A hulking bronze statue of a bearded Scottish warrior rises from a plaza at Edinboro University — a 12-ton, donor-funded tribute to students at the 163-year-old institution who call themselves “Fighting Scots.”
One hundred fifty miles away, at California University of Pennsylvania, “Blaze” the Vulcan and his oversized feet are the latest iteration of the Roman god of fire who has been linked for generations to Cal U’s identity. Then there’s the Clarion University “Golden Eagles,” a nickname adopted by a place whose message is, “Courageous. Confident. Clarion.”
Campus identity is no small thing, as those who would merge these three state-owned universities may find. The ailing State System of Higher Education is embarking on a process driven by population loss, financial realities and, perhaps, politics.
One thing is certain: It will be highly personal for the schools and their 150,000-plus alumni, many of them first-generation college students who might never have become teachers, nurses, engineers or artists had a public college not been within striking distance of their hometowns.
It’s what appears on a student’s diploma and resume, the place where undergraduates met their future spouse and lifelong friends, where they cheered the home team and, years later, donated what they could to help future generations.
The same is true mid-state where Bloomsburg, Lock Haven and Mansfield universities face what State System leaders prefer to call “integration.”
That’s partly why combining institutions public or private is never easy, said Randy Burge, a senior vice president with Stamats, a firm in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, focused on higher education branding, marketing and research.
Reassuring skeptical students and parents during any coming transition would mean convincing them that the new entity “has more value than the sum of its parts,” he said.
“There’s a real challenge as far as alumni goes,” Mr. Burge explained. “Their allegiance is to the institution they graduated from.”’
He recalled the 1967 marriage of Case Institute of Technology and Western Reserve University to form Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. That painstaking evolution spanned generations and included a new school of management and two separate alumni associations.
Athletics are a touchy point, too.
“Are you going to have three football teams? Are you going to have football at one campus and basketball at another? Does one campus end up getting golf?” Mr. Burge asked.
Where do the hubs land?
If indeed “six will become two” — a description used by state Rep. Curtis Sonny, R-Erie, to describe the proposed integrations — then it begs the question of which two campuses will emerge as hubs for the new entities, both with a single chief executive, shared faculty and staff and one enrollment strategy.
In Western Pennsylvania, it might be the campus with the most students or the one closest to Pittsburgh, the most successful academically or the one furthest along in shifting to high demand offerings. Or maybe it’s simply the community where its new leader prefers to live.
A campus with sway in Harrisburg could have an edge, as legislators fight to protect the campus in their home districts and the economic vitality that comes with it, experts said.
What campus a student is on can be less important as online programming grows, said Karen Whitney, who was formerly both Clarion president and interim State System chancellor. The pandemic has pushed schools more deeply into remote learning and that could help with any integration, said Ms. Whitney, now interim chancellor of the University of Illinois at Springfield.
Still, there are worries.
What happens to educational quality when hundreds of faculty are laid off, class sizes increase and majors potentially are dispersed between campuses hours apart?
Jamie Martin, a professor at Indiana University of Pennsylvania and president of the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties, argues that system students deserve class sizes as small as those at places like the University of Pittsburgh and Penn State.
Daniel Greenstein, State System chancellor, insists that integrations are about saving academic programs, not killing them, even if it means fewer faculty. His 14 universities enroll nearly 94,000 students, down by 22% or 25,000 students from a decade ago, with individual campuses suffering losses approaching 50%.
Pennsylvania simply can no longer justify 14 fully independent state universities, he said, but low-enrolled programs at each can be rescued by leveraging combined campuses and expanding online offerings to grow new markets, in particular for working adults.
“If we keep our eyes on that prize,” he said, “my guess is that financial stabilization will follow.”
What parents hear
The tough road ahead was clear from an Oct. 19 hearing before the General Assembly, as lawmakers could not agree if system mismanagement or their own tepid government support, near the bottom among 50 states, was why they were there.
State Rep. Peter Schweyer, D-Lehigh County, asked if families will hear integration and take it as something entirely different.
“It begs the question, for those parents, of which four campuses are getting closed and when are they closing, because that’s what I heard,” said Mr. Schweyer, a House Appropriations Committee member. “And if I’m a parent thinking of sending my kid to Cal, why wouldn’t I just send my kid to a branch campus of Pitt or Penn State?”
He added, “That is really the question that is being asked in homes across the Commonwealth.”
Even under Act 50, which enables the State System to consolidate campuses, closing a university is not allowed, Mr. Greenstein replied. “That’s not happening.”
But the market for traditional-age students is shrinking, and Pennsylvania serves up “more higher education in the wrong places than the state needs for its economic self interest,” he said.
Look no further than unused dorm space. In fall 2019, even before the pandemic, 8,774 or 24% of the system’s 36,134 on-campus beds were empty, according to a review of State System data.
David Pidgeon, a system spokesman, could not say last week what share of vacancies are in newer, suite-style, housing built across the system. They helped fuel an enrollment boom that peaked in 2010, but also generated huge construction debt.
The State System is demolishing a number of buildings including residence halls, he said, and the vacancies “underscore why the system continues to pursue a restructuring and reform agenda.”
Not just another statue
At Edinboro, the mammoth Fighting Scot statue was gifted by the Alumni Association in 2010 through sales of bricks and pavers over 13 years to cover the $606,000 project. The statue is in a plaza near the Pogue student center and rises 16 feet including pedestal.
The artist behind it is no stranger to campus.
Back in 1968, a love of art and basketball drew Jim Prokell, a first-generation college student and Edinboro Class of 1972, to the campus whose proximity to Lake Erie brings deep snows.
The 6’ 2” forward raised in Green Tree excelled on the court, and ultimately was drafted by the National Basketball Association’s Buffalo Braves. More importantly, a bachelor’s degree in art education enabled him to teach and pursue his passion.
Mr. Prokell, now 71, of Brentwood, took classes by day, hit the hardwood each afternoon and spent some nights working in campus art studios.
“Edinboro gave me this opportunity to really begin to explore a dream I wouldn’t have had otherwise,” he said.
California, Clarion and Edinboro were founded in 1852, 1867 and 1857 respectively, becoming normal schools and teachers colleges before the State System’s creation in 1983 under ACT 188 made them part of 14 member universities.
Clarion initially was a seminary. California Academy grew out of one building, Old Main, on what is now Cal U’s 294-acre campus. Edinboro was founded by descendants of Scottish settlers who moved across Pennsylvania from Lycoming County shortly after the Revolutionary War.
By the numbers A county-by-county look at trends affecting enrollment at the 14 state-owned universities belonging to the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education shows wide variation in population and high school graduate numbers. It reflects the large impact of Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and surrounding counties and smaller impacts from the north and central part of the state. STATE SYSTEM 2019-20 ENROLLMENT, BY COUNTY:
Source: Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education
Chance Brinkman-Sull/Post-Gazette
All three campuses rode an enrollment wave that peaked in 2010 and since has contracted: Cal U’s 6,886 students is down 37% from 9,400; Clarion’s enrollment of 4,465 off by 39% from 7,315, and Edinboro’s enrollment of 4,319 students half what it was in 2010.
But combined, they could become Western Pennsylvania’s largest state-owned university — eclipsing Indiana University of Pennsylvania, whose enrollment has shrunk by 33% to 10,067
That fact wasn’t lost on Rep. James Struzzi, whose district includes part of Indiana County. He asked during last month’s hearing if the combined schools “are going to draw enrollment away from the stand-alone schools?”
The fight ahead
The State System is Pennsylvania’s least expensive public university option, though its price advantage has slipped. Combining universities while staying true to Act 188’s pledge to provide all Pennsylvanians equitable opportunities will be a challenge with so many educational, political and economic interests involved, experts said.
“You have lawmakers who represent these institutions who are going to fight for them, and fight for them hard,“ said Terry Madonna, a political analyst and professor at Franklin & Marshall College who previously taught in the State System and headed its faculty union.
For his part, Mr. Prokell said he accepts that change is inevitable, but also hopes the State System keeps its pledge to honor the history of each campus, including Edinboro and the epic Fighting Scot so large it was trucked to campus on a flatbed.
“I hope they don’t melt it down.”
Bill Schackner: bschackner@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1977 and on Twitter: @Bschackner
First Published: November 1, 2020, 11:30 a.m.
