The Future of Higher Education

Welcome to my Blog!

Allow me to introduce myself.  My name is Angelo Armenti, Jr., and the name of my blog is ‘Thoughts on the Future of Higher Education.’

I believe that access to higher education represents a critical opportunity for today’s youth.  It was an opportunity that I was fortunate to receive, and an opportunity that I believe we must all work together to preserve so that, despite many grave challenges, it will continue to be there for future students.

Specifically, I believe that anyone who has been fortunate enough to receive a college education in the past has an obligation to help preserve that opportunity for others in the future, and that’s the reason why I have decided to launch this blog.

If helping to preserve access to higher education for tomorrow’s students should appeal to you, I encourage you become a part of this blog, and to invite your friends to become a part of it as well.  

The ‘higher education’ I will focus on is one familiar to most who attended a college or university after graduation from high school for the purpose of obtaining a degree.  The institutions that provide such higher education come in two broad categories:  private and public and, as it happens, I have had considerable experience over the past 42 years working in each of those two higher education sectors.  

From 1972 to 1992, I was a physics professor, department chair, dean of University College, and director of planning at Villanova University, a private university located in the western suburbs of Philadelphia.

From 1992 to 2012, I was president of California University of Pennsylvania (Cal U), a “state-owned” public university, and one of the fourteen (14) public universities—and former normal schools/state teachers’ colleges—in the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE).

And from 1970 to 1972, I was an assistant professor of physics at Temple University in Philadelphia, one of Pennsylvania’s four, “state-related” universities; the other three include Penn State, Pitt and Lincoln.

“Public Universities”

In Pennsylvania, both the “state-owned” and “state-related” universities are thought to be, and are often said to be, public universities.  That statement, although somewhat true, is also misleading.    

The “state-related” universities in Pennsylvania are both ‘quasi-private’ and ‘quasi-public.’  That is, they receive some state funding (something less than one-fifth of their annual operating revenue), while retaining most of the independence, and many of the prerogatives, enjoyed by private universities. 

The “state-owned” (PASSHE) universities in Pennsylvania are also ‘quasi private’ and ‘quasi-public.’  They receive some state funding (something more than one-fifth of their annual operating revenue), while enjoying little of the independence, and none of the prerogatives of state-related or private universities. 

State-Related Universities

Although the state only provides a small fraction of the total annual operating budgets of the state-related universities, the actual dollar amounts can be quite large, as shown in the table below, which is taken from the final approved Pennsylvania Budget for FY 2012-13. 

For 2012-13, the Commonwealth Budget will provide:  $228 million to Penn State; $134 million to Pitt; $140 million to Temple; $11.2 million to Lincoln.

The Commonwealth Budget for 2012-13 also provides $413 million to the 14-university PASSHE system.  A fair comparison regarding the relative funding levels to Pennsylvania’s various ‘public’ universities (whether ‘state-related’ or ‘state-owned’), requires looking not at the total appropriation dollars each receives, but rather at the number of appropriation dollars per full-time-equivalent (FTE) student at each institution.   When the FTE enrollments at the various ‘public’ universities are factored in, the appropriation per FTE student comes to about $4,500/FTE student at each of those universities in 2012.

Back in 1987, however, the State appropriation/FTE student (measured in 2012 dollars) was $9,167.  That is, in terms of actual purchasing power, the 2012 figure is 51% lower than it was in 1987, meaning  that for every State dollar available to educate a student 25 years ago, only 49 cents is available today.