IUP is a ghost town. It doesn't even remotely resemble the IUP many of us experienced 10, 20 or 30+ years ago.

Word around town, too, is a somewhat large percent of IUP's enrollment is online. I know the rumored plan is they aren't even planning to open a couple of the new dorms next Fall.

If you avoid the 7th Street area from Sheetz down to the KCAC ... you wouldn't even know there was still a college here on weekends. Philly Street is dead at night.

[iupgroundhog]

Anything that anyone is thinking should be done is going to come crashing down when the Spring enrollment numbers are finalized. The rumor is that the covid HS seniors and the covid freshman did not fare too well in their first semester back face to face. Add to that many seniors are graduating a little early since they took advantage of on-line courses that weren't previously available.

This article in the IG a few days ago says IUP's Spring enrollment is 7,399. This shocks me, to say the least. Yes, it should be interesting to see what it is at all of the schools. 7400 is less than half of what it was in 2010. Wow!

https://www.indianagazette.com/news/...2d7239dce.html

[ironmaniup]

That's a great point...and one I feel like we touched on months ago. All of these schools in PASSHE and beyond that are struggling don't have amazing leadership and just market forces are taking them down. The ones that do good, in a lot of cases...do certain things very well:

1 ) Make it as easy as possible to enroll and become a student. (People might laugh this one off, but at some schools it's not easy to become a student.)
3 ) Really high quality on-line experience. They don't just translate in-person classes to online. They totally build online classes that are high quality.
4 ) It's an intangible but employee morale is likely higher on successful colleges and there is more energy. Maybe it comes from better leadership. Maybe other factors.

Anything that anyone is thinking should be done is going to come crashing down when the Spring enrollment numbers are finalized. The rumor is that the covid HS seniors and the covid freshman did not fare too well in their first semester back face to face. Add to that many seniors are graduating a little early since they took advantage of on-line courses that weren't previously available.

[iupgroundhog]

That's a great point...and one I feel like we touched on months ago. All of these schools in PASSHE and beyond that are struggling don't have amazing leadership and just market forces are taking them down. The ones that do good, in a lot of cases...do certain things very well:

1 ) Make it as easy as possible to enroll and become a student. (People might laugh this one off, but at some schools it's not easy to become a student.)
2 ) Great tour experiences for the on campus students.
3 ) Really high quality on-line experience. They don't just translate in-person classes to online. They totally build online classes that are high quality.
4 ) It's an intangible but employee morale is likely higher on successful colleges and there is more energy. Maybe it comes from better leadership. Maybe other factors.

What's a great point? That it is all a charade? If so, that sentiment does not come through in your comments. If you were referring to the respective leadership at each school that has a minimal impact. The issues stem from the other factors.

[iupgroundhog]

The state gave PASSHE that 1 time funding. And they did the thing with the pension fund that gained them millions. Plus, the covid dollars.

Please see link that has the breakdown:
The Pa. State System of Higher Ed. has $75M in one-time funds. Here's the preliminary spending plan - Pennsylvania Capital-Star (penncapital-star.com)

The irony is...there aren't many PASSHE schools doing well enough that they can siphon funding from. Enrollment was bad nearly across the board this past Fall with small exceptions.

I'm interested in seeing their report to the Legislature on the Accounting of this all to see how they allocate costs, etc.

When I suggested the triads "will" siphon money from the non-triad schools I was referring to future annual budgets. I am not talking about a 1-time disbursement to help get it off the ground, although that, in itself, is discriminatory against those outside of the triads. I think there will be a disproportionate amount of resources directed to the triads which will, in effect, hurt other schools in the system. This is because it's in his self-interest to make the triads work. When I referred to siphoning off resources I am referring to the equitable allocation of the state subsidy across all of the schools.

[complaint_hopeful]

I am starting to think that this is all a charade made to show the largely GOP state assembly "look, we're doing something about it!" but actually not fixing anything.

Spent some time on a PASSHE campus last week and the culture from one that has largely maintained enrollment is night and day from those that have been losing (and cutting).

That's a great point...and one I feel like we touched on months ago. All of these schools in PASSHE and beyond that are struggling don't have amazing leadership and just market forces are taking them down. The ones that do good, in a lot of cases...do certain things very well:

1 ) Make it as easy as possible to enroll and become a student. (People might laugh this one off, but at some schools it's not easy to become a student.)
2 ) Great tour experiences for the on campus students.
3 ) Really high quality on-line experience. They don't just translate in-person classes to online. They totally build online classes that are high quality.
4 ) It's an intangible but employee morale is likely higher on successful colleges and there is more energy. Maybe it comes from better leadership. Maybe other factors.

[complaint_hopeful]

It's going to siphon off resources from the schools outside the triads, too. If I end up being wrong about this in 5 years, please remind me. But I don't think so.

The state gave PASSHE that 1 time funding. And they did the thing with the pension fund that gained them millions. Plus, the covid dollars.

Please see link that has the breakdown:
The Pa. State System of Higher Ed. has $75M in one-time funds. Here's the preliminary spending plan - Pennsylvania Capital-Star (penncapital-star.com)

The irony is...there aren't many PASSHE schools doing well enough that they can siphon funding from. Enrollment was bad nearly across the board this past Fall with small exceptions.

I'm interested in seeing their report to the Legislature on the Accounting of this all to see how they allocate costs, etc.

[Fightingscot82]

I am starting to think that this is all a charade made to show the largely GOP state assembly "look, we're doing something about it!" but actually not fixing anything.

Spent some time on a PASSHE campus last week and the culture from one that has largely maintained enrollment is night and day from those that have been losing (and cutting).