Consultant recommends collaboration for Pennsylvania state schools' survival

Pennsylvania's State System of Higher Education doesn't need to close or merge any of its 14 universities, but it must change from the top down to survive, a consultant reported Wednesday.

Collaboration, not competition, will be key to the schools' survival, Dennis Jones, president emeritus of the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems, told the system's board of governors. That should begin with changes to the enabling legislation that established the system more than three decades ago, starting with the dissolution of the system's oversight board, Jones said.

“You must replace the board of governors with a board of regents made up of lay members. This is the only board in the country that is made up of representatives of various schools,” he told the board.

Student representatives and the state education secretary should remain on the board, Jones said.

“We all have a stake in the future of the state system, so we wanted everyone to receive the same information, at the same time, from NCHEMS,” said Cynthia D. Shapira, chairwoman of the PASSHE board of governors. “With these recommendations now in-hand, we will carefully review them before determining how the system evolves in the months and years ahead.”

The PASSHE schools, which enrolled about 105,000 students statewide last fall, include California, Clarion, Edinboro, Indiana and Slippery Rock universities in Western Pennsylvania.

The oversight board spent $400,000 this year to hire Colorado-based NCHEMS to assist in reviewing the system that has weathered six consecutive years of enrollment declines and faces a $71 million budget deficit.

The system arrived at that point by pursuing a business plan based on constant growth rather than student service, Jones said.

“There are two truths in all of this,” he said. “There is nobody without culpability in this room. All parties have had hands in digging the hole in which the state system finds itself, and all parties are going to have work together to dig it out.”

Jones cited frequent turnover among university presidents and blurred lines of responsibility among the issues the system must address.

PASSHE needs to make fundamental changes “from decision making that is more heavily influenced by politics and interests rather any policy leadership on behalf of students,” he said.

Jones also reminded board members of the system's charge to serve working class families. He said future tuition increases could price the schools out of reach for many Pennsylvania students.

Members of the board of governors and PASSHE officials adjourned for a series of meetings with NCHEMS representatives following the presentation.

While the entire study will be released later this month, Jones on Wednesday detailed the key recommendations his team is making. In addition to retaining all schools and replacing the board of governors, they included:

• Reorienting the chancellor's office to providing policy guidance and providing support and leadership to universities.

• Reconfiguring the most-struggling universities to retain their core character and programs and enabling them to leverage system and regional resources.

• Adopting a finance model that can be adapted to individual universities' needs and incentivizing collaboration over competition.

• Ensuring that future collective bargaining agreements promote “nimbleness” in response to institutional needs and are financially feasible for all universities in the system.

• Committing to shared governance that respects the role of faculty in advising and consulting on academic matters.

And, finally, in a state where nearly 300 institutions of higher education compete for students, Jones said there must be a place for a state-level conversation about the allocation of resources at every level of higher education.

“This state just needs a place where you can talk about where are the gaps in service, how to reconcile state system and state-related campuses and ‘What are our recommendations to the Legislature?' ” he said. “You are one of the few states that does not have a place to have that conversation, and it is obvious.”

Debra Erdley is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach her at 412-320-7996, derdley@tribweb.com or via Twitter @deberdley_trib.