Legislators: Universities need help
By WENDY STIVER - wstiver@lockhaven.comLOCK HAVEN — Delivering a quality education sometimes comes down to the numbers.
And, the numbers outlook isn’t good for LHU and other state universities in Pennsylvania.
Dr. Keith T. Miller, president of Lock Haven University, asked state legislators and Congress members’ representatives for their opinions on declining statistics during LHU’s 17th annual Alfred E. Hoberman Legislators Day.
Held Thursday in Parsons Union Building, the day included a luncheon for local officials and the area’s legislators or their aides. A public forum followed.
Topics ranged from education grants to measuring what those grants buy.
Miller raised a bleak forecast that calls for the number of high school graduates across the state to decline.
State Sen. John Wozniak, D-Johnstown, said it’s a matter of a drop in population following the Baby Boomer generation.
State Rep. Mike Hanna, D-Lock Haven, said the decrease in graduate numbers has already begun in the western section of the state and it will become a “precipitous decline” by 2013.
“That will put the pressure on us to see that we are prepared to continue offering education at an affordable price,” he said.
Miller also raised the issue of minimum requirements for high school students to earn diplomas.
SAT scores in this region, he noted, may be “below average.”
Wozniak responded, “Even in the better districts, 25 percent of the kids may need remediation.
“You have the state saying one thing and locally controlled (school) boards saying, ‘We don’t need all this.’” he continued. “But I like bricks and mortar, I like black and white — you either passed or you didn’t.”
Hanna disagreed with that view.
“I’m having growing concerns about trying to make uniform standards at all levels of education, and the growing trend for schools to teach for the test,” he said.
Tom Bowman, representing U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., spoke up for teachers. He has three in his family — all of whom were educated at Lock Haven University, he noted.
“Teachers are being asked to do other things than teach,” he said. “They feed breakfast... they watch kids after school... they’re being asked to take the place of parents — in some cases, there aren’t parents,” he said. “The students can’t come up to the standards because the teachers just don’t have time.”
Dr. Mark Cloud, chair of the Psychology Department and a former local APSCUF president, said he agrees with Hanna.
“We are so tight from the funding issues, we can’t play the game,” he said. Hiring administrators to “play the numbers game,” he added, only hurts the educational institution.
A member of the Board of Governors of the State System of Higher Education, Hanna said this is the time to redesign performance indicators, as a new SSHE chancellor is coming on board.
Although only 8 percent of a university’s funding is based on the performance indicators, he said, that’s a significant amount of money.
“It’s my belief (the indicators) are slanted heavily toward how many students you put a degree in the hand of,” he said. “It shouldn’t be that way. It should be based on the quality of the education.”
“How can you standardize critical thinking?” asked LHU Art major Alice Alexandrescu.
The numbers system needs to be revised and in some cases reversed, she indicated. Smaller classrooms are a valid goal, she said, but a decrease in the student-teacher ratio would boost quality, not quantity, education.
It’s not going to be easy to move from performance indicators to ways of measuring quality, Hanna said, but it must be done.
“State-owned schools are the number one priority,” he said.
Gov. Ed Rendell apparently recognizes the worth of state universities, Hanna said, and has proposed a 3 percent increase in funding for state schools, 1.5 percent for state-related campuses and only 1 percent for private schools.
Hanna earned applause when he called for zero state funding for private schools.
“$65 million goes to state-owned schools and that’s simply not enough,” he said. “LHU’s on the high end right now because of East Campus (renovations), but there have been three or four years when we didn’t receive one capital dollar.”
State Rep. Scott Conklin, D-Philipsburg, said, “Our universities are Pennsylvania’s backbone and we have to stay strong that way.”
The legislator and his wife, Terri, a former Lock Haven resident, have a son who’s a junior at LHU, he said.
With many faculty members coming up for retirement across the state system, there’s been talk of replacing them with temporary instructors, Conklin reported, but New York State is recruiting hard.
“We have to stay number one” he said.
“Money put into the universities is well spent,” he added. “If you’re going to dream of the future, you’ve got to have people in place to build the future.”
Wozniak said, “There will never, never, never be enough money for everything.”
He also raised issues the City of Lock Haven is facing as a university community, including blight and extra costs for police and fire services.
“We love having Lock Haven University here but there is a cost,” he said.
Pennsylvania’s Third-Class cities like Lock Haven are “50 diverse hubs” that need revitalization help.
“It’s cheaper to fix them than give money to Philadelphia and Pittsburgh,” he said.
One of his bills earned applause when he reported it calls for no more special-project funding for the two large cities until the rest of Pennsylvania gets $1.5 billion, to equalize the state dollar flow.
The formula for grants from the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency relies on “the sticker price” of tuition, Hanna said. However, less than five percent of students actually pay the full cost, he noted, so the formula is “skewed to private institutions.”
“PHEAA is very embattled right now,” he said.
Bowman pointed to the possibility of increasing federal Pell grant dollars but cautioned that every time the Pell grant amount is bumped up by $100, it results in an overall cost of $300 million.
Specter supports increases, Bowman said, from the current maximum of $4,050 to $5,100 for next year and $5,400 by 2012.
The senator also supports the new Promise Grant program that would supplement other aide for low-income students, Bowman reported, a decrease in the interest rate on student loans from 6.8 percent to 3.4 percent by 2012 and a limit on the amount of loan payments that would hold the payments to 15 percent of the borrower’s discretionary income.
Along with LHU administrators and faculty union members, those attending Legislators Day were Lock Haven City Council members and mayor; the three Clinton County commissioners; Mike Flanagan, director of development for the Clinton County Economic Partnership; and Kim Bierly, aide for U.S. Sen. Bob P. Casey Jr., D-Pa.
Jo Anne Hoberman, the event’s honored guest, represented her late husband who originally organized LHU Legislators Day.
City Councilman William Baney III took the opportunity to quiz Miller on the possibility of building more on-campus housing for students.
Miller referred to the potential decline in enrollment looming over state universities and said he knows of no such plans.
“For us to grow significantly and maintain or increase standards, (more campus housing) is certainly going to be unlikely in the next three years or so,” the president said. “We are looking at a variety of other options for housing right now.”
Student rental payments to private landlords, on the other hand, are part of the local economy, he added.
“It’s a balancing act,” he said.
Baney also referred to noise and other nuisances attributed to student behavior. He works at the communications center and the nuisance calls over LHU’s spring break were few and far between, he noted.
Conklin said, “I did the resolution... for awareness training for freshmen.” The training lays out the dangers of partying and what line students are expected to walk in their new communities.
Alexandrescu, who is both a student and a landlord as she and her family have invested in properties here, said students need to have the rules of behavior made very clear so they can avoid police responses.
A junior at LHU and a member of the National Guard, she participated in a summer art program in Italy organized by associate professor Jason Bronner.
“It motivated me to try everything in the Art Department... I’m multi-media,” she said.
“Art, education, culture — they all go hand in hand,” she said. Sacrificing arts courses in schools to save money is exactly the wrong approach.
“It degrades America,” she said.
