PASSHE Institutions Merging

[complaint_hopeful]

The State needs to get real and not keep throwing good money after. They should get real stand up & close non-productive schools.
Sometimes you have to go thru the pain to effect the cure. I know after a 17month battle with cancer & still at least a yr to get back
to normal, if ever. Then again when you think of the alternative you say hell yes let's go for it.

First off...sending prayers your way in your battle with cancer.

I honestly think they would have closed some campuses, but the debt was too high. And someone has to pay the debt off and that would be PASSHE. Some of these schools have like 100+ million in obligations.

Merging is kind of an end-around to that. When this is all said and done, there might be 4-6 total Universities. The Triads essentially eliminate 4. And once they're operating as 1 and have all their back-end Admin stuff lined up...maybe the level the state funds them at will be sufficient? But, that might take years.

[complaint_hopeful]

That's just it. They can't just lower tuition. If they did that, and didn't increase amount of students right away...their reserves are gone. Some schools are operating razor thin.

As far as offering what students need - I'd venture to say they do. And then when you talk about starting new, in demand programs...it takes years and costs money. And many, many colleges do this.

Agree 100% on providing quality service. I think that's an opportunity for a quick win on some campuses. And I'll add to that to make it as easy as possible to become a student. That's what some of the mega-online U's do.

[complaint_hopeful]

Little/no reserve is close to the end state, but these schools didn't get to that point in their financial viability arc in one year. You could probably go back several years and see their progress as they burn through their reserves. Question is, which other PASSHE schools are on the same or similar arc were they are burning reserves year to year but haven't yet gotten close to the end state.

Ahh...but that's where cross-subsidization and the 1 bank account comes into play. You aren't your reserves...essentially. You eat your reserves and you just borrow from the main account. Kinda like Chaney.

One thing I want to point out on Chaney, is that people talk about them as a success and they have stabilized financially. But, West Chester helps them with Administrative tasks, and they shifted what they offered. And they borrowed money that they didn't have to pay back. Even at that, they have what? 600-some students?

As to your question on reserves...that's all out there in some of the presentations on Integration. Not easy to find. But there are a decent amount of schools that aren't financially healthy.

[Fightingscot82]

The State needs to get real and not keep throwing good money after. They should get real stand up & close non-productive schools.
Sometimes you have to go thru the pain to effect the cure. I know after a 17month battle with cancer & still at least a yr to get back
to normal, if ever. Then again when you think of the alternative you say hell yes let's go for it.

They won't do that because its political suicide to kill rural jobs - and to go against research that a lot of students served by PASSHE need physical/geographical access.

Its about politics. The parties only seem to introduce legislation to agitate the other or vote to obstruct/oppose anything simply because the other party supports it. If you don't want to play the DNC/RNC game in this country you're screwed. All legislative power in Washington or Harrisburg is controlled by either party. Moderates or pragmatic thinkers are viewed as impotent.

There's a state rep on the PASSHE board who is extremely critical of education spending. He's always posting per-student costs for school districts and upset about tuition increases at PASSHE. But the guy has done nothing to either identify efficiencies or additional funds that would lower costs to the schools or students. Meanwhile, per-student spending at his alma mater, Gannon, is higher than at Edinboro, which his gerrymandered district circumvents. Same guy has also fought to keep regional state prisons open as well as the antiquated state mental hospital in Polk, PA. The difference is the employees of Edinboro (many live in his district) are largely Democrats and the employees of Polk Center and the SCIs in Albion, Cambridge Springs, and Marienville are largely Republican.

[Fightingscot82]

There is a small number that have basically little to no reserves. Like 2-3ish. The Integration presentations had a lot of good metrics. Like they look at which schools have less than 6 months cash on hand, etc. It was a surprising number. They largely learned from Chaney. When you start to hit the end point of failing, the last part of the demise goes very quick. Thus, why they rushed through these Integrations.

College revenue is essentially 6 months at a time so 6 months cash on hand sounds reasonable. My best friend is a university finance expert so I'll ask him if there's a benchmark.

[Sec10-A-14]

The State needs to get real and not keep throwing good money after. They should get real stand up & close non-productive schools.
Sometimes you have to go thru the pain to effect the cure. I know after a 17month battle with cancer & still at least a yr to get back
to normal, if ever. Then again when you think of the alternative you say hell yes let's go for it.

[ironmaniup]

I agree. And honestly, it's really hard for me to see these schools starting to thrive again. I think it's going to continue to be a decline.

The state support is the question. Will they raise it?

[boatcapt]

There is a small number that have basically little to no reserves. Like 2-3ish. The Integration presentations had a lot of good metrics. Like they look at which schools have less than 6 months cash on hand, etc. It was a surprising number. They largely learned from Chaney. When you start to hit the end point of failing, the last part of the demise goes very quick. Thus, why they rushed through these Integrations.

Little/no reserve is close to the end state, but these schools didn't get to that point in their financial viability arc in one year. You could probably go back several years and see their progress as they burn through their reserves. Question is, which other PASSHE schools are on the same or similar arc were they are burning reserves year to year but haven't yet gotten close to the end state.

[complaint_hopeful]

I think its a little bit of everything. Yes, the pandemic. The population decline. The erasure of the pricing gap. The general overall cost that prices out the population we were created to serve. The much easier way for adults to enroll in online for-profits. The drum beating by conservative media that every college not founded by a televangelist is a Marxist indoctrination center. The growing questioning of the value of college by the working class.

I agree. And honestly, it's really hard for me to see these schools starting to thrive again. I think it's going to continue to be a decline.

The state support is the question. Will they raise it?

[complaint_hopeful]

While Cheyney was the bellwether for the PASSHE problems, I don't think in the here and now that they are the problem. If you believe the media, they have turned the corner and are rebounding a little.

But the Cheyney issue does point at what is REALLY the measure of success...Cold hard CASH! While number of students may point at the future viability of a school, a more immediate indicator of the future of the school is it's ballance sheet. Anyone know what the year to year financials say about each PASSHE school? Any running defecate's and/or burning through their endowments to ballance their books? Increasing your freshman enrollment OR having 10,000 students are one thing...spending more money than you are bring in is quite another!

There is a small number that have basically little to no reserves. Like 2-3ish. The Integration presentations had a lot of good metrics. Like they look at which schools have less than 6 months cash on hand, etc. It was a surprising number. They largely learned from Chaney. When you start to hit the end point of failing, the last part of the demise goes very quick. Thus, why they rushed through these Integrations.

[Fightingscot82]

They seem to be mainly blaming this on the pandemic. So the pandemic was an excuse for 2 years. Covered both sides of the fence. Students don't like online was the Year 1 excuse. Then Year 2, when campuses were in person and dropped more...it's still the pandemic. The impact was delayed!

I think its a little bit of everything. Yes, the pandemic. The population decline. The erasure of the pricing gap. The general overall cost that prices out the population we were created to serve. The much easier way for adults to enroll in online for-profits. The drum beating by conservative media that every college not founded by a televangelist is a Marxist indoctrination center. The growing questioning of the value of college by the working class.

[boatcapt]

I think, worst case scenario, PASSHE merges everyone into one of two directionals with IUP and WC as hub campuses. Maybe they can force a merger between Cheyney & Lincoln.

A lot more mergers are coming. Might as well get ahead of it and give us time to get it right. Its pretty rare that PASSHE is ahead of the curve.

While Cheyney was the bellwether for the PASSHE problems, I don't think in the here and now that they are the problem. If you believe the media, they have turned the corner and are rebounding a little.

But the Cheyney issue does point at what is REALLY the measure of success...Cold hard CASH! While number of students may point at the future viability of a school, a more immediate indicator of the future of the school is it's ballance sheet. Anyone know what the year to year financials say about each PASSHE school? Any running defecate's and/or burning through their endowments to ballance their books? Increasing your freshman enrollment OR having 10,000 students are one thing...spending more money than you are bring in is quite another!

[complaint_hopeful]

Yep, consider that Custodial staff has been cut by 75%, at its max, there were alot of people watching TV in the break room 20 years ago, but now the bathrooms are cleaned once a week whether they need it or not. The merger talk doesn't help much. Right now, there is nothing but a huge price reduction that will have decent students consider the PASSHE schools.

And that's a great point. There was inefficiency in the hiring practices for years, but I'd argue that most of the schools that are struggling in PASSHE have cut their employees way lower than it should go. Even on the Faculty side, while they may not be cutting as many employees...they're not backfilling positions, etc. And yes, some schools do retrench.

[complaint_hopeful]

Yea, death spirals are usually exasperated by small incremental changes. When you are in a death spiral, you often have to make a BIG change to get suficiently in front of the problem and build a firewall

They seem to be mainly blaming this on the pandemic. So the pandemic was an excuse for 2 years. Covered both sides of the fence. Students don't like online was the Year 1 excuse. Then Year 2, when campuses were in person and dropped more...it's still the pandemic. The impact was delayed!

[ironmaniup]

It's basically a death spiral. You start losing enrollment so you cut expenses. Then you get bad press from the Unions. So most of your cuts are services and not people. And you slowly erode your quality down to the point where you are buildings and classes with nothing to do for students, but you're charging a lot of money.

Yep, consider that Custodial staff has been cut by 75%, at its max, there were alot of people watching TV in the break room 20 years ago, but now the bathrooms are cleaned once a week whether they need it or not. The merger talk doesn't help much. Right now, there is nothing but a huge price reduction that will have decent students consider the PASSHE schools.