When fully developed, this new relationship between PASCU and PASSHE’s Majority Stakeholders will manifest itself with the presence of a viable PASCU Chapter at each of the fourteen PASSHE Universities.
The Pennsylvania Association of State Colleges and Universities (PASCU)
PASCU’s Mission
“To ensure that the statutory purpose of
public higher education in Pennsylvania as specified by Act 188 of 1982: ‘High
Quality Education at the Lowest Possible Cost to the Students,’ is indefinitely
preserved and faithfully delivered.”
The Pennsylvania Promise
The
‘Pennsylvania Promise’ is the promise freely given—by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
to the Students of Pennsylvania—upon passing Act 188 with PASSHE’s very
explicit statutory purpose. In short:
The
Pennsylvania Promise is “High Quality Education at the Lowest Possible Cost to
the Students.”
Why is PASCU Needed?
There would be no need for a non-profit
organization of concerned citizens such as PASCU if, in fact, the PASSHE Board
of Governors were delivering ‘high quality education at the lowest possible
cost to the students,’ as mandated by Act 188. But the Board of Governors
is not delivering the “Pennsylvania Promise” and, for that reason, PASCU is
desperately needed to help rectify a grave ongoing injustice.
Compelling
evidence for the failure of PASSHE’s Board of Governors to deliver “High
quality education at the lowest possible cost to the students” since 2002 was
just presented in the five previous blog posts.
Act 188
Act 188
of 1982 was the enabling legislation that created the public corporation now
known as the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE), which
controls the 14 “PASSHE” universities that include Bloomsburg, California,
Cheyney, Clarion, East Stroudsburg, Edinboro, Indiana, Kutztown, Lock Haven,
Mansfield, Millersville, Shippensburg, Slippery Rock and West Chester Universities.
PASCU’s Goals and
Objectives
·
To
preserve the statutory purpose of public higher education in Pennsylvania –
high quality education at the lowest possible cost to the students—through
education and advocacy, by reaching out to all stakeholders of Pennsylvania
public higher education: students, parents, alumni, donors, faculty,
staff, elected and appointed officials, and the general public.
· To
promote the legal rights of that segment of society which includes all PASSHE
students, parents and donors, primarily alumni who, as a group, have
contributed the majority of the annual funding to the PASSHE universities in
Pennsylvania starting since 1992 and continuing to the present time.
· To
collect, analyze and disseminate data and information on public higher education
in Pennsylvania to all of its many stakeholders, with the goal of fostering
open discussion, civil debate, and effective public policy.
· To
function as a non-partisan association of citizens committed to preserving the
historic purpose of public higher education in Pennsylvania so that individual
students, communities, and society at large may be enriched in perpetuity.
·
To
launch and maintain a tireless and effective education campaign to inform
PASSHE students, parents, alumni, donors and the general public about the
drastic changes that have occurred to public higher education since the
creation of the PASSHE system of universities by Act 188 of 1982.
·
To
encourage PASCU’s key constituencies—PASSHE students, parents and donors,
primarily alumni, as well as others who share PASCU’s values—to make local and
statewide elected officials and candidates for office aware that they support
the mission, goals and objectives of PASCU and that they ask their elected
officials and candidates for public office to do the same.
· To
engage in direct advocacy, to the degree permitted by law, by lobbying both the
elected officials in the Legislative and Executive branches of Pennsylvania
government, as well as candidates for such elected office, to support PASCU’s mission,
goals and objectives.
PASCU
Chapters
In view of the Mission, Goals and Objectives just cited, it
is clear that for PASCU to be successful, key focal points for PASCU’s efforts
must be created at or near each of the fourteen PASSHE universities. A key goal then for the 2015-16 academic year
and beyond is the creation, promulgation and ongoing maintenance of a PASCU
Chapter linked to and associated with each of the 14 PASSHE universities.
Experience teaches that the most effective PASCU Chapters
will be those created and run mostly by current PASSHE students, with the input
and support of PASSHE parents and PASSHE alumni donors.
The role of these 14 PASCU Chapters will be both essential
and unique. The Chapters will be essential because without them, the
achievement of PASCU’s Mission could be delayed several more decades.
The Chapters will also be unique in that the purpose of each
Chapter is to be a center for civil, non-partisan conversation and debate—among
the Majority Stakeholders, i.e. the students, parents and alumni donors who now
provide 75% of PASSHE’s annual revenue—regarding not just the general future of
the 14 PASSHE universities but, more specifically, the future of each individual
PASSHE university.
Recall that PASSHE’s Minority Stakeholders, the State of
Pennsylvania in the person of its elected and appointed officials, currently
provide just 25% of PASSHE’s annual revenue while controlling 100% of PASSHE’s
174 governance seats where all key decisions affecting the Majority
Stakeholders are made.
The purpose of each PASCU Chapter—and the Majority
Stakeholders who will occupy its ranks—is to stand up for and champion the best
interests of the PASSHE university with which they are associated while, at the
same time, championing the best interests of the Majority Stakeholders at each
university who are currently paying 75% of the bills while controlling 0% of
PASSHE’s 174 governance seats.
You may think of it this way:
·
PASSHE’s Majority Stakeholders currently get saddled
with “75% Pay and 0% Say;” while
·
PASSHE’s Minority Stakeholders currently get to operate
with “25% Pay and 100% Say.”
If you’re OK with that arrangement, just “Move along; there’s
nothing to see here.” But if that
arrangement strikes you as un-American, consider starting or joining a PASCU
Chapter at a PASSHE university that you care about.
To be continued.
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