In Harrisburg yesterday, the House Education Committee’s Subcommittee on Higher Education and the Appropriation Committee’s Subcommittee on Education held a joint hearing on funding for higher education in Pennsylvania, asking for explanations on how state monies are spent and the challenges faced by universities in the commonwealth.
Among those testifying were representatives of the state’s Higher Education Assistance Agency, the University of Pennsylvania’s Veterinary School, the four state-related schools, and the State System of Higher Education.
State System Chancellor Daniel Greenstein and Chief Financial Officer Molly Mercer talked to the representatives about the State System Redesign, how the System spends marketing dollars (by distributing them to the individual universities to market themselves), and about the particular challenges the schools face.
Beyond their two biggest expenses, salaries and benefits, Mercer said the state-owned schools largest challenges are maintaining the buildings on their campuses – which some universities have fallen behind on – and the debt accumulated by building new housing, which she says is especially difficult with
The state is spending more than $1.86 billion on higher education funding in this year’s budget. Greenstein told the subcommittees that as of now, the State System Redesign is on track, but more needs to be done to ensure that a State System education is not priced out of the market it is designed to serve.
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