The Board of Governors of the State System of Higher Education visits Indiana today for their two-day fall meetings. It is the first time they’ve held a meeting away from Harrisburg as part of a new strategy to hold one meeting each year at one of the State System schools.
Spokesman Kenn Marshall says the campus meetings are an important part of the State System redesign. “With our System redesign effort, our number one priority is ensuring student success, and I think it’s important we get out to the campuses because that’s where it’s going to happen. It’s not the chancellor’s office that determines student success, it’s the universities, it’s the faculty, the staff that work with the students all the time.”
One of the highlights will be the first appearance of new chancellor Daniel Greenstein. Marshall says Greenstein will address the board tomorrow, and he’s been touring State System schools to familiarize himself with them and their issues. “This meeting will give him that first opportunity to address the board in a public setting. He’s visited four of the campuses so far. The other ten are scheduled including IUP later this month. He’s meeting with groups of students, faculty and staff, trustees, the president and his cabinet; he’s attending a public forum where the community is invited. He’s been asked some tough questions and he’s been very forthright in his answers. He’s been asked, ‘Why come to a system that is facing the enormous challenges that we are?’ And he sees this as a microcosm of higher education in America. He’s referred to Pennsylvania almost as Ground Zero, and that’s why he came here.”
Greenstein will be at IUP today for some meetings. Kenn Marshall will join Indiana In the Morning on WCCS just after the 9 AM news today.
