In her remarks to the State System Board of Governors yesterday, APSCUF President Dr. Jamie Martin warned the board to “not push the panic button” after the release of figures that show a 5.4 percent decline in enrollment this fall. She said she expects the nationwide trend of falling university enrollment to reverse in the next academic year.
Martin called on the state to step up and properly fund the State System, pointing out that in the last twenty years, state funding has increased only 1.25 percent and now accounts for only 24 percent of the cost of attendance at a state-owned school compared to 75 percent in 1990.
The faculty union president posed a fundamental question: are the State System schools state-owned and state-supported, or not?” She said “The State System needs to be adequately funded, or we should stop pretending that (it’s) a state-supported system.”
Martin said she hopes that Chancellor Dan Greenstein will recommend a significant increase in funding for the State System in his presentation to the board today, and that the board supports it.
The two-day quarterly meeting continues today at Millersville University.
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