The president of the faculty union at IUP and the other member schools of the State System of Higher Education painted a bleak picture last week of the System’s finances, and said there is a “seeming real disconnect between the (Board of Governors) and what is actually going on at the campuses.”
Speaking extemporaneously rather than from prepared remarks, APSCUF President Dr. Kenneth Mash urged the board members to go to the campuses and “talk to the faculty, staff, and students” rather than go on what he described as a “presidents’ tour”, meeting only with hand-picked people. He described buildings that are not being maintained, technology that is behind the times, and students who are “worried about eating” and are having to “couch-surf” to have a place to stay.
Mash said the State System doesn’t have the resources to “make it work,” saying “it just feels at this point like there is a great piling on” at the campus level.
His remarks came at the Board of Governors’ quarterly meeting. After being flat-funded in the current budget, the State System is seeking a five percent increase in the upcoming year’s fiscal budget, which Chancellor Christopher Fiorentino has said would allow the ten state-owned schools to freeze tuition again.
