Slippery Rock launches new College of Health Professions

Citing growing workforce needs and the popularity of a series of graduate health care and health information programs, the Slippery Rock University council of trustees approved the creation of a new College of Health Professions.

The academic unit that will officially begin operating next fall will provide a central home for 12 graduate and undergraduate degree programs now scattered across other colleges in the state-owned university in rural Butler County.

John Bonaguro, who was hired as the first dean of the new college, successfully shepherded a similar effort at Western Kentucky University from 2003 through 2015.

He said locating all of the programs in a single college with a focus on health care will allow for efficiencies in advising and creating clinical relationships and increase the visibility of Slippery Rock’s programs to potential students and employers.

The decision to create the college adds a new flavor at the school born in 1889 as a teacher prep academy. It comes as the pandemic continues to highlight a growing need for health care workers, with many in the current workforce experiencing burnout and approaching retirement age.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects double-digit growth in the next decade in demand in graduate level professions, including physical and occupational therapy, physician assistants and health informatics.

Indeed, the need for information management in the health care sector was sufficient to persuade the federal government to set aside $80 million in grant money to expand such programs. Slippery Rock is now leading a consortium of five Pennsylvania State System schools—including Cheyney, East Stroudsburg, Indiana and Millersville universities — seeking a piece of the pie.

Bonaguro said there are no immediate plans to add any new programs at Slippery Rock at the moment. Rather, officials would like to grow and strengthen the existing programs that have helped kept the school’s enrollment numbers steady. That was an accomplishment that set Slippery Rock aside as 12 out of 14 State System schools struggled with significant declines in enrollment, which foreshadowed merger agreements and layoffs at some institutions.

Slippery Rock, which has long hosted a popular degree program in physical therapy as well as an online bachelor’s degree completion program for registered nurses, launched a master’s degree program in public health and a physician assistant program designed to focus on rural health care needs in 2016. In fall 2018, it added a doctoral program in occupational health and a master’s degree in health informatics.

Amanda Yale, Slippery Rock’s director of enrollment management, said the university structured several of its undergraduate programs to feed into the graduate programs and shorten the period of time necessary for program completion. She said the popular graduate programs helped stabilize overall enrollment.

“We do a lot of 4+1, 3+2 and 3+3 programs. That has been very attractive for students because they can cut a year off undergraduate work in these accelerated programs. And we know that two-thirds of students coming in today say their plans are to a earn master’s or doctoral degree,” Yale said.

Bonaguro said students seem to thrive in the settings Slippery Rock has partnered with for clinical rotations.

While many rural colleges and universities have faced slips in enrollment as the population of rural American declined, Yale and Bonaguro said Slippery Rock has taken advantage of its location in northern Butler County to build relationships with rural communities facing health care needs.

Yale said students have found work in such communities rewarding.

“We work with Allegheny Health Network, Butler Health and UPMC and we are able to find placements often in rural areas where there are critical needs. We have physician assistants who can go out and have an impact,” Yale said.