Communications

Campus Update - October 14, 2020

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

Campus Update - September 28, 2020

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

Charles E. Patterson, PhD
President

Campus Update - September 16, 2020

Dear Mansfield University Colleagues and Friends:

I wanted to take just a moment this morning and provide our campus community with an update on fall 2020 enrollment and the status of university integrations across the State System.

Fall 2020 Enrollment

As announced on Thursday, Mansfield University celebrated the second year of consecutive enrollment growth with a 7.8% increase in total headcount enrollment for fall 2020 compared to Fall 2019. Our overall headcount has grown 9.5% since fall 2018, marking the largest two-year increase for Mansfield University. The total number of returning students also increased by 10% over the fall of 2019.

Thank you for your efforts to ensure the success of our students and our university. Every single person at Mansfield University has an important role to serve in the recruitment, enrollment, retention, success, and graduation of our Mountie students.

State System University Integrations

As you may recall, the Board of Governors of Pennsylvania's State System of Higher Education passed a resolution in July authorizing the Chancellor to review the financial impacts of integrating operations at select universities.

Integration seeks to use combined multi-university scale to improve superior academic options for students and achieve cost efficiencies to ensure State System institutions continue serving their regions for years to come. Integrations also allow for expansion into adjacent markets to better meet regional education and workforce needs by combining the capacities and scholarly expertise at institutions. Finally, integration allows for anchor institutions that support economic development and regional stability - especially historically significant institutions like Mansfield University (founded 1857) and Lock Haven University (founded 1870) - to preserve their important institutional identities.

The July resolution of the Board of Governors directed the Chancellor to examine three potential university integrations focused on meeting current and emerging regional and statewide needs in the Commonwealth:

California University and Clarion University
Edinboro University and Slippery Rock University
Mansfield University and Lock Haven University

The July resolution of the Board of Governors also directed that the State System be open to analysis leading to different integration models and approaches and/or allow for different university alignments, as informed by the ongoing financial stability review. To this end, one of the outcomes of this ongoing review involves a shift in the university alignments for integration that will be announced today:

California University, Clarion University, and Edinboro University
Mansfield University, Bloomsburg University, and Lock Haven University

Operational efficiency and resource sharing between institutions has been financially advantageous for Mansfield University for many years. Mansfield has beneficial partnerships with Bloomsburg University that realize operational efficiencies for human resources, benefits, and procurement services. Mansfield has been actively and openly speaking with our university governance teams about the integration of additional operations and sharing of resources with other PASSHE institutions as part of the State System's Redesign efforts, including a focus on Lock Haven University. The discussion of alignments with Lock Haven University began in 2019 and have continued throughout the past year.

The assessment process for the aforementioned university integrations will continue leading up to the October Board of Governor's meeting, after which we will engage in the development of an integration plan for the candidate integrations that relies on the continued transparency that you have come to expect from Mansfield University's administration. We will engage with stakeholders throughout the process to keep everyone informed and to inform important decisions. The integration plan development process will be broadly consultative and will require the strong support of all of our many stakeholders, including but not limited to students, faculty, staff, alumni, donors, supporters, community members, our university affiliate entities, and other State System institutions.

Please allow me to reiterate my July comments regarding the important impacts of university integrations across our many stakeholders:

For our students enrolled at Mansfield University, and for students still considering Mansfield University as their destination of choice, your prospects have never been brighter. It is expected that this process of integration will provide even greater educational opportunities. In the future, you will have access to a broader range of programs while maintaining a campus experience that makes each institution unique at the local level.

For our faculty and staff, this is an opportunity to continue to help shape Mansfield University's future in service to our students and the Commonwealth. The nation will be watching as we help shape the future of public higher education. The collective talent of our faculty and staff will be critical in our effort to reconceive, rebuild, refresh and expand the opportunities we offer to all our students.

For our organizations, businesses, and our local communities, you will continue to find a great partner in Mansfield University and, through integration, we will become more responsive to the ever-changing needs of Pennsylvania's workforce by leveraging greater scale, reach and expansion of partnership opportunities.

For our alumni, donors, and supporters of Mansfield University, the integrations approach is an opportunity to define a path toward continued vibrancy for Mansfield University, while honoring our historic identity and more than a century of rich traditions.

I look forward to working with all of our stakeholders as we build on Mansfield University's institutional strengths, position the university for continued growth, and expand high-quality educational opportunities for students throughout the region and beyond.

Sincerely,

Charles

Charles E. Patterson, PhD

President

Campus Update - July 16, 2020

Dear Mansfield University Community:

At today's meeting of the Board of Governors of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE), the Board passed a resolution authorizing the Chancellor to review the financial impacts of integrating operations at select universities. The authority to explore and execute an integrations approach for PASSHE institutions is supported by Act 50 of 2020, a new bipartisan law supported by the Pennsylvania Legislature and signed into law by Governor Wolf.

The Board's resolution directs the Chancellor to examine three potential integrations focused on meeting current and emerging regional and statewide needs in the Commonwealth:

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.

Integration seeks to use combined multi-university scale to improve academic options for students and achieve cost efficiencies to ensure PASSHE institutions continue serving their regions for years to come. Integrations also allow for expansion into adjacent markets to better meet regional education and workforce needs by combining the capacities and scholarly expertise at institutions. Finally, integration allows for anchor institutions that support economic development and regional stability - especially historically significant institutions like Mansfield University (founded 1857) and Lock Haven University (founded 1870) - to preserve their important institutional identities.

The concept of integration, operational efficiency and resource sharing is nothing new for Mansfield University. We have existing partnerships with Bloomsburg University that realize operational efficiencies for human resources, benefits and procurement services. We have been actively and openly speaking with our university governance teams about the integration of additional operations and sharing of resources with other PASSHE institutions as part of the State System's Redesign efforts, including a focus on Lock Haven University. The discussion of alignments with Lock Haven University began in 2019 and have continued throughout the past year.

Since I arrived at Mansfield University a year ago, I have been committed to transparency. We have implemented important university shared governance and organizational effectiveness models aimed at enhancing engagement across the institution to build a stronger campus community. The process of integration will also rely on continued transparency. We will be engaging with stakeholders throughout the process to keep everyone informed and to inform important decisions. The review and plan development process will be broadly consultative and will require the strong support of all of our many stakeholders, including but not limited to students, faculty, staff, alumni, donors, supporters, community members, our university affiliate entities, and other PASSHE institutions.

To reiterate, this is the beginning of a process that requires a great deal of planning and implementation - one that will be undertaken over the next two years and includes no-less than a year of review. It is important to note that there is no predetermined outcome for these pairs of institutions, but for the purposes of the review process launched by the Board, the approach would assess the ability of institutions to operate under a unified leadership team reporting through the Chancellor to the Board of Governors. The approach would also assess the ability to have a single faculty and staff, a single academic program array, a unified enrollment strategy, and a single budget, all while honoring the local identity of the original institutions. While this is the starting point, it is likely that several different models will be explored during the process and the Board's action permits the exploration of other models and combinations of institutions as part of the integrations approach.

For our faculty and staff, this is an opportunity to continue to help shape Mansfield University's future in service to our students and the Commonwealth. The nation will be watching, as we help shape the future of public higher education. The collective talent of our faculty and staff will be critical in our effort to reconceive, rebuild, refresh and expand the opportunities we offer to all our students.

Organizations, businesses and our local communities will continue to find great a partner in Mansfield University and, through integration, we will become more responsive to the ever-changing needs of Pennsylvania's workforce by leveraging greater scale, reach and expansion of partnership opportunities.

Finally, for our residents of the surrounding communities, alumni, and supporters of Mansfield University, the integrations approach is an opportunity to define a path toward continued vibrancy for Mansfield University, while honoring our historic identity and more than a century of rich traditions.

More information on the integration process will continue to be developed in the coming weeks and I will share this information broadly as it becomes available. I encourage you to read Chancellor Greenstein's blog post which will be published later today, which will provide supplementary details the system's considerations for the campus integration process.

Sincerely,

Charles

Charles E. Patterson, PhD

President

Integrations - Communications

Communications