PA SSHE schools: some struggle, some grow

[33girl]

Originally Posted by TKEmanKM

Having graduated with my BA (2005) and my MA (2013) from Edinboro, I can tell you that the writing has been on the wall for a while. Many students and parents are left wondering how they are going to pay increased tuition because of increased fees and increases in teacher and staff salaries.

The more that the schools try to trim the more that the teacher and staff union goes absolutely ballistic which increases costs as well. Administration specifically at Edinboro is no better, they have too many higher level Vice Presidents and the President's office of late has too many employees. That coupled with aggressive building programs with new residence halls and building renovations has also raised the cost to the average student.

They have started looking at programs to cut. Music (though I believed that was saved), foreign language (Russian, Spanish, German), and Philosophy have all been slated for the chopping block based on enrollment.

On the Greek end of things, I worked in the student life office for a few years as a GA I think if we lose any more fraternities (we just lost TKE last year, Sig Tau the year before that, and Theta Xi a couple years before that) then I believe that the NIC is going to come in and investigate. While the people in charge of Greek life want the groups to be beneficial and grow there are some in the administration that see this as a risk that can be controlled by controlling the overall number of organizations and making sure they do not get too large. This sentiment is one that I have seen from people all over the state system when I have spoken to them in the past. Granted this is not everyone who works with Greeks in the system but it seems to be a very prevalent opinion. I would think a healthy Greek system would have the potential to bring in students.

You pretty much hit the nail on the head. One of our alums who works for his GLO's HQ was advocating an alcohol free Greek village a while back. I said if the students asked for it fine, but if not, it would just be another expense to deal with that would drive people away from Greek life. As far as all the new buildings are concerned, my friend's daughter transferred to Slippery Rock and is in one of the new suite style buildings. She HATES it. From what she says, the students actually want to be in the traditional style dorms (you know, the kind where you can actually meet people) but the school is closing them before they hit capacity and pushing them into the new (and much more costly) buildings.

[TKEmanKM]

Originally Posted by 33girl

You pretty much hit the nail on the head. One of our alums who works for his GLO's HQ was advocating an alcohol free Greek village a while back. I said if the students asked for it fine, but if not, it would just be another expense to deal with that would drive people away from Greek life. As far as all the new buildings are concerned, my friend's daughter transferred to Slippery Rock and is in one of the new suite style buildings. She HATES it. From what she says, the students actually want to be in the traditional style dorms (you know, the kind where you can actually meet people) but the school is closing them before they hit capacity and pushing them into the new (and much more costly) buildings.

The same thing happened at Edinboro when they built the new suite style Highlands residence halls. They noted that students were wanting to live in the older, cheaper residence halls (Dearborn, Earp, even the Towers) so consequently the closed the traditional halls and forced all of those students into the Highlands. I remember there was a suggestion to turn the older residence halls into greek housing where organizations had a floor for their organization at a different rate. I do not know if it was ever seriously considered. It just does not seem as if it is a priority these days. Alumni see it too and I believe that donations are going down fast because of that among other things.

[33girl]

The suggestion about the Greek floors cracks me up because in the 70s and early 80s, that's exactly what was in place at Clarion. They basically forced the Greeks out because enrollment went up and they needed the space (and because a certain rival sorority made a mess of their wing, but I hate telling tales out of school). I've advocated Greeks legally or "coincidentally" taking rooms together in Reinhard Villages,.but apparently the school won't allow it.