Editorial: PennWest has an identity crisis
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On Monday, enrollment data for the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education schools — the ones with that “(insert name here) University of Pennsylvania” tag — was released. The numbers aren’t great; but, unsurprisingly, there is always room to spin them depending on how you choose to look.
Across the system of 10 separate universities, total 2023 enrollment is 82,688, a drop of 1,879, or 2.2%, over the previous year. However, State System Chancellor Daniel Greenstein touted a bright spot: The number of first-year students is on an upswing for the second year in a row.
That could indicate the intersection of several positives. It could be a turnaround of a pandemic downturn. It could be that attempts to hold tuition down are working. It could be that other steps being taken across the system are showing benefits.
But the biggest black mark on this report could say otherwise. The biggest change made in recent years has been taking six of the system’s universities and merging them to create two new multicampus schools instead. PennWest stitched together California, Clarion and Edinboro universities in the western part of the state, while Commonwealth University was created from Bloomsburg, Lock Haven and Mansfield in the northeast.
PennWest represents the largest single enrollment loss across the system, with a drop of 1,473 students. Commonwealth is second with 985 fewer students this year. Between them, the losses are greater than the overall deficit throughout the system. They wipe out the progress of colleges that saw increases. East Stroudsburg had the greatest percentage, up 6% to 5,463. Indiana added the greatest numbers, with 422 more students this year.
This isn’t necessarily a reason to panic. The mergers were a big shake-up. There will be a learning curve. It is a reason to pay attention and make steady course corrections to prevent a greater slide.
“What we just saw happen was fully predicted by us,” said PennWest’s interim President R. Lorraine Bernotsky.
It makes sense that there would be a loss. However, a 22% enrollment loss since the merger is dramatic. It no doubt has a lot to do with people holding back and seeing how the merger goes before committing tuition dollars. Another aspect is likely the identity crises PennWest and Commonwealth are experiencing as they try to embrace their new names but the individual campuses’ old personalities.
“What we’re trying to do at PennWest is not going to be an overnight fix,” Bernotsky said.
True, but rebranding is tricky. Confusing the customer never helps sell the product. PennWest needs to decide what it is and develop a consistent message to draw students so it stops being a drain on the State System as a whole.