Act 188 of 1982

Act 188 of 1982

When Act 188 of 1982 was first signed into law, some PASSHE presidents dubbed it “The Autonomy Act.” This was a reference to the fact that the 14 PASSHE universities would no longer be part of the Executive Branch of State government.  Specifically, the presidents and universities would no longer report directly to the Pennsylvania Secretary of Education, a member of the Governor’s Cabinet.

Prior to Act 188, presidents of the PASSHE universities were political appointees who got their jobs by being nominated by the Governor and confirmed by the Senate.  The political nature of the presidential appointments of that era is evidenced by stories of sitting presidents being told, on the day that a new governor was inaugurated, to clear out their desks by the close of business.  Clearly, under that purely political arrangement, presidents had to recognize that they worked for the governor, and that their position was seen by elected governors in Pennsylvania as just another political patronage opportunity.

Act 188, on the other hand, created a public corporation that is now known as the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, or PASSHE, and as a result, presidents would now report to a Chancellor who, in turn, reported to the PASSHE Board of Governors.  So for the first time, university presidents would be selected on the basis of merit through national searches, rather than through their political connections to a sitting Governor and/or the leadership of the State Senate.

Under Act 188, the PASSHE Chancellor would also be selected through a national search process, and both the Chancellor and presidents would work under contracts of employment that would presumably insulate them from the vagaries of inconvenient election results after political campaigns for governor.

Act 188 was also very forward looking in two key areas: 1) It recognized and addressed forthrightly what the students to be served by public higher education in Pennsylvania really wanted and needed.  In that sense, Act 188 is very student-centered; and 2) It anticipated that the State’s financial support for public higher education would decline in the future, and would never again match its prior high levels.   

What Pennsylvania Students Want and Need

The authors of Act 188 clearly understood what students wanted and needed from Pennsylvania public higher education, as evidenced by the statutory purpose of PASSHE enshrined in the law, namely: “High quality education at the lowest possible cost to the students.”

The term ‘high quality education’ was wanted and needed by students to enable them, as PASSHE graduates, to have a legitimate opportunity to achieve the ‘American Dream’ in a competitive world.

And the term ‘at the lowest possible cost to the students’ was also wanted and needed to provide that very opportunity to the largest possible number of Pennsylvania students, regardless of family income.

Declining Public Support for Public Higher Education

 That the authors of Act 188 foresaw a future decline in State financial support for Pennsylvania public higher education is borne out by: 1) the steadily falling appropriation levels since the law was passed thirty (30) years ago; and 2) the law’s provisions that actively encouraged alternative funding sources.

For example, the state share of the PASSHE operating budget fell from 63% in FY 1984 to just 27% in FY 2013!  At the same time, PASSHE’s share of the Commonwealth’s budget fell by more than one-half (from 2.90% to 1.14%).  And finally, the State appropriation (in constant dollars) per FTE student fell by 49%, meaning that for every State dollar available to educate a student at the beginning of the PASSHE system in 1983, only 51 cents is available today.   

Also, Act 188 empowered the PASSHE university presidents to engage in private fund raising for the first time.  Prior to passage of Act 188, a directive from the Secretary of Education notified all presidents that for every dollar received at a PASSHE university from a private source, a like amount would be deducted from their university’s State appropriation—thereby nullifying any benefit from private fund raising!       

Finally, Act 188 authorized the Board of Governors to set tuition rates across all universities, and the Councils of Trustees to set fees at individual universities.  PASSHE’s nominal annual tuition increased from $1,480 in 1983 to $6,428 in 2013, an increase of 334%, with 248% of that due to a weakening dollar, and 86% of that due to the actual increase in purchasing power needed to cover annual tuition.