Monday, April 13, 2015

A PASCU Chapter at Each PASSHE University - Part 2

The Nature of PASCU’s Challenge
 
Last week’s blog post compared PASCU’s Mission with PASSHE’s Statutory Purpose and revealed a peculiar irony:  PASCU seeks to preserve and deliver something which is already mandated by law!
 
Doesn’t that make PASCU somewhat redundant, if not totally unnecessary?  Let’s see.
 
Recall that, according to Act 188, the purpose of the PASSHE System of 14 Universities shall be: “To provide high quality education at the lowest possible cost to the students.”
 
From Merriam-Webster, “When found in laws, the word shall is used to express what is mandatory.”
 
For that reason, PASCU’s Mission sounds easy to fulfill—provided only that we assume that things mandated by law must already be happening—without PASCU’s or anyone else’s help.
 
Under that assumption, of course, there would be no need for a non-partisan, non-profit group such as PASCU, because the mandated statutory purpose of the PASSHE System of 14 Universities—unless the law were repealed or amended—would already be in effect.
 
Unfortunately, despite being mandated by Act 188, the elected and appointed officials who control PASSHE have neither preserved nor delivered the statutory purpose of the PASSHE Universities to the students since 2002!  As shocking as this assertion may be, the evidence for it is overwhelming.
 
Specifically, the failure of the Board of Governors to provide high quality education¹ is found in Chart 9; and its failure to provide it at the lowest possible cost to the students² is found in Chart 20.
 
But the truth of the above assertion—that the leaders of PASSHE have neither preserved nor delivered its statutory purpose since 2002—gives PASCU its most troubling challenge: How to deal with the apparent malfeasance by PASSHE officials?
 
From Dictionary.com, “Malfeasance is the performance by a public official of an act that is legally unjustified, harmful, or contrary to law.”
 
Malfeasance in this case is easy to document because the flawed actions by the elected and appointed officials in question violated not just the spirit but the letter of the law!
 
The term “high quality education” is given meaning primarily through a number of proxy measures.

For example, average faculty salaries have been used extensively by “rating magazines” as a proxy measure for academic quality.  Those magazines have also used E&G Revenue/FTE Student as a proxy measure for the quality of the educational experience, which includes academic quality but goes on to include other educationally enhancing amenities such as technology, travel, internships, facilities and equipment—all of which, just as with faculty salaries—require financial resources. 
 
In 2011, financial aid packages for students at “All Institutions” across America contained 51% Grants and 42% Loans; while for typical PASSHE students they contained 27% Grants and 65% Loans.

By 2013, financial aid packages at All Institutions across America had improved to 52% Grants and 39% loans; while at typical PASSHE schools they had regressed even further to 25% Grants and 66% Loans.
  
While it is clear that fewer grants and more loans than the average of All Institutions across America can only mean that PASSHE students are not getting their education at anything like the lowest possible cost to the students, the actual dollar differences can be shocking.
 
If PASSHE financial aid packages were improved just enough to meet the average—which is not even close to the lowest possible cost to the students—PASSHE students would save on average $1,433/semester and $11,500 over four years, a truly substantial saving.  

Opportunities for Involvement

The officers at each of the individual PASCU Chapters will be invited to accept governance seats within PASCU’s statewide governance structure, which includes a Board of Directors, a Student Leadership Council, a Parent Leadership Council, and an Alumni Leadership Council.  PASCU’s four governance bodies are designed to draw equal representation from each of the 14 PASSHE Universities. (See below.) 
   
To better understand why students, parents and alumni donors from each one of the fourteen PASSHE Universities should get involved with PASCU by creating, launching and maintaining a PASCU Chapter at each PASSHE University, one must first appreciate the challenge faced by every law-abiding citizen who realizes that their elected and appointed officials are simply choosing to ignore the law that promises them something which they both care about and are largely paying for by themselves:  “High quality education at the lowest possible cost to the students.”
 
Their challenge is PASCU’s Challenge, and we will return next week to a discussion of the ways in which to deal successfully with the challenge of elected and appointed officials who choose to ignore the law.  

PASCU’s Governance Goal

PASCU’s governance goal is to identify and place PASSHE Majority Stakeholders (students, parents and alumni) into PASCU governance seats with equal representation from across all 14 PASSHE universities.

PASCU’s Governance Structure

·         On the Board of Directors

Ø  One student from each university = 14

Ø  One parent from each university = 14

Ø  One alumna/alumnus from each university = 14

·         On the Student Leadership Council

Ø  Three students from each university = 42

·         On the Parent Leadership Council

Ø  Two parents from each university = 28

·         On the Alumni Leadership Council

Ø  Two alumni from each university = 28

Summary
 
PASCU has governance openings for a total of 14+42=56 PASSHE Students

PASCU has governance openings for a total of 14+28=42 PASSHE Parents

PASCU has governance openings for a total of 14+28=42 PASSHE Alumni

When every PASCU governance seat is filled, a total of 56+42+42 = 140 Majority Stakeholders would be serving on PASCU’s Four Governance Boards.  This level of representation will go a long way in passing the “legal standing” test that PASCU will need to pass to be recognized as the Voice of—and represent the interests of—PASSHE’s Majority Stakeholders, a group that now includes approximately 100,000+ students, plus 200,000+ parents/guardians, plus 500,000 PASSHE alumni who live in Pennsylvania.
 
To be continued.

¹ https://www.keepandshare.com/doc/6794551/privatization-without-a-plan-chart-9-and-caption-january-23-2014-pdf-387k.

² https://www.keepandshare.com/doc/6802256/privatization-without-a-plan-chart-20-and-caption-january-29-2014-pdf-390k.

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