INTEGRATION INSIGHTS
FOR STUDENTS 

Welcome to Integration Insight for Students. This is the first of a weekly series to update you on all things integration.

Students are a primary and critical group involved in the integration process. You are represented through your elected SGA representatives in student government and your fellow students serving as Student Trustees.

FAST FACTS ON INTEGRATION

Here are some questions students are asking about integration.

Is my campus going to close?

• No. Students will always have a vibrant and full residential campus experience at Mansfield University.

Is my university going to lose its identity?

• No. Mansfield University’s name, colors, logo, mascot, and name on diplomas will remain.
• A new integrated entity name would be used for accreditation purposes only.

Am I going to have to take all of my classes online?

• No. You can complete your program of study in-person and have access to more degree pathways and programs, including more pathways into graduate and doctoral programs.

NAMING SURVEY
This week you received an invitation to participate in an integration naming survey. To state clearly – the name Mansfield University will not change.

We are surveying potential names for the accredited entity. We have had some questions about what an “accredited entity” is, and here is a sample of how that might look on your official transcript or in Middle States accreditation documentation.

Mansfield University
Accredited as (entity name here)

If you’ve already completed the integration naming survey – thank you!

INTERNAL PASSHE NEI Survey [survey.alchemer.com]

Your answers will guide our final decision and help us understand potential risks and advantages presented with each option.

STAY TUNED FOR NEXT WEEK’S INTEGRATION INSIGHTS.

For more information about university integrations please visit https://president.mansfield.edu/integration/ .

To our Mansfield community,

Plans for the proposed integration of Bloomsburg, Lock Haven, and Mansfield universities, resulting in a new integrated university, continues to take shape as we look ahead to their consideration by the PASSHE Board of Governors.

Academic Updates:

The goal of the Northeastern Academic Affairs team is to increase program options for students from high school dual-enrollment through associates, bachelors, masters, and doctoral degrees. Leveraging the academic strengths of each university promises the growth potential to pursue emerging areas of student interest and develop career and degree pathways grounded in both student and workforce demand.

The combined array of the new integrated university will offer a robust educational experience with enhanced access points for students across the region. In the future, students will realize the benefit of expanded access to all disciplines on all campuses.

The increased options will provide students with more opportunities to access exemplary, affordable degree programs and well-qualified faculty while taking part in high-impact experiences aimed at ensuring career readiness.

Regionally, this means a significant broadening of the program array options. For Lock Haven and Mansfield students, this expansion leads to nearly double the bachelor’s degree program options from which to choose.

Expanded academic opportunities and alignment with workforce development initiatives means that the Northeastern universities will be able to offer an exemplary educational experience for all students—including outlined pathways for efficient degree-completion programs. Students will have more choices than ever before and the flexibility to complete a degree that works for their lifestyle and their timeline.

Middle States Accreditation:

The Western Integration completed a significant integration milestone: the submission of the Preliminary Complex Substantive Change Form to the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE). Last week, the Western integration (California, Clarion, and Edinboro) outlined its plan to integrate (Middle States uses the term “consolidate”) to create a single integrated/consolidated university, and explains why integration/consolidation is a good fit for the partner universities.

In the weeks ahead, the Northeastern universities will be following the same accreditation process. Middle States recommended that one set of integration partners submit first and await feedback before the second set of partners makes its submission.

While not identical, the forms submitted to Middle States are aligned and consistent, with common boilerplate, timelines, and details. Some areas that will align with our forthcoming Northeastern integration submission include:

Administrative Hub: Middle States requires the integrated university to identify one partner campus as its administrative unit for accreditation purposes. Middle States recommends that the university that completed the accreditation process most recently act as the administrative unit for the integrated entity. Based on this recommendation, Bloomsburg has been identified as the administrative unit for accreditation purposes. If we do not select an existing accreditation, Middle States would recognize the new integrated university as a brand-new entity that is not accredited, and thus we would be pursuing accreditation for the first time. This is all contingent on the feedback received by the Western integration per its Middle States submission.

For the purposes of the submission, Middle States uses the term “main campus” to describe the administrative unit. Although this designation is required by MSCHE accreditation policies and appears in the submission for compliance purposes, we have clearly stated to Middle States that the three campuses of our integrated university will operate as collaborating partners in all other respects.

Naming process: Middle States officials are aware that the integrated university will have a new name, which has yet to be determined. We are working with Ologie, a branding and marketing agency, to conduct research and engage with prospective student and parent audiences to provide naming convention recommendations to the leadership group that align with the goals of integration: retaining the name, brand and historic identity of the universities.

Functional areas: A tentative organizational chart is being developed. This is required for the Middle States submission, and depicts the integrated university organized into a basic, three-level org chart (office of the president > divisions > functional areas) which is still evolving; it will be expanded to include job titles and other details in the months ahead. We will share the organizational chart when it is ready to be submitted.

No potential changes will impact our legal responsibility to honor collective bargaining agreements.

NCAA Updates:

Both the Northeastern and Western integration teams have made a formal proposal to the NCAA to retain the full complement of intercollegiate sports on all partner campuses. We continue to pursue this path with the NCAA and are encouraged by the thoughtful response to our request. For current student-athletes and those currently being recruited, this path would provide the ability to retain our existing sports teams.

Next Steps:

As you can see, creating the integrated university is a complex and multi-faceted project. Mansfield is well represented among the 500+ individuals who are involved in innovating and re-imagining student-centered higher education in Pennsylvania. Their work informs recommendations that will be shared with the Board of Governors as we seek to shape our future as a premier provider of higher education for northeastern Pennsylvania and beyond. I am immensely proud of and thankful for their work, and I encourage all of you to stay informed as the process continues.

Plans for both the Northeastern and Western integrations will be presented to the PASSHE Board of Governors at its upcoming meeting in April. Board affirmation would initiate a 60-day period for public comment, culminating in a decision by the Board at its July meeting.

We expect further updates to include greater detail on the academic program array and organizational structure. I will keep our Mansfield community informed as planning continues and opportunities for your input arise. For a deeper dive into System Redesign or to share your feedback, visit www.passhe.edu/integrations.

Best regards,

Charles

Charles E. Patterson, PhD
President

On Wednesday afternoon, the Board of Governors for Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education unanimously affirmed the process and next steps for integrating California-Clarion-Edinboro in the West and Bloomsburg-Lock Haven-Mansfield in the Northeast.

The goal of university integrations is to expand opportunities for Mansfield University students beyond those a single institution can achieve on its own. University integration will retain the high-touch, personal on-campus experiences, services, and faculty-student interactions that have historically reinforced our campus identity, brand, and value proposition. University integrations will build upon on an existing foundation of collaboration and partnership to efficiently expand and deliver undergraduate and graduate programs across the region and beyond. As envisioned, university integration will also focus on enhancing our collective responsiveness to workforce-aligned, nondegree, certificate, and stackable credentialing programs to meet regional and statewide economic and workforce demands.

The next step in the university integrations process is the development of an implementation plan for the Bloomsburg-Lock Haven-Mansfield pairing, which could be presented to the Board for consideration as early as April 2021. The development of the implementation plan will rely heavily on transparent and consultative processes, and a great deal of inclusive planning and implementation across all of our faculty and staff. 

We will also engage extensively with Mansfield University stakeholders throughout the process to seek feedback, inform important decisions, and keep everyone apprised of our progress, including but not limited to students, faculty, staff, alumni, donors, supporters, community members, our university affiliate entities, and other PASSHE institutions.

To this end, you may stay up-to-date on Mansfield’s ongoing progress by visiting the Mansfield University integration website.

I look forward to serving alongside every member of our campus community as we work together to ensure that all Mansfield University students have the opportunity to receive a high-quality education that is tailored to their needs, academic abilities, and career or employment goals. Your understanding, inclusion, and active engagement will be paramount to the success of Mansfield and its support of future generations of Pennsylvanians.

Sincerely,

Charles

Dear Mansfield University Colleagues:

Fall is upon us here in the Northern Tier of Pennsylvania. The entire region is awash in foliage displaying vivid yellows, oranges, and reds. I hope everyone seizes the opportunity to enjoy the beautiful weather. If you are able to do so in the company of family and friends, while also social distancing, then it will surely make this time of the season more enjoyable.

As we take a moment to appreciate the beautiful vistas around us, I also want to take just a moment to recognize the service of our Mansfield University faculty and staff and provide our campus community with an update on university integrations. 

Last week we had the pleasure of honoring our faculty and staff via the virtual 2020 Annual Employee Recognition Celebration event. Dr. Kristen Long, Assistant Professor of Biology, received the Deans’ Award for Outstanding Academic Advising. Dr. Lynn Pifer, Professor of English, was honored with the Deans’ Award for Outstanding Teaching. The 2020 Employee of the Year Award was presented to Nichole Lefelhoc, Director of the Career Center. Congratulations to all our nominees, award winners, recent retirees, and employees recognized for their years of service. More information and the full virtual presentation can be found on the Mansfield University News site using the link above.

A special thank you to Dr. Jonathan Rothermel and the members of the Red and Black Committee for organizing the bring-your-own-lunch (BYOL) event in front of Elliott Hall last week. During times when our interactions with colleagues occur primarily through Zoom meetings, it was nice to see our Mansfield family come together in-person, albeit under social distancing requirements, in support of collegiality, fellowship, and our enduring campus spirit. 

I also want to take this opportunity to provide our campus community with an update on the status of university integrations. If you were unable to attend Chancellor Greenstein’s Open Forum on Friday, September 18, I have included a link to the webinar. Please note that you will need to sign onto your verified Zoom account using your Mansfield.edu credentials. 

To date, a preliminary integration team consisting of Provost John Ulrich, Vice President Todd Garnier, Professor and local APSCUF President Brian Loher, Communications Director Ryan McNamara, and I recently concluded our third and last workshop with our colleagues from Bloomsburg and Lock Haven. These workshops, facilitated by the consulting firm Deloitte, were designed to generate an exchange of ideas (at a general rather than a detailed level) about the opportunities that integration may afford us as we explore cross-institutional cooperation in both instructional and non-instructional areas.

As the process continues, we expect that more teams will be formed and greater inclusivity will emerge as we move into the integration planning and development phase in October, as required by the university integration process codified in Act 50 of 2020.

To say that the integration process that we will embark on is “critically important” is an understatement. If you attended the fall State of the University address, then you will recall the fiscal challenges facing not only Mansfield University, but also the State System and the Commonwealth. Pennsylvania and its State System universities will continue to face deeper fiscal deficits, exacerbated by the pandemic. While we will continue to pursue fiscal sustainability through our own, stand-alone fiscal sustainability plan, we must also concurrently pursue integration with our regional partners.

University integration presents not just a greater potential for moving further faster down the path of fiscal sustainability, but also the opportunity to redirect our important regional, rural-serving State System universities away from the inevitable path many have been going down for the better part of a decade. As the cost of education continues to rise and universities face growing financial pressures, the education gap (or achievement gap or opportunity gap) widens. This education gap not only adversely affects rural communities more acutely, but also has long-term economic impacts to the greater region, the Commonwealth, and generations of future Pennsylvanians. 

Affordability, driven by the cost of higher education, is partly responsible for Mansfield University’s prior enrollment declines and the current fiscal reality. While Mansfield University’s strong enrollment growth over the last two years demonstrates great progress in positioning the university for future growth and sustainability, the need for a balanced budget and the continuing impact of the pandemic across all State System universities will require transformational change to ensure the viability of our regional institutions.  

For the Mansfield-Bloomsburg-Lock Haven triad, this includes employing strategic approaches to meeting the higher education needs of our students by combining resources to enhance our responsiveness to regional economic and community development needs. We have an opportunity to build on a strong foundation of collaboration and partnership that already exists between these State System universities to efficiently support undergraduate and graduate program offerings, while also allowing for the development of workforce-aligned non-degree and certificate programs to meet the demand of current and emerging markets.

We will continually revisit an important and foundational tenet of higher education as we move forward: All students should receive a high-quality education that is tailored to their needs, academic abilities, and career or employment goals. Your understanding, inclusion, and participation will be paramount in the coming months and years. As educators and advocates for the role that this great institution serves, we must approach our work selflessly to ensure that Mansfield University and our other regional, rural-serving institutions can—together— continue to support future the needs of generations of Pennsylvanians. 

Thank you for your continued support of Mansfield University and your personal investment in each and every one of our deserving students. 

Sincerely,

Charles

1. California University and Clarion University
2. Edinboro University and Slippery Rock University
3. Mansfield University and Lock Haven University

1. California University, Clarion University, and Edinboro University
2. Mansfield University, Bloomsburg University, and Lock Haven University

• California and Clarion - An integration would seek to stand up a low-cost, high-quality, fully online undergraduate degree and degree-completion program that is not currently available in Pennsylvania.
• Edinboro and Slippery Rock - An integration that would strengthen and broaden available academic opportunities by aligning two educational programs into one, driving down costs and coordinating enrollment strategies.
• Lock Haven and Mansfield - An integration that would add to the program array non-degree and stackable credentials that meet workforce needs in selected high demand occupations, all in partnership with regional employers.