Pa. State System moves ahead with mergers of 6 universities, including California, Clarion, Edinboro

Plans to consolidate six struggling state-owned universities into two mega schools with six campuses were approved for public comment Wednesday morning.

The board of governors of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education voted to begin a 60-day comment period on a plan to consolidate and rename California, Clarion and Edinboro universities into a single university in Western Pennsylvania and merge Bloomsburg, Lock Haven and Mansfield universities into a single university in Northeastern Pennsylvania.

The vote also marked the beginning of significant public pushback from the unions that represent staff and faculty at the universities. They voiced grave concerns that the proposals could add yet more issues for schools struggling to operate in the face of declining enrollment and state subsidies that rank 48th in the nation.

Jamie Martin is president of the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties, which represents 5,000 professors and coaches across the system. She said the two proposals, which total 439 pages, are light on details and do not adequately address the concerns of the faculty, staff, students and communities in the small towns where the universities are located.

The State System has 14 universities in all. It has struggled with sinking enrollment and stagnant state aid.

Other universities in the system are Cheyney, Kutztown, East Stroudsburg, Indiana, Millersville, Shippensburg, Slippery Rock and West Chester. With the exception of West Chester, which has grown enrollment over the last decade and Slippery Rock, which has maintained a steady enrollment, all of the universities have suffered enrollment declines of varying degrees as the population of new high school graduates in the state declined in recent years.

Both the consolidation plans and a public comment form are at available on the PASSHE website. Officials said there will be online public hearings June 9 and 10 as well as a series of public hearings and meetings in Harrisburg and at the six campuses.

A final vote could be scheduled for July.

If approved, the merger could take effect by the 2022-23 academic year.

The vote capped the most recent phase of an ongoing study that began last summer.

Officials said the plans could be revised based on public input before they are returned for a final vote later this year.

“This is not approving plans as-is,” board chair Cindy Shapiro said at the close of the two-hour online meeting. “This is saying, ‘We are at a point where we can continue to move forward, not go back to the drawing board, unless somehow out of public comment that appears to be the best solution.’ ”

All 6 to remain open

The two newly formed institutions would be the accredited entity, with a single management team, faculty, academic program array, budget and enrollment management strategy.

Each also will get a new name, yet to be determined, but would be selected from options that are market-tested for their appeal.

All six campuses would remain open, with its own identity and brand. The administration aims to ensure that each of the six campuses retains its sports teams.

The consolidation plan carries a $30 million price tag and promises only $19 million in short-term savings.

But officials hope the consolidation of leadership and back-office operations — coupled with small year-over-year enrollment gains, based in part on attracting more adult students and online learners — will put the institutions on a firm financial footing in the long run.

Goal: Cut cost of a degree

A goal of the plan is to reduce the cost of a degree for students by 25% through elements like faster degree attainment, high school dual enrollments, cost savings, stronger fundraising and grant funding, and more federal work-study opportunities.

Martin and others, however, questioned the impact the plans will have on students. She said they will lose out on the value of face-to-face learning and be forced to take more courses online under the consolidation plan.

Kyle Schlect, a junior social studies major at Lock Haven, said when students there began diving into the plan, they learned they would be faced with taking many courses online. He said most of his courses would be online under the plan.

“The majority of students do not support this,” Schlect said.

Martin suggested that Gov. Tom Wolf’s proposed Nellie Bly Scholarship plan, which would take $199 million from the Pennsylvania Race Horse Development Fund and funnel it to scholarships for 44,000 State System students, is a better option that could put both students and the universities on a firmer financial footing.

The proposed consolidations are perhaps the most dramatic change to the nearly four-decade-old system that is being buffeted by the drop in college-age Americans. It’s a factor that is hitting every higher education system in the United States.

Enrollment plummets

Enrollment has fallen by 22% since 2010 to about 95,000, driven by steep declines of students from families whose annual incomes are below $110,000, according to the system.

The greatest driver of that enrollment loss, according to the system, is affordability. The average price of attendance rose by 62% to almost $21,000 in the decade up through the 2018-19 school year, making the price of education less affordable.

Meanwhile, the system has received less state aid than it did in the 2006-07 school year, further shifting the burden of financing the system to students and tuition at a time when student debt is skyrocketing.

The statewide faculty union is critical of the plan, and a report by the University of Massachusetts-Amherst’s Political Economy Research Institute said that the reduction in staff would rank in the top 1% of layoffs in Pennsylvania since 2011.

Such a reduction would hurt local economies, drive up student-to-faculty ratios, make programs harder for students to access and expand waiting lists for campus services, the institute’s report warned.

Drop-outs high

System officials, however, said the consolidated institutions are projected to see enrollment growth, helped by a wider range of new programs that will be available to students, as well as by putting money into services to retain students.

“We have to do a better job of retaining students that come to the integrated entity,” Bashar Hanna, the president of Bloomsburg University and interim president of Lock Haven University, said during the meeting.

Many of the system’s schools lose one-third to one-fourth of students in their second year, according to its data.