State System hearings this week on proposed university integrations
HARRISBURG, Pa. – Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education will host four public hearings on Wednesday and Thursday this week to review the proposed integration of six universities into two institutions.
The virtual hearings are part of what the state system calls “a transparent, consultative process outlined in state law that has guided the system toward its goal of expanding student opportunities through integrations.” The proposed plans would create two combinations of three co-equal campuses: California-Clarion-Edinboro universities in the western region and Bloomsburg-Lock Haven-Mansfield in the northeast.
“Feedback from the public is an integral part of our efforts to creatively re-imagine the structure of public higher education in a way that expands student opportunities, supports their success, and sets these campuses for sustainability deeper into the 21st century,” Board chair Cindy Shapira said in a recent release. “The hearings are not only part of the process outlined in state law, they are also the right thing to do because these efforts are in support of public higher education in the Commonwealth.”
The hearing schedule will be:
June 9, 2021 at 8 a.m. (western plan)
June 9, 2021 4:30 p.m. (western plan)
June 10, 2021 at 8 a.m. (northeastern plan)
June 10, 2021 4:30 p.m. (northeastern plan)
The hearings live on YouTube, participation through ZOOM.
Each hearing will include brief presentations by system leaders as well as opportunity for the public to voice their feedback on the proposed integrations.
“By hosting morning and late-afternoon hearings, the public will have greater opportunity and choice for when they would like to participate,” Chancellor Dan Greenstein said. “We made a commitment when this journey began almost a year ago to be consultative and transparent because we are doing nothing less than reimagining how public higher education is delivered in Pennsylvania. This is historic. This can profoundly support students by giving them access to academic programming and other activities across three campuses, more than a single campus can offer. And if successful it will mean serving these regional economies deeper into the 21st century by maintaining and expanding quality, affordable higher education.”
Integration is possible through Act 50 of 2020, legislation passed by near-unanimous vote in the General Assembly and signed by Gov. Tom Wolf. It proposes at both California-Clarion-Edinboro and Bloomsburg-Lock Haven-Mansfield single leadership teams, faculty cohorts, enrollment management, and budgets while opening academic program at the co-equal campuses to all students. It also places priority on maintaining unique identities and experiences at the six campuses and, while maintaining traditional residential education experiences, expanding into potential growth areas – non-degree credential and non-credential up-skilling programs in the northeast and affordable, Pennsylvania-based fully online programming in the west.
