How an outsider disrupted Pa.’s struggling state system

When the Nice Recession hit the College of California system in 2008, it marked a significant “inflection level” within the lifetime of Dan Greenstein.

The state’s greater training price range took a dramatic hit, and in consequence, the projected capability of public greater ed establishments was going to say no by about 400,000 college students, stated Greenstein, who was then the UC system’s vice provost of educational planning. The scholars who could be impacted had been disproportionately Black and brown, Greenstein stated.

Greenstein had lengthy been concerned in work on greater training innovation and fairness, however every in separate “compartments,” and now, impulsively, “these two issues simply collided with an infinite influence,” he stated.

“And also you understand—Oh, shit, this can be a downside.”

Shortly after, Greenstein went to work because the director of postsecondary success on the Invoice and Melinda Gates Basis, the place, for six years, he recognized what faculties may do to enhance fairness and entry. However he was affected by a “nagging query.”

“It’s one factor to know what to do,” he stated. “However what concerning the change [and] company that’s required to truly get it performed?”

It was that query that drove Greenstein to go away the world of analysis and coverage and dive headfirst into what many described because the downward spiral of a various regional-college community: the Pennsylvania State System of Greater Training.

Because of a quickly growing older Rust Belt inhabitants, PASSHE’s enrollment had plummeted from its peak of 115,000 college students in 2012 to 98,000 within the fall of 2018, when Greenstein entered workplace. And the system wasn’t simply bleeding college students; it was additionally shedding the boldness of state lawmakers. Training appropriations had dropped practically 52 p.c, from $10,905 per pupil in 2001 to $5,262 in 2018.

Though Greenstein had attended and labored at extremely selective establishments together with the Universities of Pennsylvania and Oxford, he took what he had discovered from collaborating with regional establishments at Gates and shortly obtained his arms soiled.

Whereas some critics have argued that Greenstein’s prior detachment from PASSHE was a detriment, State Senator Scott Martin, a Republican, believes the truth that Greenstein was “completely different than the prototypical chancellor” helped him succeed.

“Generally, once you come up in a system, you are usually very defensive,” he stated. “It tends to be all you already know, and it results in individuals who find yourself defending the established order.”

Greenstein took a daring method. Over the course of his six years in workplace, the chancellor dramatically improved the system’s monetary well being whereas gaining the legislative assist wanted to consolidate six of the system’s establishments into two, to accrue a 30 p.c enhance in annual state funding and to take care of a seven-year tuition freeze.

Since he introduced his resignation in July, many have lauded Greenstein as a change agent who did the exhausting however vital work to enhance the system’s monetary prospects and foster a sustainable partnership with the state’s politically divided authorities. However some college members, Democratic lawmakers and regional training advocates argue that he buckled to political pressures at a price to college students, employees and universities’ surrounding rural communities.

The jury remains to be out on whether or not the modifications had been sufficient to save lots of a system that continues to face enrollment declines. However Greenstein’s tenure has captured the eye of many, serving as a case research for modern methods to cope with a struggling system.

“There’s so many instances I hear folks say, ‘You possibly can’t try this.’ However I’m like, why?” Greenstein stated. “There’s virtually nothing we will’t do if we put our minds to it. And a few of the stuff [PASSHE] has achieved resides proof.”

Consolidation and Controversy

Essentially the most notable—and controversial—name of Greenstein’s tenure was his resolution to consolidate six of the system’s rural universities into two establishments.

Conversations and speculations about mergers had been brewing since even earlier than Greenstein took workplace. PASSHE had felt the burn of price range cuts and declining enrollment way back to 2013. However the state of affairs was complicated, and consultants typically agreed that politics, geography and historical past would virtually actually forestall a merger.

Greenstein stated when he took the helm that determining a approach to right the monetary course of the system was a high precedence. The system’s debt degree was greater than $1 billion in 2019–20, with a unfavourable working margin.

“We had been on a path to expire of cash, principally exhausting our reserves by 2026–2027,” he stated. “If I may rewrite this script, I want we’d began earlier. I simply would have had extra time and would have had extra choices.” However time was operating out, and Greenstein thought that PASSHE wanted to maneuver quick, “as a result of any pivot prices cash,” and to his thoughts, “the board solely had so many levers of management.”

Greenstein and his staff selected consolidation over different choices—together with attempting to stabilize every establishment by reducing its expenditures to match income. Greenstein stated that might have required much more substantial program and college cuts than consolidation, limiting pupil alternative in a means he feared would damage enrollment much more.

However to make consolidation doable, Greenstein first wanted to win approval from the State Legislature. Generally known as Act 50, the proposed laws that might enable the PASSHE board to contemplate consolidation was launched in January 2020. It underwent months of debate and numerous hearings, which a number of sources described to Inside Greater Ed as extraordinarily intense and extremely emotional.

Critics say that lawmakers on the appropriate pushed the idea of a merger by telling Greenstein that he needed to do some downsizing and show the system was emphasizing effectivity with a view to get extra funding.

“The Legislature drove that course of greater than anyone by setting parameters for PASSHE, in change for continued and expanded monetary assist,” stated Consultant Peter Schweyer, a Democrat and present chair of the training committee. “They had been attempting to do what they sometimes do, which is faux we may do extra with much less … and also you merely can’t do it in a campus atmosphere like that.”

Greenstein stated that political pressures didn’t have an effect on his resolution. “There was by no means any specificity” in what lawmakers informed him, he stated. “I’ve by no means had a dialog with anyone that, ‘You could do X, and we’ll offer you Y’—ever,” he stated. “I’m additionally a realist, a pragmatist. The political state of affairs within the state of Pennsylvania was what it was, and is what it’s. Do you wish to get shit performed, or do you wish to dream about purity?”

“And simply to be clear, it had 100 p.c assist from Governor [Tom] Wolf, who I imagine was a Democrat,” Greenstein added.

The invoice to permit consolidation finally handed with overwhelming bipartisan approval—201 to 0 within the Home and 47 to three within the Senate—and was signed into legislation on July 1, 2020. From there, PASSHE was required to hold out an in depth, clear and broadly consultative assessment, planning and implementation course of.

After but one other yr of hearings and negotiations, the board voted unanimously to approve the plan in July 2021. Clarion, Edinboro and California Universities could be built-in as Penn West College, whereas Mansfield, Lock Haven and Bloomsburg Universities could be built-in as Commonwealth College.

Andrew Koricich, government director of the Alliance for Analysis on Regional Faculties, has been some of the vocal opponents of the consolidation. As a local of Edinboro, an Amish Nation faculty city of about 5,000 residents, he struggled to assist an answer that put the burden on rural-serving establishments when the entire “system … has had structural issues for 20 years.” Rural-serving faculties “will not be those that primarily contributed to PASSHE’s woes,” he stated. “In the event that they had been attempting to repair the establishments which can be struggling probably the most, these weren’t those.”

Koricich cited information from an op-ed he wrote for The Every day Yonder, a rural information group, exhibiting that the six consolidated establishments served a bigger share of low-income college students, had decrease whole bills and obtained much less state funding per pupil than the opposite eight.

“It’s a lot simpler to dismantle rural establishments than nonrural establishments,” he stated. However it prices college students by leaving them with fewer in-person studying alternatives, he stated, and hurts the encompassing economies by shrinking the native tax base.

“Buildings are being torn down, companies within the cities are closing, and we nonetheless shouldn’t have enrollment numbers out of the merged campuses that present us that this was a profitable motion,” Koricich stated, including that he took challenge with outsiders like Greenstein coming in and telling locals the way to repair the system. “I bristle at any person who went by all the most elite bastions of world greater ed and is then taking away alternative from others, from youngsters like me.”

The consolidation wasn’t straightforward for a lot of workers. Kenneth Mash, president of the Affiliation of Pennsylvania State Faculty and College Colleges, stated that for college members the method felt rushed, “and we’re nonetheless struggling the repercussions.”

Essentially the most vital influence, he famous, was the shrinkage in employees measurement. Though a $200 million pledge from Governor Wolf helped guarantee a three-year reprieve from extra furloughs and cuts, the system nonetheless decreased its college head depend by greater than 800 by attrition and retirement incentives, dropping from 10,356 in 2020–21 to 9,531 in 2022–23.

And although shrinking the employees produced an estimated $207 million in cumulative financial savings for PASSHE over the course of 4 fiscal years, Mash stated it left the remaining workers underneath elevated stress: “Our college on the establishments had been fairly critically holding them along with duct tape.”

Schweyer, Koricich and Mash all had solutions for what may have been performed as a substitute. Proposals included making a greater case for elevated funding with out consolidation, recruiting and higher serving grownup learners to spice up enrollment, and consolidating extra suburban establishments that might higher bear the change by absorbing the financial loss.

“We do perceive the realities of the world. The system was not working,” Mash stated. However when college members expressed their considerations and their alternate concepts at city corridor hearings, he stated, “they felt that these had been, for probably the most half, theater. They weren’t being listened to.”

Constructing Political Belief

Lawmakers, notably Republicans, typically credit score the consolidation—together with a seven-year tuition freeze—for restoring belief within the system and profitable assist for a historic enhance in appropriations from the overall meeting. Consultant Jesse Topper, minority chair of the Home training committee and co-sponsor of Act 50, described Greenstein as a “transformational chief.” He stated that though a number of lawmakers raised considerations about how consolidation would influence the establishments of their districts, they ultimately obtained on board, seeing the transfer as a necessity.

“The popularity was that we can not proceed to do issues the identical means and anticipate completely different outcomes,” Topper stated. He stated legislators primarily informed Greenstein, “‘In case you can show to us that you may lead this method by this sort of transformational change, we’ll be there with the cash to assist you.’ And we had been,” Topper added.

Not all greater ed establishments within the state obtained the identical remedy. The 4 state-related establishments—Penn State, the College of Pittsburgh, Temple and Lincoln—that are quasi-public, that means they aren’t owned by the state however do rely partially on state funding, haven’t seen related funding will increase. For instance, even after a long-standing price range freeze lastly thawed final December, all besides Lincoln, an HBCU, had been funded on the identical degree as 2022. In the meantime, PASSHE noticed a rise of $33 million, or 6 p.c.

Topper stated the disparity is due largely to the truth that the state-related establishments have distinctive autonomy, and status as R-1 analysis universities. However he famous that legislators haven’t constructed the identical type of belief with their leaders as they’ve with Greenstein.

It wasn’t at all times that means.

“Individuals kicked the ever-loving crap out of Dan throughout these price range hearings, me being on the very high of the listing,” Schweyer stated.

At one level, the chancellor informed lawmakers at a listening to that if he couldn’t collect sufficient assist to implement the consolidation, he would suggest that the system be dissolved altogether. Schweyer subsequently known as for Greenstein’s resignation.

Trying again, Greenstein stated it was “in all probability an offhand comment” he made, however that it was additionally his means of conveying that “the colours on our palette had been fairly restricted” and one thing needed to be performed. Schweyer stated that whereas he knew Greenstein’s assertion was hyperbolic, “it actually pissed me off within the second.”

It took time and lots of behind-the-scenes conversations, however Schweyer stated the connection has come a good distance over the past two years. “We’ve gotten to a considerably higher place, largely as a result of I misplaced the combat on consolidation,” he stated. “My job was to say, ‘All proper, we misplaced the combat. Now, how will we make it work?’”

College presidents within the PASSHE system additionally praised Greenstein’s potential to construct unity and set up accountability, noting that the sense of coordination he created throughout all 10 establishments is changing into essential for public greater training programs, particularly in an period of plummeting enrollments and mounting skepticism concerning the worth of a school diploma.

“We had 14 establishments, and I’m not going to say we had 14 other ways of trying on the information, however there have been in all probability 5 – 6,” stated Kenneth Lengthy, president of East Stroudsburg College. “[Greenstein] unified that.”

Throughout the nation, greater training has grow to be a story of two cities, Lengthy stated—the haves and the have-nots—and Pennsylvania is a first-rate instance. However once you’re a part of a system, a sequence is just as robust as its weakest hyperlink.

“Dan would say very often, ‘It’s one checkbook.’ And when he first began saying that, it obtained numerous us anxious, like, ‘What do you imply, one checkbook?’” Lengthy stated. “However what he meant was, if one among our colleges fails, all of us need to pay for it in some way, and that makes us extra accountable to 1 one other.”

It was difficult at first, Lengthy stated. Making a lock-step method required constructing a brand new infrastructure for systemwide information, a brand new uniform dictionary and construction for budgeting, and the boldness to name each other out on questionable choices. However it’s paid off: Now Lengthy meets with the opposite presidents greater than with a few of his personal campus cupboard members, and systemwide infrastructure is getting used for pupil success in addition to funds. And It has made switch between four-year establishments and from in-state group faculties extra seamless, boosting retention and diploma attainment.

Greenstein believes these relationships had been additionally indispensable in bolstering variety, fairness and inclusion efforts on campuses, which many different crimson and purple states have struggled to realize assist for. Early in Greenstein’s tenure, the system got here underneath fireplace from college students and employees over racial discrimination on its campuses. The claims led Chad Dion Lassiter, government director of the Pennsylvania Human Relations Fee, to conduct a two-year statewide research known as the ENOUGH Listening Tour and advocate reforms corresponding to requiring variety coaching classes for college, employees and college students, hiring and elevating campus DEI officers, and adopting new methods to draw and retain Black and brown college.

Greenstein stated that regardless of a conservative push towards DEI efforts in states corresponding to Ohio, Texas and Florida, Pennsylvania’s legislators have largely proven assist or, on the very least, indifference to PASSHE’s efforts to use these suggestions. “It’s as a result of the dialogue right here, frankly, is at the next airplane,” he stated. “Partly that has to do with the truth that PASSHE went by this integration course of,” however it additionally has to do with utilizing that belief and respect to elucidate why DEI is about extra than simply race. In the end, he stated, “It is a dialog about conserving the lights on within the economic system.”

‘A Lengthy Solution to Go’

As Greenstein prepares to go away workplace in October and be a part of the upper training advisory staff at Baker Tilly, views on his legacy—and the state of the PASSHE system—stay combined.

Some, like Kenneth Mash, are able to see Greenstein go. “These positions have shelf lives for a purpose,” he stated. “The image [of his legacy] is sophisticated. He was in a position to accomplish some essential issues, however there have been additionally issues that also should be cleaned up after he’s gone.”

However others, like Kenneth Hawkinson, president of Kutztown College, recognize what Greenstein has achieved and hope that whoever succeeds him stays the course.

“Dan put in place an awesome basis for the longer term,” he stated. “We have now accountability. He’s developed belief and a constructive relationship with the Legislature, who’ve considerably elevated funding for public establishments; he’s put in place a statewide settlement with all of the group faculties. We want somebody to only proceed to construct on all the good issues he’s put in place.”

Greater ed consultants praised Greenstein as an important chief for a state and a system in want of contemporary vitality.

“His forging of such a disruptive plan and getting folks behind it was one vital success,” stated Brian Prescott, president of the Nationwide Heart for Greater Training Administration Methods. “PASSHE’s future stays slightly murky … however it’s in a a lot stronger place for Dan’s management.”

Catharine Bond Hill, managing director of Ithaka S+R, stated it shouldn’t be ignored that Greenstein and state leaders like him are pressured to handle an “extremely sophisticated state of affairs.”

“These are actually exhausting points, and to carry collectively all the constituents … It’s unimaginable to do it completely,” she stated. “However a part of what Dan was in a position to do was to acknowledge that state legislatures had been going to wish to really feel that establishments had been truly attempting to handle a few of their challenges, and never simply saying, ‘We’re going to stay with the established order.’”

The outcomes of Greenstein’s daring method received’t be clear for a while. PASSHE’s monetary prospects have brightened a bit, with its debt decreased by $229 million. Working margins and reserves have stabilized. However whereas some establishments are discovering higher success in filling their seats, system enrollment has continued to say no, dropping from about 98,000 college students in 2018–19 to 83,000 in 2023–2024.

“We have now a protracted approach to go, but when these insurance policies weren’t in place, mixed with a pandemic and the tough marketplace for greater ed in Pennsylvania, our monetary state of affairs could be considerably extra worrisome,” stated Kevin Hensil, PASSHE’s director of media relations.

Greenstein stays optimistic concerning the far-reaching results of the sweeping modifications made since he got here to PASSHE.

“There’s a protracted approach to go, however there’s this can-do perspective,” Greenstein stated. “And this isn’t about me or the board or the Legislature. That is concerning the 10,000 workers who put their shoulders to the grindstone in an aligned means—as a lot as you possibly can accomplish—and look what we will do.”

(This story has been up to date to replicate that California’s decline of 400,000 college students following the 2008 recession was throughout all the state’s public greater ed establishments, not simply the UC system.)