A Wake-Up Call to PASSHE Students, Parents and Alumni Donors - Part 8

Sticker Price vs. Bottom Line

Act 188 sets a clear limit on the student costs of a PASSHE university education; PASSHE is required by law to provide a high quality education “at the lowest possible cost (i.e., lowest bottom line) to the students.”

The 14 PASSHE universities include Bloomsburg, California, Cheyney, Clarion, East Stroudsburg, Edinboro, Indiana, Kutztown, Lock Haven, Mansfield, Millersville, Shippensburg, Slippery Rock and West Chester.

 A careful reading of Act 188 also reveals¹ that the law imposes no restriction whatsoever on “tuition,” i.e. “sticker price,” but only on the bottom line “cost to the students.”

In view of this Act 188 mandate, it is disappointing that PASSHE’s Board of Governors has been ignoring the statutory purpose of the fourteen PASSHE universities since 2002, by limiting annual tuition increases.  PASSHE tuition increases are announced each year at the June/July meeting of the Board of Governors.

In PASSHE’s Own Words

(From PASSHE’s News Release² of June 30, 2011): “Despite the severe fiscal challenges we face, we are committed to offering high quality, affordable education to our students,” said Board of Governors Chairman Guido M. Pichini.” (Emphasis added.)

Note: “affordable education to our students” is not the same as “lowest possible cost to the students.”
 
(From PASSHE’s News Release³ of July 9, 2012): “This action demonstrates our ongoing commitment to our students and their families, and to the Commonwealth,” said PASSHE Board of Governors Chairman Guido M. Pichini. “PASSHE universities will continue to offer high-quality education at the most affordable cost possible.”  (Emphasis added.)
 
Note: “The most affordable cost possible” is not the same as “the lowest possible cost to the students.”
 
(From PASSHE’s News Release⁴ of July 9, 2013):  “It is very important to our students and their families that we keep our tuition affordable,” said Board of Governors Chairman Guido M. Pichini. “With this action today, PASSHE universities will continue to provide outstanding value, combining high-quality educational opportunities with the most affordable cost available.”  (Emphasis added.)
 
Note: The “most affordable cost available” is not the same as “the lowest possible cost to the students.”
 
(From PASSHE’s News Release⁵ of July 8, 2014): “PASSHE universities offer tremendous value to students and their families, providing a unique combination of high-quality educational opportunities and the most affordable cost available, said Board of Governors Chairman Guido M. Pichini.”  (Emphasis added.)
 
Note: The “most affordable cost available” is not the same as “the lowest possible cost to the students.”

(From PASSHE’s News Release⁶  of July 9, 2015): “Our university leadership, especially our presidents, should be commended for everything they have done to control costs and to continue to ensure their institutions are providing a high-quality, high-value education to students,” Mr. Pichini said.      

Note: “High value education” is not the same as “lowest possible cost to the students.”

Also note that all of the above PASSHE Board of Governors’ News Releases employ “weasel words”* such as “affordable” to characterize their tuition-increase decisions while often avoiding the word “tuition,” and while never mentioning the relevant Act 188 mandate: “at the lowest possible cost to the students.”   
 
Insight into the intentions of the PASSHE Board of Governors with regard to keeping tuition low—rather than bottom line cost to students low—may be found in the headline of the July 8, 2014 News Release:
 
“Board of Governors approves modest tuition increase, assuring State System universities will remain lowest-cost in Pennsylvania.”  (Emphasis added.) 
 
Even more revealing of their true intentions is the sub-headline of the July 8, 2014 PASSHE News Release:
 

“$198-a-year increase matches inflation rate for eighth time in 10 years”

 
By PASSHE’s own admission, in writing and as part of a public news release, the obvious goal of the PASSHE Board of Governors on tuition is to keep PASSHE tuition increases at or about the annual rate of inflation.

This sounds, at least superficially, like an intelligent policy decision until one realizes: 1) That PASSHE’s personnel cost structure includes salaries, pensions and health-care costs that have all been known to  increase faster than inflation; and 2) That keeping down PASSHE tuition rates for political reasons is not only inconsistent with Act 188, it is a direct violation of Act 188 in that it makes tuition-discounting impossible— which in turn makes the Act 188 mandate of “lowest possible cost to the students” impossible as well!

The Failure of PASSHE’s “Low Tuition for All” Policy

 As shown in last week’s blog post, the fourteen PASSHE universities are steadily becoming more and more “gentrified” in the following sense:  PASSHE enrollments by students from more-affluent families are rising while, at the same time, PASSHE enrollments by students from less-affluent families are falling.  

The “displacement” of the less affluent in favor of the more affluent is a key aspect of CDC’s definition of “gentrification,” and such displacement is occurring with PASSHE’s public higher education gentrification. 

 
And both the incentive for more-affluent students to attend—and the incentive for less-affluent students to not attend—stem from the Board of Governors’ blatant, Act 188-defying policy of Low Tuition for All.
 
The sad truth about PASSHE’s tuition levels in recent years is that they were decided upon not by economic but by purely political considerations.  Although clearly a “weasel -word,“ the term “affordable tuition” has become a perfect sound bite for elected and appointed State officials focused on their reelection or reappointment, rather than on their responsibilities to PASSHE’s majority financial stakeholders—the PASSHE students, parents and alumni donors who now provide 75% of PASSHE’s annual operating revenue.
 
To be continued.

¹ https://www.keepandshare.com/doc/6772880/act188-pdf-405k.

² https://www.keepandshare.com/doc/7490737/passhe-news-release-june-30-2011-pdf-129k.
³ https://www.keepandshare.com/doc/7490738/passhe-news-release-july-9-2012-pdf-133k.
⁴ https://www.keepandshare.com/doc/7490739/passhe-news-release-july-9-2013-pdf-133k.
⁵ https://www.keepandshare.com/doc/7490740/passhe-news-release-july-8-2014-pdf-147k.
⁶ https://www.keepandshare.com/doc/8041072/passhe-news-release-july-9-2015-pdf-284k.
*According to Wikipedia, “A weasel word is an informal term for words and phrases aimed at creating an impression that a specific and/or meaningful statement has been made, when only a vague or ambiguous claim has been communicated, enabling the specific meaning to be denied if the statement is challenged.”