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The purpose of a college or university is supposed to be giving each student the best possible education in the field of the student's choosing.
But a report issued Wednesday by the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems to the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education suggests the 14-member system has not been making academics its top priority.
The report says the PSSHE -- which includes Bloomsburg, California (Pa.), Cheyney, Clarion, East Stroudsburg, Edinboro, Indiana (Pa.), Kutztown, Lock Haven, Mansfield, Millersville, Shippensburg, Slippery Rock and West Chester universities -- needs to focus more on education and less on maintaining as many unionized jobs for its faculty and staff as it can.
NCHEMS also heavily criticizes the schools' current leadership as "not up to the current challenges" and says that instead of competing with one another, the member institutions should do more to cooperate for the betterment of all involved.
And while the report stopped short of suggesting the closure or merger of some of the schools that are struggling financially -- including Mansfield, Cheyney and Clarion -- it should serve as a wake-up call for those universities and the system as a whole that without some significant changes, the PSSHE, which has been a more-affordable college option for many middle-class Pennsylvania families, will not be able to provide the same opportunities it once did.
Countless Pennsylvanians have benefitted from a degree from a PSSHE school. Having fewer institutions could prevent many qualified students from attending college simply because they don't have the means to go elsewhere.
We hope the PSSHE will take to heart the
suggestions of the report and will do what is necessary to prioritize academics over all else.
The roughly 98,000 students at its 14 universities are counting on it.