Declining Enrollments, stagnant state support, and tuition issues are just some of the problems the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE) is facing this year. Frank Brogan is Chancellor of the PASSHE and is trying to lead the organization to solutions for these many problems.
“The prime mission laid out in law for the PASSHE schools, as the system was created about 30 years ago, was to dedicate itself to being the most affordable system of public higher education in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. We continue to be that but as you might imagine, costs going up, it continues to become more and more difficult to maintain that kind of a status.”
Keeping costs down can be difficult because of what Brogan calls the “perfect storm of problems." He dealt with that storm as the chancellor of the state system in Florida. He says he found some of the same challenges.
"Declining subsidy from the state legislature, inability for all of the universities to be able to just simply keep raising tuition and fees to make up the difference; because they can in light of the fact that the markets are simply catching up with many of our universities and raising tuition. And fees are not as easy as it once was as it is having a negative impact on students and their families."
Chancellor Brogan admits that it is up to him and the universities to address these problems.
