Faculty union blasts leader of Pa. state universities: ‘His job was to improve the system, not tear it down’
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Instructors and coaches are blasting the leader of the state-owned universities for saying that the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education should be reorganized or dissolved.
At a Senate budget hearing last week, Chancellor Dan Greenstein warned that if a proposal to consolidate some universities doesn’t happen, he will come back to lawmakers next year and recommend the system’s dissolution. Greenstein said the system’s serious financial challenges must be addressed because the status quo is unsustainable.
The state system serves students who attend Bloomsburg, California, Cheyney, Clarion, East Stroudsburg, Edinboro, Indiana, Kutztown, Lock Haven, Mansfield, Millersville, Shippensburg, Slippery Rock, and West Chester universities.
Nonetheless, Greenstein’s remarks surprised and angered the system’s faculty. Members of the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties’ executive council held a 90-minute emergency meeting on Tuesday to discuss Greenstein’s warning.
While the council made no specific recommendation, a statement issued on Wednesday about that discussion made it clear his statements drew outrage and disappointment.
“The chancellor’s timing makes these remarks even more destructive,” said Christopher Hallen, vice president of the faculty union. “We are in the middle of recruiting for next year, and his suggestion of dissolving the system can only undermine the confidence of parents, students and communities. The chancellor often points out that enrollments have declined, and yet his statement will negatively impact our recruiting efforts — and, by extension, our enrollments. Why would the leader of any university system insinuate it should be dismantled?”’
During the Senate budget hearing, Greenstein spoke of the urgent need to revamp the system to address the financial challenges and declining enrollment. The system includes 14 universities serving 93,700 students.
The chancellor pointed out the universities are part of a single corporation and cross-subsidization amongst the schools is necessary and will continue unless the system pivots to a more financially sustainable path.
“Unless we figure this out,” Greenstein said, “I will be recommending to the board that we come back to the Senate next year with a legislative package to dissolve the system because if we continue to go down this path what you’re going to see is that cross-subsidization is going to drain all of us.”
His statement came in response to the frustration expressed by Sen. Joe Pittman, R-Indiana County, over how the financial troubles at other universities were a drain on Indiana University of Pennsylvania. IUP has announced plans for layoffs and program eliminations.
Greenstein issued a statement Wednesday reiterating that he believes in the state system and wants it to endure. But the system must recognize the financial realities and adjust accordingly.
“I understand the manner in which I conveyed this information left an impression, for some, that dissolving the State System was a preferred course of action,” Greenstein said in the statement. “Nothing could be further from the truth.
“In that same hearing, I reiterated that dismantling the State System—leaving our 14 institutions to fend for themselves—would be a disaster for our students and the communities we serve. At the same time, an even greater disaster would be to do nothing. That would drain our universities’ collective resources, leaving each of them impaired. Our System Redesign—challenging as it is—will alter that path, allowing us to preserve affordable, high-quality education for all Pennsylvanians at each of our institutions,” he said.
The system is pursuing a plan to consolidate six universities into two sets of three campuses. That proposed consolidations would bring Bloomsburg, Mansfield and Lock Haven together as one university and Clarion, California and Edinboro together as another. The goal is to balance budgets and hopefully spur growth in enrollment.
All six campuses would remain open but would operate with a single administration, a single faculty, a single academic program and single enrollment management strategy. The system’s board plans to meet next month to approve a preliminary plan for carrying out those consolidations.
That would be followed by a 60-day public comment period with a final decision expected to come in July. The soonest the first students would be enrolled in the consolidated universities would be August 2022.
In a statement issued earlier in the week, system spokesman Dave Pidgeon said, “The chancellor last week laid out financial realities and what options are ahead, including following through on the opportunities integrations presents. We must confront reality, and the reality is, we are 47th in the nation in public higher education spending, we are still in the middle of a pandemic, and in spite of those and other challenges, our mission to provide high quality, affordable post-secondary opportunities remains the same.”
The faculty union, which represents 5,000 professors and coaches, hasn’t taken a position on the proposed consolidations. But the union made clear at Tuesday’s meeting it doesn’t like the chancellor’s messaging about what the future may hold for their universities.
John Gump, the union’s coach executive leader, underscored the detrimental timing for student and athlete recruitment.
“Recruiting is the lifeblood of college athletics,” he said. “Coaches are now working with the classes of 2022 and 2023. To have the chancellor make these comments hinders the efforts of our members as they work to continue to bring students to our campuses and programs.”
“Since Chancellor Greenstein arrived in Harrisburg, he has been preaching the doctrine of ‘systemness’ across the Commonwealth,” Gump said. “So, it was disappointing and disheartening to hear him threaten to dissolve the System in his testimony last week. Although, I suppose taking the anxiety and uncertainty that presently exists on the six campuses targeted for consolidation and spreading it to the other eight is, in some bizarre way, an example of that ‘systemness.’
Another union officer, West Chester University faculty member Clifford Johnston, said in the statement he was appalled by the chancellor’s remark.
“West Chester University, while not part of the consolidation, has cautiously accepted the chancellor’s ‘systemness’ approach — 14 universities supporting each other while holding each other accountable — because we see the value of the State System to our students and the entire commonwealth,” he said. “His job was to improve the system, not tear it down.”
Last week, the union’s President Jamie Martin called the chancellor’s warning “reckless and irresponsible. Despite the chancellor’s later insistence that he was not making a threat, we are incredulous that he would bring up such a radical, explosive possibility — and I am certain that many of our members perceived it as a threat.
“The chancellor should be a leader and advocate for higher education in Pennsylvania, but his suggestion only creates fear, uncertainty and mistrust for students, their families, faculty, coaches, staff and Pennsylvania residents. His detrimental testimony crossed a line, and we are shocked, appalled and outraged.”