PASSHE Institutions Merging

[ironmaniup]

For those curious, IUP announced future job cuts - they'll be phased out over time. As faculty leave for various reasons the positions won't be filled unless needed for students to finish their degrees. They've stopped accepting new students for those programs and once those students are gone they'll finish off everyone else.

My concern for IUP is that their recruiting edge seems to be neutralized. IUP was the regional research university at a state college price for decades. They also had an edge getting kids from the eastern half of the state. IUP doesn't market itself as a research university, a disservice to itself. IUP's value proposition is the R1/D1 experience for those who can't make the state-relateds work due to waitlisting, location, or cost. But they market themselves like any other school. They've also got to get creative with finding students. Figure out some sort of competitive advantage over West Chester & Millersville as well as the other similar publics around the PA perimeter (YSU, Kent, Ohio, WVU, Towson, Rutgers Camden, Binghamton, etc.) as well as the regional privates taking students from them.

Not sure what your saying here. This year there were nearly 100 retrenchment letters sent out, several departments closed down, and multiple AFSCME employees laid off. In addition, colleges were reorganized resulting in a dean and several other administrators retiring. The number of retrenchments for faculty was reduced to ~40 with additional retirements and reorganizations instead. There were rumors, based in part in the article about the merger we've been discussing, that more extensive layoff and retrenchments were to come. To dispel those rumors Driscoll announced that there are no plans for any similar employee reductions next year. Of course, there are still no plans for anything but emergency hiring,

I agree with you about the problem with recruiting. But as someone who was involved with the recruiting, and who pushed the R1/D1 advantage, I have to say it seems like fewer students are interested in these things, since they see it as a harder path. Sure we have an advanced anatomy course, that's probably only available at the bigger schools, and a Goldwater scholar, that presented work at Harvard. BUT, more students are looking at that and saying that's too hard, I could go to XYZ college, and my Calculus class would be easier, and I have a better grade and the same credit, and it won't cost as much.

[complaint_hopeful]

They had 15,132 in 2011.

[Fightingscot82]

9162 is 4 digits. Will it rebound post-COVID?

That's a good question. Losing 1,000 students between fall and spring seems alarming though. Yeah there's a December graduation and some students just don't return but 1,000 students is a revenue drop of roughly $12MM.

[iupgroundhog]

It already is

https://www.iup.edu/news-item.aspx?i...31&blogid=6121

9162 is 4 digits. Will it rebound post-COVID?

[iupgroundhog]

Conservatives hate Will Bunch.

...and vice-versa.

[Fightingscot82]

Not sure if this is original to the Bucks County Courier because its now being published across the USA Today network. 'Consolidations are good because we've gone through them' isn't a good take.

https://www.buckscountycouriertimes....es/4987532001/

[IUPbigINDIANS]

I've long had the theory that if they can get kids here to visit, they should be able to land them -- assuming they are just competing against other state schools. IUP has the feel of a much larger school than it actually is.

But, these are largely the children of the diploma mill era -- and the pinnacle of IUP's party reputation. Who knows. It's hard to figure out.

When you combine less kids going to college with the price gap to the next step up shrinking ... the answer likely lies within. But, of the kids in the state school range ... they have to start landing more.

[IUPNation]

One interesting thing that could help enrollment is a lot of students took gap years because of covid. Now if a lot is hundreds or thousands...I don't know.

Good point.

[IUPNation]

Today's Will Bunch piece from the Philadelphia Inquirer on the current state of PASSHE affairs. . Couched in partisan terms as well it should be. It's interesting that he ties the timeline of enrollment declines to former Gov. Corbett's cuts.

https://www.inquirer.com/columnists/...-20210506.html

Conservatives hate Will Bunch.

He failed to mention how the Stste Related vs PSSHE setup also drives the problem.

[IUPNation]

Yeah I don't understand it either but its the place to be now. Its like SRU now has the swagger that IUP had 20 years ago.

[IUPNation]

Well, it's not the 80s or 90s any more. Kids seem to like it there now. Odd ... yes, but, nonetheless. The giant shift in the numbers is the factual proof.

We'll see if it lasts. Cal had a huge spike there for a bit and then went back down. But, SRU has a much nicer town than Cal. SRU has some cool bars and such now that never existed back in the 'dry town' days of 20 years ago. It's also a much nicer campus than it used to be.

[Fightingscot82]

One interesting thing that could help enrollment is a lot of students took gap years because of covid. Now if a lot is hundreds or thousands...I don't know.

What's interesting is that gap years for high school grads usually involve working, travel, or exploratory classes at a community college. With the pandemic, none of that happened. Did they just stay home? I remember reading an article that a lot of gap years were really just students whose families had income insecurity instead of the traditional motivation for a gap year.

[Fightingscot82]

IUP did the cuts this year, according to Driscoll there are no major cuts next year, and enrollment is in line with expectations

For those curious, IUP announced future job cuts - they'll be phased out over time. As faculty leave for various reasons the positions won't be filled unless needed for students to finish their degrees. They've stopped accepting new students for those programs and once those students are gone they'll finish off everyone else.

My concern for IUP is that their recruiting edge seems to be neutralized. IUP was the regional research university at a state college price for decades. They also had an edge getting kids from the eastern half of the state. IUP doesn't market itself as a research university, a disservice to itself. IUP's value proposition is the R1/D1 experience for those who can't make the state-relateds work due to waitlisting, location, or cost. But they market themselves like any other school. They've also got to get creative with finding students. Figure out some sort of competitive advantage over West Chester & Millersville as well as the other similar publics around the PA perimeter (YSU, Kent, Ohio, WVU, Towson, Rutgers Camden, Binghamton, etc.) as well as the regional privates taking students from them.

[complaint_hopeful]

One interesting thing that could help enrollment is a lot of students took gap years because of covid. Now if a lot is hundreds or thousands...I don't know.

[complaint_hopeful]

IUP did the cuts this year, according to Driscoll there are no major cuts next year, and enrollment is in line with expectations

Since the semester just ended, the cuts would be happening over the next month or 2 right?