HARRISBURG, Pa. — The chancellor of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education told the Board of Governors in a quarterly meeting Thursday that momentum is building toward the integration of multiple universities in the system "as a means of expanding student opportunities," the PSSHE said in a press release.
More then 1,000 students, faculty, staff, and volunteers have worked in 19 different working groups and 216 subgroups in the effort to integrate California, Clarion, and Edinboro universities in the western Pennsylvania and Bloomsburg, Mansfield, and Lock Haven universities in the east, Chancellor Dan Greenstein told the Board.
The System is moving toward its next milestone – the presentation of implementation plans to the Board at its next meeting in April, Greenstein said.
“The dedication and belief of so many colleagues – students, faculty, staff, alumni, trustees, and so many more – is inspiring and propels us toward our ultimate purpose, which is to create integrated institutions that expand student opportunities and set the stage for enrollment growth,” Greenstein said.
“The challenges confronting higher education in the United States and right here in the Commonwealth require the kind of creative and bold thinking we’re seeing from the working groups,” Board chair Cindy Shapira said. “The solutions we’re pursuing will support students and the communities in which our universities operate for years to come.”
Each of the two integrated entities would have a single administration, faculty cohort, enrollment management strategy, academic program array, and budget while also maintaining local institutional identity, athletics, student housing, campus life, and critical student supports at all three campuses, the PSSHE said.
“Our campuses get to keep so much of what matters to us – our identity, our athletic teams, the campus experience, and more – while at the same time benefitting from the scale that integration creates,” said Dale-Elizabeth Pehrsson, president of Clarion University, interim President of Edinboro University, and leader of the western integration effort. “Our dedicated and knowledgeable teams work on this every day, and every day it just makes more and more sense.”
While much work remains, among the paths being pursued are opening access to academic programs across three campuses while maintaining a robust program array at each campus and maintaining current athletic complements at each, the PSSHE said.
The integrations effort seeks to expand reach into new markets and is looking at a variety of creative ways to significantly reduce the total cost a student incurs acquiring a degree.
The integration team is expected to submit preliminary implementation plans to the Board in April, and if approved, those plans will be subject to a public comment period lasting 60 days.
The Board will then review the public comments and consider final implementation plans as early as July, which would mean the first cohort of students to enroll in an integrated university is the Fall Semester of 2022.
