In an effort to curb some of the confusion around recent plans for the consolidation of six universities, the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education’s (PASSHE) system redesign website has answered some of the common questions that students and faculty have brought up.
The consolidated universities include Bloomsburg, Mansfield and Lock Haven in North Central PA, and Clarion, California and Edinboro in the west.
Each school will keep its original name, but students will be able to take advantage of the resources offered at the other schools. At the same time, the website clarifies even with resources, no student will be required to travel between the three consolidated campuses to complete coursework but can if they so choose: “Integration will create many new opportunities to access courses, majors, minors, degrees and stackable credentials. Some courses and programs may be conducted remotely or through hybrid modalities across the identified campuses.”
According to PASSHE, students will be able to complete their degree from the university they started at, and more resources will be available to them because of the consolidation. The willingness of students to take these hybrid or online courses from other universities has not been assessed.
As for sports, PASSHE is still planning to allow each individual college to have its own sports teams: “integrating campuses are pursuing a path with the NCAA that allows each campus to retain and continue its current complement of sports and existing sports teams.”
With more than 100 retrenchment letters being received by PASSHE faculty last fall, it has been acknowledged that more faculty layoffs could result with the plans to consolidate university resources and programs.
Chancellor Greenstein, who introduced the plans earlier this year, has addressed the excitement of many students and faculty regarding the plan despite continued public confusion and frustration.
Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties (APSCUF) President Jamie Martin states that despite the chancellor’s claims of excitement and positivity around the plans, APSCUF is “hearing a completely different story from our faculty.” To clear up the competing opinions, APSCUF surveyed 1,469 PASSHE faculty members and found that “less than 8% of the faculty support the consolidation, only 7% believe that the process has been transparent, 63% of the faculty do not believe the curriculum array will reflect their work and only 2% believe that that their students are excited about the consolidation.”
It is possible that student excitement is so low because many students are in the dark about the whole process. When asked if they had any thoughts about the recent plans for consolidation, a Bloomsburg University freshman said, “I don’t have a whole lot of opinions on it. The school is making it out that everything will be the same still.”
As students continue to deal with COVID-19 in addition to end-of-year projects and finals, the consolidation of their university, which will not likely occur until the fall of 2022, seems to be the last thing on their list.
The final details of the consolidation will be presented to the PA Board of Governors to be approved on April 28.
Emma Hogan is a first-year English major. EH954390@wcupa.edu