Originally posted by Fightingscot82
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Originally posted by iupgroundhog View Post
Greenstein is being careful to present a limited, short-term plan although the long term results are existential for some of the schools and the system itself.
I think he needs to present a realistic medium-term plan before this all blows up in our collective faces, we go back to square one and Greenstein decides to bolt.
Face it, the Bloomfield Haven plan results in a weakened LHU and a virtually non-existent Mansfield. That's the inevitability of his plan. He needs to put that out there if Mansfield and LH are destined to become branches of Bloomsburg. People need to see where it's going. Clearly, there are too many special interests with 14 university communities, all with a variety of constituencies.
As for the western PA schools, I think he needs to present it as a western PA plan. The inevitability there is you end up with 2 or 3 schools with satellite branches. He needs to present that plan (which is more drastic) rather than beat around the bush as he is now.
These 2 ultimate plans leave the satellite schools in place, albeit reduced, and allow them to die their slow deaths in whatever shape that takes.
I understand Greenstein is a take-charge guy with unparalleled experience but all the competing interests threaten to derail any needed progress.
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Originally posted by complaint_hopeful View Post
At what point does all this uncertainty with PASSHE and news of schools being insolvent and financially unstable poison the well and make students go to other schools?
To a large extent, the major news stations don't seem to be picking this up. It seems mainly the small local papers and Universities run the stories on this stuff. The Faculty Union is launching a whole campaign about how retrenchment will mean lower quality for students. And they may be right. But, is all this bad press going to just mean less students?
APSCUF discusses retrenchment at town hall -
APSCUF President explains faculty layoffs happening at PASSHE universities
http://www.theonlinerocket.com/news/...-at-town-hall/
And of course students and faculty will not want to see faculty lose their jobs. But, the finances are so bad that schools may go out of business. This isn't a situation where doing nothing makes it better. Heck, even making these changes might not fix it. It might be too late. We may just need less schools.
I think he needs to present a realistic medium-term plan before this all blows up in our collective faces, we go back to square one and Greenstein decides to bolt.
Face it, the Bloomfield Haven plan results in a weakened LHU and a virtually non-existent Mansfield. That's the inevitability of his plan. He needs to put that out there if Mansfield and LH are destined to become branches of Bloomsburg. People need to see where it's going. Clearly, there are too many special interests with 14 university communities, all with a variety of constituencies.
As for the western PA schools, I think he needs to present it as a western PA plan. The inevitability there is you end up with 2 or 3 schools with satellite branches. He needs to present that plan (which is more drastic) rather than beat around the bush as he is now.
These 2 ultimate plans leave the satellite schools in place, albeit reduced, and allow them to die their slow deaths in whatever shape that takes.
I understand Greenstein is a take-charge guy with unparalleled experience but all the competing interests threaten to derail any needed progress.
Leave a comment:
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Originally posted by complaint_hopeful View Post
I think if you add to that Can't meet their financial obligations without dipping into reserves. I think that's their definition of insolvent. ie Can't atleast break even. Schools are depleting reserves which will eventually run out. Then, they will be unable to meet their financial obligations.
My assumption for Edinboro is between the spring refund and online fall semester, the housing debt is killing their reserves.
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Originally posted by ironmaniup View Post
I suppose there would be significant legal and legislative challenges to closing a school like Mansfield. I'm not sure you could do it without the legislator's approval. Then there is the costs of maintaining the grounds, with 0 income - it wouldn't be like an old shuttered factory. Its a good question, and the real answer is probably that no one has ever really thought about what closing a university would look like. No one wants the image of old boarded up university buildings - there has to be something to replace it,
Instead you're merging schools like Cal U (unstable) with Clarion (Insolvent) and Edinboro (Insolvent). So the best school in that partnership is unstable. I doubt that some great innovation comes out of that. You may be able to reduce Staff/Faculty and have maybe 1 English program for 3 schools, etc to save that way. But, you'll almost certainly lose students.
Why not sale say a Cal U who has a nice campus to an SNHU (assuming they want a physical campus.) Continue to reduce buildings on campus Demo'ing the old buildings. Reduce business functions that SNHU provides. Keep the ones that need an online presence. You would use SNHU's processes.
Just an example, but I think this seems to make more sense.
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Originally posted by IUPbigINDIANS View PostStill not convinced Uncle Sam is going to flush any of these schools down the toilet.
Although it reminds me of owning a pond with way too many Bass in it and not enough food for them. None of them grow big. They all become stagnant and stunted. The only way to fix it is to start eliminating the smaller Bass.
The PASSHE is a pond with way too many GD fish in it.
But, if you look at these schools...I think you'll see a lot of inefficiency. They can cut costs all they want, but many of the schools lack even fundamental documented business processes. If you evaluated them on a business process maturity model, they'd be very low. This translates to a lesser product. ie Is it easy for a potential student to become a student? I'm fairly sure if you look at some that their processes hold them back.
And that same lack of process needs addressed in this shared services model that they're going to. To become a service provider, that stuff needs defined all the more.
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Originally posted by iupgroundhog View Post
I don't think Greenstein is winning any PR battles right now.
To a large extent, the major news stations don't seem to be picking this up. It seems mainly the small local papers and Universities run the stories on this stuff. The Faculty Union is launching a whole campaign about how retrenchment will mean lower quality for students. And they may be right. But, is all this bad press going to just mean less students?
APSCUF discusses retrenchment at town hall -
APSCUF President explains faculty layoffs happening at PASSHE universities
http://www.theonlinerocket.com/news/...-at-town-hall/
And of course students and faculty will not want to see faculty lose their jobs. But, the finances are so bad that schools may go out of business. This isn't a situation where doing nothing makes it better. Heck, even making these changes might not fix it. It might be too late. We may just need less schools.
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Originally posted by iupgroundhog View Post
I find that article to be confusing. It's the first I've heard of the schools being referred to as "insolvent." Are they insolvent? That means they can't meet their general financial obligations or debt obligations.
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Originally posted by Bart View Post
The system is on the verge of collapse, so the answer is to bailout the schools that are failing. It seems they should be investing in the winning schools, and not propping up those that are failing. Why would it cost $200 million to close or mothball a school?
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Originally posted by Bart View Post
The system is on the verge of collapse, so the answer is to bailout the schools that are failing. It seems they should be investing in the winning schools, and not propping up those that are failing. Why would it cost $200 million to close or mothball a school?
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Originally posted by IUPbigINDIANS View PostStill not convinced Uncle Sam is going to flush any of these schools down the toilet.
Although it reminds me of owning a pond with way too many Bass in it and not enough food for them. None of them grow big. They all become stagnant and stunted. The only way to fix it is to start eliminating the smaller Bass.
The PASSHE is a pond with way too many GD fish in it.
Leave a comment:
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Still not convinced Uncle Sam is going to flush any of these schools down the toilet.
Although it reminds me of owning a pond with way too many Bass in it and not enough food for them. None of them grow big. They all become stagnant and stunted. The only way to fix it is to start eliminating the smaller Bass.
The PASSHE is a pond with way too many GD fish in it.
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Originally posted by Bart View Post
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Originally posted by iupgroundhog View Post
I find that article to be confusing. It's the first I've heard of the schools being referred to as "insolvent." Are they insolvent? That means they can't meet their general financial obligations or debt obligations.
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Originally posted by Bart View Post"If the pattern does not change, PASSHE could see Lock Haven and Shippensburg Universities become insolvent and Bloomsburg, East Stroudsburg and Millersville Universities become financially unstable."
http://www.theonlinerocket.com/news/...-goes-virtual/
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