PASSHE Institutions Merging

[Fightingscot82]

Just some of the numbers for faculty that could potentially be retrenched are:
http://www.theonlinerocket.com/news/...-at-town-hall/

Some of these notices went out before the retirement incentive went into effect so I wonder if these numbers will be reduced. Unfortunately, full-time faculty positions don't have much turnover so its been hard to gradually reduce the faculty count as enrollment dwindled.

Conversely, I guess Edinboro could lay off an entire department creating immediate savings and have those courses taught remotely by the department at Clarion or California. I don't think that's a good way to learn, though.

[WarriorVoice]

Didn't say my life was downtrodden. In fact, I was able to overcome inspite of it. Point is that my situation is not unique. Institutional Racisim effects almost every white person weather they know it or not. There is probably no white in the business or government world that has not been the victim of it weather they know it or not.

That's quite a projection Donald...

[Bart]

Just some of the numbers for faculty that could potentially be retrenched are:
http://www.theonlinerocket.com/news/...-at-town-hall/

[IUPbigINDIANS]

I've talked to people at other schools claiming they got a bump in enrollment when they added a new building. But you're right, that's only a small part. Also, for a racist town, IUP has 15% black students, SRU is about 6% black students. Students from the eastern part of the state have problems regardless of race, this generation tends to get homesick alot more than 30 years ago. Add a culture shock for a student from Philly, and some of their god awful highschools, and those students are at higher risk.

But for some reason Rock Killed us in the Pittsburgh burbs. I've thought alot about it but theres no one reason, I suppose a combination of the bad press that started about 2005, better recruiting by Rock, their PA and PT grad programs, cheaper tuition, bad leadership, going back to Atwater. But it better get turned around.

Slippery Rock and Indiana are very different towns. Unfortunately two of my closest friends are Rock people. The 'townies' at SRU are much more tolerable of the students. I think sometimes in Indiana most locals would prefer a Berlin Wall built around the IUP perimeter.

The infamous IUPatties -- and IUP's 'not our problem' response -- caused some major friction in town over the past several years. I still say all the locals should have a big party on Driscoll's sidewalk ... p!ss in his yard, leave hundreds of beer bottles and garbage, etc.

I don't personally see Indiana as a racist town (and I live here) but I'm also not African American. Most of the students in the article said they felt fine on campus, but much differently as soon as they leave campus. If you know Walt Pegues ... you know he's a very respectable young man. So, his comments do carry some weight.

But, I agree there isn't one singular item. As far as college towns and campuses go, IUP is on par with many D1 schools. The campus is beautiful. Philadelphia Street and its nightlife can go pound for pound with just about anybody. The academics are better than the public perception.

I think IUP's marketing and recruiting has been very poor. If they get kids to visit they should land a huge number of them. They have to change the image of the school. Whatever it takes ... whatever it costs. Hire a top-notch firm. They don't have the horses internally to do it correctly.

I'm not taking a shot at Cal or Clarion, etc., but IUP should never lose a recruiting battle to many of the West schools.

[ironmaniup]

SRU isn't on the news in a negative light every other week, either. IUP has had a lot of violent, well-publicised crimes over the past several years. That adds up.

Now, I'm not saying crime doesn't happen everywhere, but IUP sure gets a lot of bad press from it everytime.

SRU is doing well. It added majors young kids actually want. Their Dukes of Hazard police force keeps things hush-hush.

IUP has an image problem in Western PA. IUP people don't like to admit it but most non-IUP peoole think this is a frat-run, 24-hour party. That image was appealing in the late 80s and 90s. It isn't any longer.

IUP also has a tremendously fast growing reputation of being in a racist town. Only half of African American students who come as freshmen return as sophomores. The Penn ran a very eye-opening article on this very topic. Comments on this topic among students in the Twitter world are rampant - and alarming. Two former (prominent) IUP football players discussed the topic -- including the very well-spoken and intelligent Walt Pegues.

I don't overly buy the old buildings theory. That campus is near pristine right now. When IUP thrived in the 80s and 90s the campus was full of run-down buildings and crappy dorms.

It's an image thing more than anything else. A re-branding and a fresh, massive marketing campaign would go a long way. Recruiting needs a huge overhaul.

The school should be easy to sell -- especially compared to other PASSHE schools. Yet, ... it's not right now.

I've talked to people at other schools claiming they got a bump in enrollment when they added a new building. But you're right, that's only a small part. Also, for a racist town, IUP has 15% black students, SRU is about 6% black students. Students from the eastern part of the state have problems regardless of race, this generation tends to get homesick alot more than 30 years ago. Add a culture shock for a student from Philly, and some of their god awful highschools, and those students are at higher risk.

But for some reason Rock Killed us in the Pittsburgh burbs. I've thought alot about it but theres no one reason, I suppose a combination of the bad press that started about 2005, better recruiting by Rock, their PA and PT grad programs, cheaper tuition, bad leadership, going back to Atwater. But it better get turned around.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Maybe not in this specific application. However, the PASSHE leaned heavily on IUP's 18 year status as a university in 1983 in order to achieve university status for all the schools in the system.

Also, related to funding distribution, through the past 50+ years the funding formula was unfavorable towards IUP. IUP, being the largest school over that time period, received disproportionately lower state subsidy(per student) than the others. The rationalization was that given IUP's greater size they could achieve economies of scale operationally. That's how.

Sounds like there was an IUP RULE on the academic side, too. LOL.

[iupgroundhog]

How would that have happened? I feel like enrollment was pretty steady for everyone until the 2000s when everyone surged.

Maybe not in this specific application. However, the PASSHE leaned heavily on IUP's 18 year status as a university in 1983 in order to achieve university status for all the schools in the system.

Also, related to funding distribution, through the past 50+ years the funding formula was unfavorable towards IUP. IUP, being the largest school over that time period, received disproportionately lower state subsidy(per student) than the others. The rationalization was that given IUP's greater size they could achieve economies of scale operationally. That's how.

[WarriorVoice]

My point which you seem to have conveniently avoided was that racism exists on ALL sides.

The narrative coming from your side is that white males CAN'T ever be discriminated against and that other races can never discriminate against them. And worse, ANY white who has the audacity to claim that they were discriminated against is a racist. NONE of those accusation is true but large swaths of the left repeat them as if they were some sort of religious chant. Guess they believe that if they repeat it long enough and loud enough, that will make it true.

Bottom-line, racism and sexism and discrimination based on them is wrong no matter the color of the perpitrator or the victim. And no mater what the reason, an institution that makes hiring, firing, promotion (etc.) decisions based on skin color or sex is guilty of institutional discrimination.

Racism exists on ALL sides?? Which sides are there?? I never said that white males can't ever be discriminated against. MY point is that you're finally realizing what persons of color, and women of all colors have had to deal with for centuries...Now that it has come to your door, you want to sit in the front of the complaint bus?? That's a subtle form of racism, whether you acknowledge it or not...Guess it sucks to be discriminated against, huh??

[Fightingscot82]

I wonder how much IUP propped up the rest of the system years ago before the system declared war on IUP and dragged us down.

How would that have happened? I feel like enrollment was pretty steady for everyone until the 2000s when everyone surged.

[ESU Warrior]

I don't think the Fairness Doctrine ever applied to newspapers such as the NYT and WAPO.

How can you tell when CNN and MSNBC are lying? Their "reporters" lips are moving!!

You can say the same thing for Foxnews

[boatcapt]

I don't think the Fairness Doctrine ever applied to newspapers such as the NYT and WAPO.

How can you tell when CNN and MSNBC are lying? Their "reporters" lips are moving!!

[complaint_hopeful]

But Slippery Rock is doing great in the same environment, IUP should/could have many of those students

The money for the science building comes from a separate source and was allocated 10 years ago. Plus 10+ million in donations. Weyandt/Walsh were years beyond their expected lifetime already, and crap academic buildings probably have something to do with more students going to slippery rock

Schools like CMU generally have older buildings and very smart students pay a lot of money to go there. I know the reputation is way higher than a PASSHE school, but that goes to brand.

Interestingly, IUP has what the 2nd most students in the system...and they're financially unstable. That says a lot.

I think the major thing working against PASSHE schools is that the state funding has dwindled to some of the lowers in the US for state schools...so the schools keep raising the price. They've likely priced themselves too high. Plus, there's a lot of competition. Community colleges cost way less. Then you have the Pitt and PSU's of the world who have branch campuses very close to a lot of these schools...and those schools have stronger brands. And lastly, the schools haven't adjusted to the loss of students..they generally have not hired Staff positions, but Faculty counts have remained high.

Now they have to take drastic steps to reduce Faculty...to survive.

[boatcapt]

I doubt you would trade places with any of the people you refer to, so your life can't be all downtrodden as you might have us believe...

Didn't say my life was downtrodden. In fact, I was able to overcome inspite of it. Point is that my situation is not unique. Institutional Racisim effects almost every white person weather they know it or not. There is probably no white in the business or government world that has not been the victim of it weather they know it or not.

[boatcapt]

You've had it so hard...Maybe your experience has shown you that other people have had it way worse that you? Maybe?

My point which you seem to have conveniently avoided was that racism exists on ALL sides.

The narrative coming from your side is that white males CAN'T ever be discriminated against and that other races can never discriminate against them. And worse, ANY white who has the audacity to claim that they were discriminated against is a racist. NONE of those accusation is true but large swaths of the left repeat them as if they were some sort of religious chant. Guess they believe that if they repeat it long enough and loud enough, that will make it true.

Bottom-line, racism and sexism and discrimination based on them is wrong no matter the color of the perpitrator or the victim. And no mater what the reason, an institution that makes hiring, firing, promotion (etc.) decisions based on skin color or sex is guilty of institutional discrimination.

[WarriorVoice]

Hahahahaha! High up in my ivory tower...that's funny! Whatever floor of the ivory tower I occupy, I have gotten there by hard work and inspite of race and sex based discrimination I have had to endure. I can count four jobs that I know of that I did not get hired for because of my skin color or sex...those are the ones I've known about. In one case I actually went to EEO and tried to file race based discrimination charges...The EEO specialist said that I clearly was discriminated against based on my race BUUUUTTTT that since I was not one of the "protected classes," I was forbidden from filing any EEO complaints. In her words, it is OK to discriminate based on race and sex as long as the person is white and male. I've walked into bars in NY, Miami, Philadelphia, etc and been told that they don't serve "my kind" and that I should leave before things "got ugly." I remember applying for a particular scholarship at the Univ of MD and being told when they returned my application that the scholarship was not for me because I was the "wrong color." As I progressed in my career, I moved into a number of management and leadership positions that included "hiring authority." Over the years, I would say that I have interviewed and selected over 200 individuals for positions. In at least 75% of the jobs, I received two selection lists from HR...a "diversity list" and a "best qualified" list. If I hired off the diversity list, no questions were asked about my selection process and no justification needed to be provided. If I selected off the best qualified list, I had to spend about a week (on average) justifying my selection, having my selection process reviewed and questioned and endure a "diversity review" of my work unit. On at least four separate occasions, my boss at the time specifically instructed me to select ONLY from the diversity list.

I doubt you would trade places with any of the people you refer to, so your life can't be all downtrodden as you might have us believe...