State System Chancellor Greenstein Visits Clarion University for Listening Tour

Ron Wilshire

Ron Wilshire

Published October 17, 2018 7:45 am
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CLARION, Pa. (EYT) – Daniel Greenstein, Chancellor of Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education, had some good news and some challenges for Clarion University at an open forum on Tuesday afternoon.

“I didn’t come here to close campuses,” said Greenstein, who led the Postsecondary Success Strategy at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for the past six years.

“I am an educator and have been one all of my life. I believe in the power of education to change lives. I believe in the power of education for upward mobility and social justice.”

The new chancellor is visiting each of the System’s 14 campuses and looking for suggestions and ideas from students, faculty, staff, alumni, and the community on how to change the culture of the system to better meet student needs at a time of some drastic decreases in enrollment across the state.

Some might ask why he would leave Seattle and the land of Microsoft for a position in Harrisburg and the challenges facing the system.

“It’s simple,” Greenstein explained. “It’s an opportunity for all of us to help reimagine higher education in this country. The challenges facing the state system are pretty acute, but they’re not unique in higher education. The challenges we are facing nationally boil down to one thing: how do we sustain the universities in our system so that they can ensure that all students can affordably get the education they need to sustain themselves and their family to participate effectively in the 21st-century economy.”

“It sounds daunting, but I believe working together with the faculty staff and students of this great university, its system, and surrounding business, civic, and political communities. We’re probably in better shape than any other place in this country to take on the challenge and to succeed in addressing it. We have the passion, we have the grit and determination, and we have the sense of emergency to take this on and win which is why I’m here.”

When he stepped down from his role at Seattle, he went shopping for a university or system that was in an acute state such as this one that he believed had what it takes to find a path through the challenge.

“It is not just for PASHEE, but nationally, because what we have to do,” said Greenstein. “I chose here.”

On more than one occasion during the open forum, he referred to himself as an optimist and noted that the culture in the State System needs to be repaired between the Board of Governors, upper management, faculty, and staff. He believes that is a sign of current political times but thinks relations can be repaired with a climate of mutual respect, trust and the ability to have polite, civil discourse.

“Our biggest challenge is our culture. From my early observation deck culture is defined by distrust between management and labor between faculty and staff between universities in the system from between trustees and board members.”

chancellor forum

Chancellor Daniel Greenstein, System Board Chair Cynthia Shapira, and Clarion University President Dr. Dale-Elizabeth Pehrsson at Forum.

Another task in the State System is to truly understand who its students are and where they’re going to determine how to proceed.

“We need a genuine public system that is providing access across the entire state. That’s my kind of vision. That’s where the recent Rand Study jumped to organizational construct, but function should come first, and form follows function. Let’s try to find out where we’re going and then determine the functions needed to get there. We have to have a reasonable discussion about it and decide which to pursue.”

The entire model for colleges needs to change.

“We’re struggling to deliver a quality education to our students using a support and business model operating since the 1950s focusing on high school graduates and educating them for careers in business and industry and civil and political services. These models have served us super well, and they’ve served our students super well. However, their effectiveness has waned as a composition and needs of the student body and the demands put upon us by employers and our funding models have all changed dramatically.”

“In a state like Pennsylvania where the graduating high school students are expected to remain flat until 2025 when it declines perceptively and are compounded by cutthroat competition, our public and private colleges in this environment are engaged in cut-throat competition. Competition drives the price up and quality down, but colleges with fewer resources can’t do as well.  There are populations of students who are underserved, adult learners, and low-income students of color, single-working parents, and they deserve our attention, too. We know that educating those students requires a fundamental rethinking of our practice and approach. It’s something that we must do even at a time of lagging investment and force us to increase tuition which forces enrollment decline and creates a vicious cycle.”

“We’re in a position where we have to innovate, so we can change so that we can thrive. We are operating on fumes.”

Greenstein took questions from the crowd concerning diversity, public relations problems (specifically regarding enrollment), online education, helping students become entrepreneurs, competition between schools, and implementing programs without being delayed by extensive processes.

Greenstein said he supports building diversity on the campuses, as universities are often the place where people can go to interact with others who aren’t like them.

Regarding public relations, he said we need to be honest about our enrollment issues and determine which populations are underserved such as adult learners, people of color, and single parents.

2018-19 Enrollment
2018 Enrollment
(Click on image for larger version.)

Recent information released by the State System shows drops in enrollment at most of its universities, including Clarion. This year, however, Clarion showed a 6.81 percent drop in enrollment at a total headcount of 4,869, but other schools had even larger decreases.

Other current enrollment facts include:

• Current enrollment is predominantly female with nearly 70%. Female enrollment totals 3,394, and male students are at 1,475.

• Enrollment includes 4,303 Pennsylvania residents and 566 students from outside Pennsylvania.

• Undergraduate enrollment includes 3,628 Pennsylvania residents and 314 non-Pennsylvania residents.

• Graduate enrollment is at 927 students. A total of 252 graduate students are non-Pennsylvania residents.

• 3149 undergraduate students are considered traditional, while 793 are nontraditional.

• 20.03 percent are nontraditional, and 79.97 percent are traditional.

Online Education Growing 

As for online education, Greenstein said it had come a long way, and it’s no question that online education offers the same quality as an on-the-ground delivery system. Each school needs to determine which programs work best online and which flavor of online delivery works best for those programs. While no figures were readily available, over 20 percent of Clarion’s enrollment can be attributed to online classes.

On the topic of competition among the State System schools, Greenstein said he believes schools need to have honest conversations with each other regarding programming and collaborate where possible.

Dr. Phil Frese, Dean of the College of Business and Information Sciences, said programs are developed often but delayed in the approval process by the Board of Governors in Harrisburg, allowing private schools to beat the State System in launching them.

Greenstein said he is aware of this situation, and steps have been taken to streamline the approval process.

Cynthia Shapira, chair of the State System Board of Governors, chimed in with her thoughts about the Board of Governors’ role and said the board’s number one goal is the student success.

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