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LOCK HAVEN -- The Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, which includes Lock Haven University, is facing a "pivotal" year.
Mergers and closures of universities may be discussed, as some of the 14 state system universities face declines in both state funding and the numbers of high school graduates available to enroll.
Everything in the way the state system operates is basically up for discussion, according to the "State of the System" address given Thursday by PASSHE Chancellor Frank T. Brogan and Board of Governors Chairwoman Cynthia D. Shapira.
Lock Haven University has seen the sharpest decline in enrollment of all the universities this school year, at 8.4 percent.
While that statistic might seem alarming, Lock Haven University has had declining enrollments only over the past three years, reported state Rep. Mike Hanna (D-Lock Haven) who serves on the PASSHE Board of Governors.
And the local university has not lost the most students this academic year, according to PASSHE spokesman Kenn Marshall.
Other universities have been dealing with the problem for longer and cannot claim the good financial picture that LHU does.
"We have a very low debt service as compared to other universities," said LHU president Dr. Michael Fiorentino Jr.
Projects have been paid for with the university's accumulated reserves, instead of taking on debt, he said.
According to Rodney Jenkins, vice president for university relations, "Under this president and leadership, we have a structure in place to be really financially responsible." He added, "Our position is very strong… because we operate within the resources that we have."
The local university's enrollment of 4,220 this past fall is 23 percent lower than in 2010 when it had 5,451 students, Marshall said.
That figure reflects the fact that 2010 was a peak year across the state system, Rep. Hanna said, with a total of 119,513 students on state university campuses then. Overall, the PASSHE universities have seen a decline of close to 15,000 students, which is 12.3 percent, across the state system in the six years since then.
Also since 2010, Cheyney University's enrollment has dropped by 53 percent, Mansfield University's by 35 percent, both Clarion and Edinboro universities by 29 percent, and California University by 20 percent. (These figures are from the Associated Press, as reported in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.)
The state system said it has struggled with falling student numbers and decreasing funding for the better part of a decade.
Tougher competition has contributed to the drop in student numbers, Hanna said. Across the nation, the number of high school graduates is decreasing, he said. It will stabilize, he said, but until then, the available pool of students applying to colleges and universities is in decline.
Private universities and the state-related semi-private universities like Penn State, Lincoln and Temple are facing the same challenges and are getting more aggressive about recruiting students, Hanna said, with Penn State actually increasing its admissions.
Lock Haven University is working hard to reverse the enrollment trend as well, and is in the middle of a nationwide search for a new admissions director, Hanna said. "This is clearly the most important hire the university will make for some time," he said.
Hanna said the cuts in state funding instituted by former Gov. Tom Corbett are also to blame for pitting state system universities against other schools, as they try to attract the same students.
Tuition at state universities was once considered low enough to be affordable by many. At one time, Hanna said, universities counted on getting half their funding from the state, with the other half coming from student tuition.
State funding makes up only 26 percent of Lock Haven University's budget today, President Fiorentino said.
Hanna points to Corbett's 20 percent cuts in funding for higher education. Under Gov. Tom Wolf , who has been in office for two years, that trend has been reversed, and small increases have been granted, of 5 percent and 2.5 percent, Hanna said.
"It's good that we have a governor now who recognizes that we need to make higher education at state universities more affordable, to make it more competitive," he said.
"That's been one of my fights in the time I've been on the state system board of governors and my entire time in the Legislature," he said.
State funding still is not restored to pre-2010 levels.
Marshall said, "The State System is facing severe fiscal challenges, perhaps the most severe its history. We will receive about $60 million less this year than we did the year before the recession began; virtually the same amount we received in 1999. This, coupled with enrollment declines… has caused significant pressures on most if not all of our universities."
State Rep. Matthew Baker, R-Wellsboro, also a PASSHE board member, reportedly said in October 2015 that "several" universities, including Mansfield, would be "running through their reserves very soon."
Fortunately, LHU is not one of them.
"We can't guarantee things won't change," President Fiorentino warned.
If state allocations do not increase, and there are no increases in tuition and fees, that would impact the financial picture, he said.
Nationally, state funding to higher education has been reduced by nearly $3 billion since the beginning of the recession in 2008, while overall college enrollment has declined for five straight years, PASSHE reports.
Chancellor Brogan said, "Every bit of this system -- as great as it's been over the years -- has to be examined… from how we operate the office of the chancellor to how we're organized as a system… no preconceptions and no limits."
The state universities also include Bloomsburg, East Stroudsburg, Indiana, Kutztown, Millersville, Shippensburg, Slippery Rock and West Chester.