Pennsylvania\u2019s higher education institutions largely got a flat budget under Gov. Josh Shapiro\u2019s spending plan released last month \u2014 but school leaders last week urged state House lawmakers to bump up their appropriations, arguing that the commonwealth needs the investment.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The requests come as the pool of high school graduates shrinks, projected state expenses outpace revenue and the federal government restricts its funding. But state-owned and state-related universities, as well community colleges, said the state dollars are needed to offset costs that would otherwise fall on students.<\/p>\n
MORE:\u00a0Philly school district plans to cut hundreds of positions to reduce $300 million deficit, but no layoffs are coming<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThe math is very clear that when you hold appropriations flat in an inflationary environment, expenses continue to go up and we have to figure that out somehow,\u201d said Joan Gabel, chancellor and CEO of the University of Pittsburgh. \u201cThat has resulted in tuition increases.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n She said tuition increases for the last 10 years fell below inflation, \u201cwhich is resulting in a very heavy constraint on other strategic investments that we\u2019re able to make.\u201d<\/p>\n Pitt seeks $161 million, up from its current $155 million.<\/p>\n Temple University\u2019s president pointed to cost-cutting measures \u2014 such as an early retirement program that saved $15 million \u2014 taken in conjunction with new initiatives, namely expanding public safety efforts in Philadelphia, a medical campus in York and a dental clinic in Tamaqua<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can\u2019t cut your way to success,\u201d John Fry said. \u201cRight now, we\u2019re under intense pressure to continue to look at the expense side. To continue to balance our budget without using too much of our reserves. It\u2019s a tight position.\u201d<\/p>\n Temple, which currently gets $158 million, is asking for $183 million. The state\u2019s largest school, Penn State, is in line for $278 million under Shapiro\u2019s proposal \u2014 but university leaders said an appropriation of $394 million would allow it to freeze tuition rates for undergraduate students.<\/p>\n The last state-related school, Lincoln University, asked for $24 million, up from Shapiro\u2019s proposed $23 million. Shapiro also proposed creating a performance-based fund of $30 million for state-related schools, which are public-private hybrid options with lower costs for in-state students.<\/p>\n Challenges for state-owned schools and community colleges<\/p>\n The state\u2019s 15 community colleges<\/a> would get $277 million under Shapiro\u2019s proposal, but they are requesting $294 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n Traditionally, operating costs for these schools are supposed to be a three-way split between the state, local governments and students \u2014 but falling government appropriations means that, \u201cstudents are bearing much of the burden of attending a community college,\u201d said Tuesday Stanley, president and CEO of the Pennsylvania Commission for Community Colleges.\u00a0<\/p>\n The 10 state-owned institutions<\/a> under the Pennsylvania State System for Higher Education seek $652 million, up from their current $626 million allocation. PSSHE Chancellor Christopher Florentino said the 5% increase \u201crequires us to focus on keeping our belts tight,\u201d but \u201cwould enable us to keep tuition at the same level into the following year.\u201d<\/p>\n Campuses include the Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Cheyney, PennWest Clarion and Shippensburg.<\/p>\n The increased interest in online learning \u2014 specifically from older students who left school before completing a degree \u2014 counteracts the declining number of traditional college students between the ages of 18 and 22 years, Florentino said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is a sizable extra market in the commonwealth, and there are challenges around it because we can\u2019t just treat them as if they\u2019re 18-years-olds,\u201d he added. \u201cThey\u2019re at a very different place in their lives, and we need to recognize that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n That added flexibility can also be beneficial for people looking to make a mid-career change, said Karen Riley, president of Slippery Rock University.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe haven\u2019t heard that people will stop learning, quite the contrary. People\u2019s jobs will not be more static \u2014 in fact, they will be much more fluid in the future and so we have to be nimble,\u201d Riley said.\u00a0<\/p>\n At neighboring Butler County Community College, President Megan Covall highlighted how community colleges could be used to quickly establish training programs for local industry and meet workforce development needs.<\/p>\n \u201cI would just say that the benefit of being a community college, and certainly sharing a county with a PSSHE institution, we\u2019re very connected to local business and industry,\u201d Covall said. \u201cDown the road from BCCC is Cleveland Cliffs. They just got some new machinery and some new heating and cooling equipment, so we were able to set up a program for them to train their employees.\u201d<\/p>\n Community colleges in Lehigh and Montgomery counties are similarly launching new programs following major investments from Eli Lilly<\/a> and Johnson & Johnson, respectively, to train specialized workers.<\/p>\n Time to ‘right size’ the state\u2019s higher education landscape?<\/p>\n Penn State President Neeli Bendapudi said funding hasn\u2019t kept up with inflation for decades. With more than 41,000 undergrad students, she said the university got \u201csubstantially less\u201d per student when compared to its state peers \u2014 whether a state-related university or another state school.\u00a0<\/p>\n In light of its commonwealth campus closures<\/a> last year following financial difficulties, however, some lawmakers criticized the request for additional funding.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t help but feel that it\u2019s super hypocritical that you\u2019re here talking about Pennsylvania investing in Penn State, when Penn State has turned its back on seven commonwealth campuses, including Penn State Fayette in my district,\u201d said Rep. Charity Krupa (R-Fayette).\u00a0<\/p>\n Bendapudi called it \u201can agonizing decision,\u201d saying the institution sought to work with communities through the transition.<\/p>\n \u201cI cannot deny how painful it is to the community and to the individuals there. There\u2019s nothing I can say that makes that go away because it\u2019s true,\u201d said Bendapudi, responding to another legislator about their campus closure. \u201cI will tell you that the lack of population in those areas makes it very expensive for a Penn State degree to be there.\u201d<\/p>\n Echoing some concerns raised by Senate Republicans in earlier budget hearings, Rep. Jim Struzzi (R-Indiana) wondered about the need to \u201cright size\u201d the state\u2019s higher education landscape.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI think we all appreciate the importance of higher education. I think we\u2019ve heard a lot today about the demographic challenges and perhaps the need to right size higher education,\u201d Struzzi said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Bendapudi called the number of schools in the commonwealth \u201ca challenge,\u201d adding that there are 20% fewer 1-year-olds than 18-year-olds in the state.<\/p>\n \u201cPennsylvania has way too many colleges per student,\u201d she said. \u201cI don\u2019t know how we address it, but that\u2019s the reality.\u201d<\/p>\n Pennsylvania Capital-Star<\/a> is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Pennsylvania Capital-Star maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Tim Lambert for questions: info@penncapital-star.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania\u2019s higher education institutions largely got a flat budget under Gov. Josh Shapiro\u2019s spending plan released last month…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138821,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[30872,227,28,30,29,69,28217,12918],"class_list":["post-138820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-community-college","tag-education","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-philadelphia","tag-temple","tag-universities"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138820\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}