State System of Higher Education Dan Greenstein and leaders of the State System Redesign met on Wednesday to move the integration of selected universities forward.
The Board of Governors last month advanced a plan that would consolidate California, Clarion, and Edinboro into one accredited entity in the west, and Bloomsburg, Lock Haven, and Mansfield into another, with one budget, one faculty, and one program array.
Greenstein says the leaders are thinking boldly and ambitiously, and he is “blown away by (their) vision, energy, and commitment.”
There are many questions that will need to be answered in the process, such as how the promised “expanded student opportunities” will be accomplished among campuses that are so geographically separated – about 150 miles in the case of Cal and Edinboro – and how athletic programs will be handled.
The integration plan is expected to be presented and voted on in April, and then will undergo a sixty-day public comment period, including public hearings. A final vote would come at next July’s Board of Governors meeting, and the combined schools would accept their first students in August of 2022.
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