Pennsylvania's State System of Higher
Education
14 universities
Infinite Opportunities
This week will learn how the
universities in the State System affect
the economy of their local communities
and the Commonwealth. But first we'll
hear from Ron Henry Finance Committee
Chair of the State System Board of Governors.
Hello, I'm Frank Brogan the
Chancellor of Pennsylvania's State System
of Higher Education and welcome to
another edition of Infinite
Opportunities. The opportunity for us to
talk about the 14 wonderful state
universities in Pennsylvania and the
contributions that each of those
publicly funded institutions make to our
students, to the country, and  to the world.
We're delighted to be with you today and
we've got an exciting guest who has
joined us to talk about our over a
hundred thousand students, our 14
universities and the opportunities that
we do provide in infinite ways. With us
today we have Ronald Henry. Ron Henry is
a member of the twenty member Board of
Governors. That's the governing body that
oversees our 14 state-owned publicly
subsidized universities and provides
those infinite opportunities. As a member
of that board he brings to the table
years of experience that he's racked up
in that capacity, but he also brings with
him a breadth and depth of knowledge of
just what makes Pennsylvania tick. Its
economy, its quality of life, and how we
can tie that together with what we do
with our students and for them to make
sure that they have ample opportunities
to high-quality jobs and inject the
quality of life into the future of this
state that we all want for it. So welcome
aboard Infinite Opportunities Mr Henry.
We're delighted to have you.
Thank you, glad to be here.
You're working a great deal as the chairman of our Finance and
Facilities Committee with the Board of
Governors on some of the most critical
issues facing the future of our
publicly-funded state university system.
Because finance, while not job one,
provides to us the tools that we do need,
the resources we have to have available
and the decisions we have to make to
chart a course for the future of our
system. More often than not when we talk
about these institutions we talk about
the contributions, understandably, that
are made to the students, but our
universities
and our system make a huge impact on the
overall fabric of the Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania. Can you tell us a little bit
about that impact.
Yes I'd be happy to.
You start out understanding that
Pennsylvania's a very large, very diverse state.
The 14 universities are located mostly in
rural areas, but all across the state.
And many of them have been an integral part
of their communities for more than a
hundred years.
The universities started out as teachers
colleges, normal schools, towns grew up
around them, they're inextricably
intertwined, both economically and
culturally. One of the things we try to
do as a system is to work with each of
the universities, their staff, and their
leadership to provide the best possible
comprehensive experience for students
that we can possibly come up with, but
also recognize the role they play both in the communities they live in and also to state.
We talk about the work of the
Board of Governors and as I mentioned to
our viewers you are obviously not only a
member but a very integral member of the
Board of Governors in terms of the
committee structure and how we oversee
issues for those state universities that
have to do with their finance, their
administration, their facilities, that's
the committee you chair, also audit
issues that we deal with and of course
the nucleus of our operation which is
the academic and student affairs
component. But coming out of all of these
committees in the work that we do is the
celebration in the knowledge that we are
trying, as I mentioned, to chart a path
for the future of these institutions.
Again, not only the impact it has on our
students, but the economic impact that it has
for those students, their futures, and
again, the entire Commonwealth. Recently
our System went through and finalized an
economic impact study that actually in a
data driven fashion show people exactly
what the economic impact of those 14
universities hold for the Commonwealth.
You're privy to that, you were helped
helped as an architect of its creation,
tell us a little bit about that economic
impact study.
The university system is the important
generator of economic activity across
the Commonwealth. In many respects,
particularly given the changes in
Pennsylvania's economy, the universities
play an ever increasing role in the
economic life of those communities. So we
thought to step back and take a look at
what the impact was of what the spending
is that those universities make. We were
surprised frankly, very positively
surprised, to see that about seven
billion dollars worth of economic
activity is generated by the state
university system. We're in 21 of 67 counties
at six point seven billion dollars,
actually shows that $11 in activities
generated by every dollar that the state
invests in the system in terms of
appropriation it's a tremendous economic
generator. We have 12,000 employees, we
have one hundred and seven thousand
students, we touch communities in the
Commonwealth a whole in every conceivable way.
It is interesting in the two and a
half years that I've been honored to be
the chancellor of this system that I've
watched this System working through some
very difficult economic times, that's not
news in Pennsylvania that's around the
country. And even at that continuously go
back and ask for support from the state
because we are publicly subsidized and
know that we're still in many ways
feeling the burden of the recession even
after all of these years. So resources
are tough and they're scarce in many
ways, but the dollars that are used and
the dollars we receive, I consider to be
as do you I know, an investment not an
expenditure, because the return on
investment and you just outlined in it
in a myriad of ways what that return on
investment is from our system is really
exciting for the future, not only in
terms of the workforce were turning out
with our students, but also the direct
everyday economic impact that we have.
One of the things that we've recently
done is work with a very prestigious
university that you're familiar with,
Georgetown University in Washington. And
through their Center on Education and
Workforce, which is well known nationally,
began to do work on what we call a supply demand
gap analysis.
What are the jobs in the
Commonwealth, how do we stack up against
filling those jobs, where were are we
oversaturated, where are we under subscribed,
and also gave us some really important
data about how our system operates. Can you tell us a little bit about the Georgetown study.
It was really very comprehensive view, but even though
it was comprehensive, it's really the first step
of several that we're taking. We're not
the only game in town in higher
education. There are hundreds literally
of types and branches of higher
education institutions throughout the
Commonwealth. That said, we've embarked
for some time on looking at every single
course, at every university within the
System to try to determine whether we
remain relevant to the needs of both the
economy and the students who want to
have a role in that economy. In many
respects the System's mission is to
provide a pathway to the American Dream
and the Georgetown study gives us a road
map, tells us whether the path we've
crafted is correct in the degree to
which needs to be changed. We know it
needs to be changed, it's a question of doing
it rationally and doing it thoughtfully
because we literally have the future of
more than a hundred thousand students in
our hands.
Well as I mentioned in the time that
I've been here as Chancellor one of the
things that I do notice is this is an
incredibly competitive state in the
world of higher education and some 350
institutions of higher education that's
a commendation to the Commonwealth, but
at the same time as markets change, as
the whole world of higher education
changes, it is time for our System, I
would submit the Commonwealth, to look at
how we're organized in higher education
for the future of the Commonwealth, the
country, and the world,
not its past, and to that end I know the
Board feels very strongly and has
actually begun to take steps to begin to
look at a reorganization and
modernization effort for our
Pennsylvania State System of Higher
Education. What should we look like going
forward,
academically and from a business model
standpoint? And many people are very
excited about this, believe it's long
overdue, but absolutely
necessary and I know that you're gonna
be deeply engaged in that in your role
as chair of the committee, but also as a
member of the Board and a citizen who is
deeply understanding of the importance
we provide to the future of the state.
Can you give us a little insight on
where the Board would like to go in
terms of that process?
Having spent my
entire life in Pennsylvania and much of
it in and around state government, it
is fair to say we are not friendly to
radical change. It takes a while to do
major change and it's also true that if
you were to look at all of the
institutions of higher education as they
array themselves today, if you were
to start over again you probably
wouldn't create an overall system, state,
state-related, and private,
the way it is today. That said, we we are
playing the cards were dealt. So we're
trying to look at what the future of the
system should be. We want to support the
students we have, we want to support 
nontraditional students. Everybody knows
that we're looking beyond the classic 18
19-year-old graduate, people leaving the
military, people who have not completed
their higher education would like to
find a way back, the growing need for non-
BA non-BS degrees. All of that is
terribly important to each and every
citizen of the state whether they're
students, whether they're parents,  whether
they're employers, we have to try to grab that and
help those universities shape themselves
and shape the System around them to be
able to achieve that goal.
There's a lot of fiscal stress, there has been since the
recession. To some degree large enrollment
sort of covered that set of
weaknesses that we had. We don't have the
luxury of that, enrollment is down which
means revenue is down. This is a time to
look at modernization, rationalization in
a way to make us leaner, more efficient, and more responsive to the needs of the people we serve.
Well Ronald Henry I wish
we had more time, it always goes so
quickly, but before we get away I not
only want to thank you
regarding your contributions to 
Pennsylvania's State University System, but
also very importantly to the
Commonwealth because of that. You're not
only a prominent member of the business
community and well-known figure in
Philadelphia where you're from and
certainly Harrisburg where you do a
great deal of your work, but you make
immense contributions to the 14
publicly-funded state universities in
our System and I know I speak for so
many when I say I appreciate it,
we appreciate it. And while there are
many challenges yet to come
our Board of Governors, working with the
Councils of Trustees and the presidents
of each of our universities, I think have
the courage to take up the cause of the
future of our System and our state .So thank you very much for being with us Ron.
And thank you for the opportunity to be
here and thank you for what you do.
Coming up next, explore more opportunities offered at
the universities in Pennsylvania's State System of Higher Education.
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Welcome back to Infinite Opportunities.
Next we go to Edinboro University to see how the Porreco College campus prepares students
to join the workforce or prepare for further undergraduate studies in an economical way.
When I was here in 1995 to 98 I was
here three and a half years, I wasn't
focused, I wasn't ready, I wasn't prepared,
I didn't get prepared for college, it was a
lot going on and I was very young. And
then I also have my son in 98,
so I wasn't able to finish like I wanted
to. And things got in the away when I started
a family and everything. And I tried to
go back to school
several times throughout the years and I
just didn't succeed.
I saw a commercial for Porreco College and
I called the Porreco College and
had an appointment set up to come to an
open house, went to the open house. I spoke
to people, they're very nice and they worked
with me and told me there was no problem
I can start where I finished, where I was
trying to finish in 1998. And I started
classes for the evening right after work and I
graduated in May of 2015.
Our research showed very clearly that the
educational programming that one would
find typically at a community college
was very much needed in the region,
region of Erie, northwest Pennsylvania. There
was a great educational gap in this area.
And so the Porreco College has come in
and really filled the gap, filled the void
that's there in this region for not having a community
college by providing an education that is
affordable for students and by listening
to employers on their workforce needs and
trying to fill that gap that you have
between high school and higher education
institutions that we have in the region.
Porreco College was created to provide
access to higher education for students
who otherwise wouldn't have that access.
We were able to transform a beautiful
campus where we just offered a few
courses into a campus where students
could finish Associate Degrees and where
we have attracted a much more diverse
group of students. And we're attracting
students to the programs at Porreco
College who truley would never have
thought that they were candidates for
college education although they had the
ambition for that, they never believed it
was something that they could achieve.
It meant a lot to me.
It really opened the doors for a lot of
things in my life. I never thought I
would finish my degree. It's been a long
time and things have changed from 95 to now.
Cost is an extremely important barrier
that prevents students from attending college.
Right now at Porreco, we have a large percentage of our students whose financial need
with the promise equate to a cost-free
education in terms of  tuition and fees.
That's, to me, it's a game-changer, it
takes away the barrier.
Many students couldn't afford the higher education
institutions that we have in the region.
So Porreco College has filled that gap, has
made higher education affordable, and
again, has really listen to the needs of the
community, particularly the workforce needs.
We knew that we wanted to design
programs that would be aligned with
industry, aligned with workforce needs so
that when students completed those
programs they would actually have jobs
that were waiting for them.
I was someone that didn't have hopes that I would
finish my degree. I had college loans
and student loans and everything and I
thought it was a waste of my time.
I thought I would never make it.So if I
can finish my degree with my busy schedule
anyone can and I recommend Porreco College to everyone that wants to further their education.
We make about 45 million
pounds of chips in a quarter.
That equates to about 200 million pounds of
potatoes, which is quite a few.
What's interesting with M&T is, they're a small-town bank and as we've grown they've also grown with us.
They've got the resources that you would need in order to go big,
but they also have that friendly, local,
community feel so that it makes it seem
easier than it probably is.
Welcome back to Infinite Opportunities.
Next we go to East Stroudsburg University
to find out how the university and local
businesses have grown together over time.
I think that a university in a community
needs to be a partner with that
community. We need to be a part of the
economic development of the region in
which we live. We have a role to play and
and our role needs to be good neighbors,
helping develop the arts, helping to
develop the economy. I think that there
so many ways that a university needs to give back to the community and be a partner with the community.
East Stroudsburg University and Sanofi Pasteur have been
longtime community partners and there's
a number of ways that that partnership
is realized. Speaking a little more
broadly both institutions have an
interest in the holistic well-being of
the community at large. And so there are a
number of ways that we worked together as
partners help realize that goal.
We're very fortunate to have a lot of
faculty who are connected with the East
Stroudsburg region, with the Pocono  region, and do a lot with the environment,
with the arts, and with the economy.
So we are very thankful to ESU for taking a
leadership role in the area of economic
development. It's a very important issue
for us. It's something that needs to be
continually addressed.
We have four goals in our strategic plan.
One is putting students first in everything we say and do.
Making sure our facility are innovative and creative
in the classroom. Building community
which is not just a community on campus,
but our campus being involved in the
local community and working with the
community as one.
And then the fourth goal is to
be an innovative and entrepreneurial campus.
And I really believe that higher
education is the engine that drives
economic development because we're
educating the employees, the leaders of
the future that really make or break the
success of a company. With this
introduction of innovation and
entrepreneurship we're now providing our
students with opportunities to create
the companies that are creating the jobs.
I felt it was very important that East
Stroudsburg University be an economic
driver for our region, and every dollar we
get from the Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania we give back over $14
economically and so we really are quite
a treasure for the Commonwealth and our 
region.
The dynamics of our effectiveness
really are based on our strategic
partnerships and that has been
historical. It's very interesting when you
look at the academic programs that we're
providing at East Stroudsburg University and
their direct impact into the economic
footprint of our region. And clearly
having those collaborations leverage
opportunities for employment, 
for research, for contracts, for services,
and to really provide a dynamic economic
infrastructure in our region.
[music]
Welcome back to Infinite Opportunities. Next we go to West Chester University
to learn about programs they've created to directly benefit their community.
When I got here in 2009,
one of the features of West Chester
University that attracted me to this
position was the Center for Social and
Economic Policy Research. At the time it
was directed by Dr. Lorraine Bernotsky
who's currently the interim provost. Both
her and Dr. Chris Fiorentino, who was then
Dean of the College of Business and
Public Affairs, really identified a need
for the community to be able to access
to research services at the institution.
Both Dr. Fiorentino and Dr. Bernotsky
created the Center for Social and
Economic Policy research with an intent
and a mission to provide the surrounding
communities with access to research
services tht are staffed by the high quality
faculty at West Chester University. So we
have worked with organizations such as
the 21st Century Partnership for STEM
education. Their goal was to identify new
and innovative math curricula that had
an impact both on student learning
within the secondary education system
but also postsecondary. So we partnered
with them on a National Sciences
Foundation grant and admit the study
went really well. We've also been
involved with Making Poverty History for
Chester County. We've worked with United Way
in some of their strategic planning
efforts. We recently worked with the county
Chester and ensuring that their most
recent strategic plan was meeting the
needs and demands of citizens.
We've really worked with any number of organizations across the
spectrum from public private and
nonprofit and in each of those instances
are our goal was to leverage the
resources here West Chester University, the high
quality faculty, students, and ensure that
our community was receiving the full
benefit of having an institution of
higher learning in the backyard. We're
very lucky that the center is
closely connected with the Master of
Public Administration program and our
students are receiving real-life experience
working as evaluators, working as
researchers on these projects with
non-profits. So these experiences provide
our students with a tangible work
product that had a meaningful impact on
their community and they're able to to
leverage that to gain meaningful
employment.
There will now be two
parallel organizations at West Chester
University serving the needs of our
community. There will remain the Center for
Social Economic Policy Research which
will be focused on serving these
non-profit and corporate needs in terms
of research needs. And then there will be
the Center for Community Solutions
that's just launched this year under the
leadership of Chris Fiorentino. It was
an idea of Mayor Carolyn Comitta and
President Greg Weisenstein. They got
together and wanted to understand how do
they ensure that the strong
community bonds and ties and
relationships sustain themselves after
President Weisenstein leaves, after
Mayor Commita's term is up. And they
really brought this concept to life
of the Center for Community Solutions.
I'm Chris Fiorentino, I'm the Vice President for
External Operations at West Chester University.
When the External Operations Division
was created the Community Solutions Center was
placed here, so it was our responsibility
to actually launch it.
And it's it's essentially based on the
fact that a university has a huge
array of experts, both in academic
programs and in administrative positions and we
are part of the community and part of
our responsibility in the communities is
to have economic impact, support economic
development, and so the center is really
intended to focus on that. A community that
has a university when it has community issues
should always think about how the
university could help address those
issues. So we're trying to make make it
easier for people in the community to
know who to contact at the university if
they have something that they're
interested in discussing with us. We want to
be able to be good citizens in the
community. We want the community to see
having a university as a valuable thing.
So we have this great ethic of volunteerism.
Our students, we have a record the
president speaks often about the
student volunteerism. And the latest
information is this past year we had
over 900,000 hours working on a wide
array of projects, reading support,
identifying and eradicating hunger, on and on and on.
One of the beauties, one of the synergies of these kinds of things
is that these are opportunities for
students to engage in learning
experiences, applying what it is that
they're learning in their classes. It's
an opportunity for faculty to apply
their expertise to real-world problems
problems which can sharpen their skills.
So it's not just us giving to the
community, it's also a way for our students
to the benefit. Any of these sorts of
activities that allow them to connect
their academic experience with
real-world activities is a huge opportunity for the learning.
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Welcome back to Infinite Opportunities.
Next we go to Bloomsburg University to
discover how the local community
benefits from student involvement.
What we're doing is we're surveying residents of the town. It's a community research project based in the
Elm Street community of Berwick.
Well we have a total of five students involved.
We have one student who's the lead
researcher and he's really doing most of
the leg work and organizing and
collaboration with me. The five students are
all out door-to-door doing the data
collection, then they'll collaborate on the
analysis, but our lead student will be
responsible for making sure everything
comes together into a coherent picture
in the end.
It's always great to interact with people, I feel,  especially in any part of any community,
but it's, it's, I think it'll be valuable gaining
this experience of overseeing a team of
students working underneath me.
BU is a great resource to us. Heather and her folks have been wonderful throughout
this whole process. We know if we need something we can call Heather.
We're lucky enough to
have the opportunity to do things like
this and this is for the betterment of
the community, so it's real opportunity
to be able to work on this.
Come back next week to learn more of the Infinite Opportunities
at the State System's 14
universities or visit us online.
