Pennsylvania Western University

[BlueBlood]

I believe only for athletics - similar to UNC Charlotte simply going by Charlotte. U of L doesn't have a main campus like most other systems.

[EdinboroFB]

Kraft Heinz U. has a nice ring to it. Sell the naming rights.

Maybe a reality show like Bar Rescue.....Some business guy come in to yell at everybody that's been in charge.......What idiot wanted to build all these dorms when you knew numbers were going to go down? Who hired all of these unqualified people? Fire all the dead weight on cameral.

[IUPNation]

That's what I thought originally and I haven't looked at the language myself but I read that it was schools with 10k+ as of the date it was passed. That would be WCU and IUP.

Personally, I don't have a problem if IUP becomes part of a merger.

Oh but I do. IUP became a university on its own in 1965. Harrisburg created the monster in 1983 by elevating 13 schools to university status and creating a mess. IUP should have been left alone. They can merge the rest into some generic entity but IUP needs to stay IUP.

[ctrabs74]

Who we kiddin'. It's going to be Edinboro, Clarion and Cal as long as they're standing, too. Does anyone really think thousands of alumni are going to embrace that change?

This Cal U graduate's two cents on Pennsylvania Western University: Spare, generic and just plain stupid. It sounds like one of those "for profit money grab" schools like University of Phoenix or Western Governors University.

PASSHE would've been better off selling the three schools to the Archdiocese of Pittsburgh so they could use a more befitting name: Bishop Sycamore. (I mean it's not like anyone is legitimately using that name at the moment...)

[ctrabs74]

That's the million dollar question on this board. Does the NCAA see each campus as separate and distinct and having separate athletic budgets and programs, OR do they see them as the Pen Western University with 3 campuses having one athletic budget and treated as a single athletic entity? I think the single athletic budget discussed a few weeks back will factor heavily in the NCAAs decision.

The NCAA seems to take that under a case by case basis (I have referenced this a few times, so bear with me if this is redundant for some of you):

Lyndon State College and Johnson State College in Vermont ((a) both schools so small, they would make Mansfield look like West Chester and (b) imagine if these schools were located in Texas) - merged to become Northern Vermont University in 2018. Both the NVU-Lyndon Hornets and NVU-Johnson Badgers their independent athletic programs in the D3 North Atlantic Conference despite being under a unified university.

Armstrong State University in Savannah was consolidated with Georgia Southern in 2018; despite retaining the Savannah campus, athletics were dropped from the Armstrong campus following the merger. As I understand it, the Statesboro and Savannah campuses of GSoU are under the same budget, but don't quote me on it.

LIU Post's D2 athletics programs, including football, were consolidated with LIU Brooklyn's D1 programs and are now part of the D1 Northeast Conference, with most sports based in Brooklyn and football, baseball and a few other programs based at the Post campus on Long Island (though, as best as I can tell, they're both separate campuses, similar to the Georgia Southern setup more so than Northern Vermont).

It's very likely that, due to the larger scope of athletics programs offered at all three campuses, I wouldn't be shocked if the NCAA determined that the three campuses would be allowed to maintain their separate athletics budgets, hence keep their independence (ie. NVU). Good luck trying to merge three football programs (in this case a regional "quasi-power" and two doormats) into a single program.

[ctrabs74]

Then again, I'm sure the powers that be who run the University of Louisiana system would take one look at the ULaMon football program compared to ULaLa and have quite fine with ULaLa dropping the Lafayette from their athletic branding. (Most of the other non-LSU state universities - including Grambling, McNeese State, Nichols State, Louisiana Tech, Northwestern Louisiana, Southeastern Louisiana and the University of New Orleans are part of the UofL system - though BlueBlood is correct in that the Lafayette campus isn't the "flagship" campus of the system per se as the UL System headquarters are in Baton Rouge.)

BTW - Wisconsin is the same way. They are officially UW-Madison, but folks just say Wisconsin. There are other examples also.

Heading down the Wisconsin rabbit hole for a second...

Not counting the "regional" UW campuses in Green Bay, Milwaukee and Parkside (Kenosha area) - where UW-Green Bay and UW-Milwaukee dropped the "UW" from their athletic brandings, the smaller UW campuses were actually state colleges derived from the normal schools/state teachers colleges (similar in status to the PASSHE schools) prior to their merger into the UW system in 1974 (side note: UW-Milwaukee was created in 1956 via a merger of Wisconsin State College-Milwaukee and the UW Extension program; the Green Bay and Parkside campuses were founded in 1968, both were essentially upgrades from the Extension campuses).

[ctrabs74]

Kind of reminds me of Florida:
FAU
FIU
FGCU

Except that Florida Atlantic, Florida International and Florida Gulf Coast - not to mention the "directional" Florida universities (University of Central Florida, North Florida, South Florida and West Florida) were not established as branch campuses of UF in Gainesville, but rather authorized by the state legislature between 1956 and 1972 (FGCU was founded in 1991) as universities independent of the Gainesville flagship campus (which itself was established as the "East Florida Seminary" at the same time as the "West Florida Seminary" - now Florida State University - was founded in the mid-1800s).

[boatcapt]

It's really just a matter of doing it. If the AD (are they going to have their own AD) or person in charge of athletics, the SID and school President (again, does each campus have a President) at Clarion just starts referring to themselves as Pennsylvania Western and after a while, THEY become Penn Western.

[Fightingscot82]

It's really just a matter of doing it. If the AD (are they going to have their own AD) or person in charge of athletics, the SID and school President (again, does each campus have a President) at Clarion just starts referring to themselves as Pennsylvania Western and after a while, THEY become Penn Western.

No, there is a shared president. She does a 2 week rotation at each campus.

[jrshooter]

... and on the seventh week, she rests.

[boatcapt]

No, there is a shared president. She does a 2 week rotation at each campus.

But they will have separate budgets for each athletic department right? And separate AD at each campus right?

[Fightingscot82]

But they will have separate budgets for each athletic department right? And separate AD at each campus right?

That is my understanding. I believe the Cal AD was deemed to be the senior AD to represent the three departments in the org structure but I haven't seen or heard much since the original proposal to be certain.

[boatcapt]

That is my understanding. I believe the Cal AD was deemed to be the senior AD to represent the three departments in the org structure but I haven't seen or heard much since the original proposal to be certain.

If a person is the Senior AD, aren't they actually THE AD?? Aren't the athletic budgets consolidated into one as well?

[Fightingscot82]

If a person is the Senior AD, aren't they actually THE AD?? Aren't the athletic budgets consolidated into one as well?

Not necessarily. That person - Senior AD or other title - will be responsible for Penn West reporting & policy but each AD will have autonomy to run their own athletic departments (which programs are prioritized, gameday operations, personnel, facilities, etc). This is similar to how Penn State runs the athletic departments for their branches, several of which are NCAA.

[boatcapt]

Not necessarily. That person - Senior AD or other title - will be responsible for Penn West reporting & policy but each AD will have autonomy to run their own athletic departments (which programs are prioritized, gameday operations, personnel, facilities, etc). This is similar to how Penn State runs the athletic departments for their branches, several of which are NCAA.

I would imagine that if the Senior AD "asked" a campus AD to do a particular thing or expend $ in a particular manner, the campus AD would more or less have to do that or suffer the consequence either financially (big school withholding a portion of the athletic budget) or professionally (campus AD being asked to pursue other career options).

If the Senior AD holds no sway over the campus AD'S, why have a Senior AD?