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The 14 universities that comprise ​​​​​Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education are preparing for $70 million to $100 million in state budget slashing this spring, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. And an influential state lawmaker is questioning whether all 14 universities will remain financially viable during the coronavirus crisis.
State Senator Scott Martin, a Republican who is a member of the system's governing board, told the newspaper that closures are a worst-case scenario.
“The status quo won’t lead to the long-term solvency of the system,” Martin said to the Inquirer. “I don’t know if [it’s enough] in the short term for a lot of the schools.”
Even before the crisis, the system had faced challenging finances, particularly in a state that is home to a shrinking number of potential traditional-age college students.
Writing about the system's budget request in a February blog post, Dan Greenstein, PASSHE's chancellor, called for new approaches by both the state and the universities.
"Our strength, our potential, is also threatened by years of neglect on the part of the Commonwealth, which for too long has chosen to underfund public higher education," he wrote. "But we too, are party to that neglect -- not owing to incompetence or negligence or mal-intent. On the contrary, I am every day impressed by the quality, talent, commitment and good intent of our faculty and staff. Still, for whatever reason, we have been slow to evolve in ways that enable us to meet the dramatically changing needs of our students, their employers, our communities and the state. And we have been slow to address the practical financial challenges that result from long-running structural changes in the demographic and political economy of Pennsylvania higher education."
-- Paul Fain