Maybe the coronavirus pandemic can do something in Pennsylvania nothing else has been able to do.
Maybe it will lead to reducing budgets at universities.
On Friday, Penn State announced a series of moves to make the books balance in the face of a $100 million loss. The state’s largest university is a $6.8 billion giant that enrolls about 81,700 students a year and has campuses in every corner of Pennsylvania — from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh and its beating heart in State College.
With the major changes that have come over the last weeks because of state shutdowns that have closed campuses, shuttered dorms and sent learning online, Penn State is slashing 3% off its spending and furloughing 2,000 employees — almost 10% of its payroll.
It’s a huge blow, not only to the university and the employees but to the economy. Penn State’s impact is more than its budget. It is a massive employer whose paychecks are behind mortgages and day care and taxes in communities big and small.
The spending cuts will affect the businesses that support the university, trickling down to more paychecks and stress on already strapped businesses during the pandemic. It’s going to be tight.
Then there are the capital projects being delayed — another $60 million that won’t be going to construction workers and contractors.
President Eric Barron said the university could come out of the coronavirus crisis “more creative and agile.”
The question is: Where was the creativity and agility before?
This isn’t just about Penn State. It’s a question that could be posed to its state-related siblings University of Pittsburgh and Temple University, as well as its State System of Higher Education cousins in Indiana, Slippery Rock, Clarion and more.
Public universities have built payroll and programs into monoliths that, on one hand, absolutely return value to the state in the form of economic and educational engines. However, they also have bloated the cost of a university education to something outside the affordability of many Pennsylvania students.
The cost of a degree has been a growing problem for years. Legislators, the governor, auditors general, even the university presidents themselves have acknowledged this and tried to take steps to reduce costs. Penn State has frozen tuition for several of the past five years.
But the pandemic response shows when hard choices about funding and spending need to be made, they can be.
Maybe when the lockdowns are lifted and school gets back to normal, the universities can figure out how to put all those smart, well-educated people to the task of finding a way to keep the engines going but the costs down.
