The State System of Higher Education has announced the formation of a task force that will develop a new “institutional model” for troubled Cheyney University.
The nine-member task force will have to get to work quickly. It’s expected to make its first recommendations to the Cheyney trustees and State System Board of Governors in May.
The co-chairs will be Cheyney trustees’ chair Robert Bogle and Board of Governors vice-chair Aaron Walton. Others on the panel include a state senator, two state representatives, Governor Wolf’s Secretary of Policy and Planning, two members of the Board of Governors, and a Cheyney trustee.
Cheyney is mired in millions of dollars of debt, charges if mismanagement of finances, crumbling buildings, and enrollment which has declined to fewer than 700 students. Founded in 1837, it is the oldest of the State System schools and is the oldest historically black university in the United States. Its ability to remain open has been openly questioned as the State System considers an overall operational review.
