Coaching carousel hits Bloomsburg
- Thread starter El-Jefe
- Start date
Anyone know where he is heading. A PA connection as Mester married a girl from Bedford.
A more general question from someone who grew up in PA but haven't been a resident for 30 years:
How are those old teacher's colleges in general doing -- Bloom, Shippensburg, Millersville, West Chester, etc.?
Have they had the same funding battles that PSU has had; do they offer a lower tuition than PSU?
I've heard it's a mixed bag -- some doing OK, others less well.
Harrisburg groups the PSAC schools together as "state schools" and (PSU + Pitt + Temple + Lincoln) as "state-related schools." Schools within each block are supposed to get the same % change in tuition support. That's of course government accounting at its best -- PSU gets a disproportionate amount of capital for building and infrastructure construction, that isn't counted toward tuition assistance..
The PSAC schools definitely have lower tuition -- both resident and nonresident.
It would take some time to fully answer your questions. Let me try to offer some thoughts, without fully answering your questions.
The PA state schools are doing OK, but beyond that you need to look at each of them specifically.
The baby boomlet peaked in PA HS seniors around 5-6 years ago, and is projected to go down through 2028. This has had a serious impact on the state colleges. Many of them have had to greatly increase their spending on efforts to attract students, with a large part of the focus in states outside of PA and contiguous states, and even going after international students.
West Chester U has done very well. It's located in the Philadelphia suburbs, and thus has a very large college-age population that lives within an hour. Their BOT (believe it's actually a Council of Trustees) was even looking into the possibility of breaking away from the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (basically, the state schools), though that no longer seems to be the case.
IUP has new dorms that put to shame anything at PSU. Elizabethtown also really improved their dorms. Several others have put effort and money into assorted physical plant initiatives to attract new students.
The state schools, collectively, suffered the same funding issues under former Gov. Corbett as did PSU. In 2011, Corbett proposed to radically cut their funding. In the end, the funding was cut 18%, and was flat for the rest of Corbett's administration. Gov. Wolf has tried to improve the funding, and has to some extent, but funding has not yet returned to earlier levels.
Between the funding cuts, and the dropping graduation numbers of PA seniors, attendance dropped at most state colleges. It's since risen in several of them, due in part to the initiatives I mentioned above.
Many of these colleges are, as you referenced, formerly teacher's colleges. Around 6-10 years ago, these colleges, and others in PA, were pumping out four times as many teachers as were needed in PA schools. Because of the oversupply, many of these graduates could not get jobs in their field. It took a few years for younger high school students and their families to react to this, but the number of PA degrees in teaching has greatly decreased. Last year, I believe the number of graduates with such degrees was about 1/4 of what it was 6-10 years ago. As a result, many school districts are scrambling to fill positions, and most of these graduates are landing jobs, so it's likely that the numbers will start to increase.
As El-Jefe indicated, the state colleges have significantly lower costs, both in-state and out-of-state than does PSU.
PSU costs: resident tuition - $17,514; non-resident tuition - $31,346; room and board (same for resident and non-resident) - $10,926 (these are University Park costs. Commonwealth Campus tuition rates are lower).
Each State College sets their own rates. Two examples:
West Chester costs: resident tuition - $9,462; non-resident tuition - $20,052; room and board (same for resident and non-resident) - $12,780.
Bloomsburg costs: resident tuition - $7,238; non-resident tuition - $18,096; room and board -- so many options (single, double, triple, quad, dorms; apartments) with different prices for each
Thanks very much, Tom. You provided way more detail that I expected or deserved.
You set an excellent example yourself for these boards being informative and useful as well as fun.
Minor correction: pretty sure E-town is a private school. Perhaps this was supposed to be Kutztown?
Generally the rural PSAC schools have been hardest hit. West Chester can always supplement enrollment with adult learning and commuter programs; that's a lot harder at, say, Clarion.
The HBCUs (Lincoln and Cheyney) are in trouble -- they're getting eaten alive by diversity programs at bigger (and especially wealthy) schools poaching the HBCU traditional incoming classes.
Generally the rural PSAC schools have been hardest hit. West Chester can always supplement enrollment with adult learning and commuter programs; that's a lot harder at, say, Clarion.
The HBCUs (Lincoln and Cheyney) are in trouble -- they're getting eaten alive by diversity programs at bigger (and especially wealthy) schools poaching the HBCU traditional incoming classes.
brain fart ... I was thinking of different PA colleges I've seen in the past 2 years, to try to answer the questions, and remembered my trip to E-town and their new dorms, and included it without thinking that it's not a state school.
Agreed. Cheyney is a state college. It's only 5-10 miles from West Chester University, and 5 miles from Penn State Brandywine. With all the schools available in Philadelphia, the 2 aforementioned schools, a number of community colleges, and the minority recruitment that is done by most of the bigger public and private colleges in PA, it really is having a tough time competing. Lincoln, like PSU, is a state-related college. It's also relatively close to West Chester U, but it is even more removed from Philadelphia. Both universities do seem to be struggling to attract students, and if I remember correctly (too busy to look it up), they both have drop-out rates that are higher than national averages.
I somewhat agree. WCU is the best example of this. On the flip side, Cheyney is a little bit closer to Philadelphia, and in the same general area as WCU, and they are suffering (though their situation, as indicated by you and me, is somewhat unique). Some of the state schools around Pittsburgh don't seem to have done as well. Bloomsburg always seemed to in the middle of nowhere, but it seems to be pretty popular.
Recently was talking to a recruits father at a college visit and he and his son had been to Bloom of few weeks prior. I asked him how they handled it without a head coach. The answer was not very well - assistants showed him around but basically said they had no clue what was going to happen, that they weren't even sure that they would be around themselves. Had no power to offer anything. Just a tough situation in the middle of prime recruiting season, smh...
Was just updating our ETR wrestlers in college list and noticed that they lost 3 of their good recruits from last year - Billy Barnes, Taylor Cahill, David Rump not on roster. Of note, Bo Spiller still is. Also don't see one of their top 2016 recruits on the roster, Bailey Shutt. Anybody know what happened to these guys?
Was just updating our ETR wrestlers in college list and noticed that they lost 3 of their good recruits from last year - Billy Barnes, Taylor Cahill, David Rump not on roster. Of note, Bo Spiller still is. Also don't see one of their top 2016 recruits on the roster, Bailey Shutt. Anybody know what happened to these guys?
Barnes, Cahill, and Rump transferred to Shippensburg, Clarion, and Liberty respectively. No idea about Shutt.
Bloomsburg has 22 wrestlers on its roster -- that's Northwestern level, but without NW's starting talent. I like Spiller, but he's not an immediate threat to reach the podium, and even so he's by far the best prospect on that roster.
Sad but unsurprising to hear about the lack of direction. Hopefully they can make the hire real soon.
Bloomsburg has 22 wrestlers on its roster -- that's Northwestern level, but without NW's starting talent. I like Spiller, but he's not an immediate threat to reach the podium, and even so he's by far the best prospect on that roster.
Sad but unsurprising to hear about the lack of direction. Hopefully they can make the hire real soon.
The "Boro" is the State School (i.e., part of the PA DOE System) up in Erie - haven't really kept taps on how it is doing in regards to financial health and "vitality" (applications, etc...). Edinboro was always a fairly popular school as it was always listed annually as one of the top college "social campuses" for partying and socializing on the national scene, not just in PA. Any thoughts on how The Boro has been doing?
