Keeping Pa. private colleges closed will hurt small communities, officials say

The covid-19 pandemic has upended procedures for colleges and universities throughout the country, and many of Pennsylvania’s private institutions are struggling to find the best path forward, officials said Tuesday.

Auditor General Eugene DePasquale has hosted Facebook Live conversations with industry leaders semi-regularly during the pandemic. On Tuesday, he met virtually with Tom Foley, president of the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Pennsylvania.

Foley talked about some of the questions still lingering about how institutions of higher education can safely reopen in the fall, and why their eventual return matters.

“It would be easier for many institutions to go remote, but they understand how covid has impacted already vulnerable populations in a disproportionate way,” Foley said, “and the closure of higher education has a very similar impact.”

Pennsylvania’s private colleges house more than half of all the state’s college students, as well as 50% of the state’s minority students, 44% of low-income students eligible for Pell or PHEAA grants and 39% of first-generation students. An economic impact study last year, Foley said, showed that private colleges contributed $24 billion per year to the state’s GNP.

The average age of these institutions is 134 years, Foley said – they’re embedded in pockets around the state, holding tremendous influence on local businesses and industry. Many college presidents and faculty serve on local economic development boards or use their professional expertise in other ways in communities.

“They’re real economic drivers in their local economies,” he said.

But their impact goes “beyond the numbers,” Foley said. Private colleges — as well as public — contribute community service and initiatives that often can’t be paralleled.

“Imagine if Allegheny College went away, what that would do to the city of Meadville,” DePasquale said.

The institutions have had to rethink the way they approach everything, including academics, procedures like room and board and food service, and finances. Universities around the region have been announcing and revising potential plans for reopening in the fall, with many introducing adjusted academic calendars and hybrid learning plans, in which students engage in a mixture of online and in-person learning.

Faculty and administrators at colleges have to “adjust what they offer and how they offer it,” Foley said. Curricula is being changed to support online teaching models, and many universities have adjusted academic calendars to end the fall semester early.

But it’s not just about changes in the classroom, DePasquale said. Many school activities are also unable to operate normally — extracurricular experiences like theater, sports and student newspapers.

“These are critical functions of any school,” DePasquale said. “It’s not just the school.”

“They have to reimagine the whole idea of engagement in higher ed,” Foley added. One of the greatest priorities institutions have had, he said, was working with various certification entities to rethink requirements for nursing and other trade programs — which rely heavily on in-person practice.

Financially, Foley said private colleges have gotten more money than usual to help low-income students, thanks to CARES Act funding. There is still a need for more funding directed toward contact tracing and testing in higher education, Foley said.

Protecting higher education at this time will be especially important as the economy struggles and unemployment grows across the country. In a typical recession, Foley said enrollment in universities will usually rise at around the 18-month mark. He is expecting the timeline to be shorter this time.

Reopening campuses versus offering 100% online instruction is a question being “wrestled” with on all 92 campuses represented by AICUP, Foley said. He defended state officials’ position that the decision be left up to individual universities, acknowledging that data on the virus’ impact differs among regions. Foley said institutions are also wary of the effects on low-income and first-generation students, who often rely more on campus facilities and resources.

“They need to keep studying that data and try to make the best decisions they can,” he said. “If they do have to close again, at least they will have had the preparation of the March shutdown.”