(TNS) — Billboards, logos and email domains bear a new name.
Board meeting presentations on figures and data hone in on one institution rather than the three campuses that formed it.
Prospective students apply to Pennsylvania Western University and, several pages into the application, select which campus they’d like to attend.
It’s been less than two years since California University of Pennsylvania, Edinboro University and Clarion University merged to form PennWest. The consolidation was brought on by years of enrollment downturns and financial concerns.
But though PennWest might appear to be united, the three campuses that make up this fledgling university continue to face their own unique strengths and weaknesses.
A Right-to-Know request filed by the Post-Gazette shows that, while enrollment plunges have occurred at all three campuses, on-campus housing decline rates varied by campus.
And, application-wise, the California campus has seen a boost in applications, while interest in Edinboro and Clarion has diminished.
But despite persisting troubles, it is still too early to predict what the future could hold for these campuses and the young university, said Joni Finney, an education consultant and the former director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Institute for Research on Higher Education.
“[PennWest] is still pretty young,” Finney said. “I think it’s probably still too early to either declare victory or defeat on whether [PennWest] is working.”
Enrollment and housing declines across the boardIn fall 2023, the California campus enrolled 2,981 students in face-to-face programs, the Edinboro campus enrolled 2,532, and the Clarion campus enrolled 2,034, according to the Right-to-Know request.
Through an online program supported by all three campuses, PennWest enrolled an additional 3,758 students this fall. Both fully online and hybrid students make up that figure, said Sarah Freed, the university’s interim vice president for strategic enrollment management. The university began using a new methodology to track enrollment this year.
Notably, the university’s online enrollment boasted a larger student population than each of the three campuses’ face-to-face program enrollments this fall.
PennWest enrolled 11,305 total students in fall 2023. Online enrollment made up about a third of that enrollment, California’s face-to-face programs comprised 26% of the enrollment, Edinboro comprised 22% and Clarion comprised 18%.
In the past decade, university-wide enrollment has declined 45%. The three campuses collectively enrolled 20,527 in fall 2014: California enrolled nearly 8,000 students, Edinboro enrolled over 6,800 and Clarion enrolled over 5,700.
Examining housing data, California, Edinboro and Clarion all have fewer students living on campus now than they did in 2014. But the weight of decline varies by campus.
The Clarion campus reported the most significant fall in housing numbers. Just over 800 students lived on the Clarion campus this fall, according to the Right-to-Know request. A decade ago, 2,048 Clarion students lived on campus, according to state system data.
That’s a 61% reduction.
At Edinboro, 1,066 students lived on campus this fall, contrasted to 2,082 students in fall 2014 — a 49% decrease.
And at California this fall, 1,000 students lived on campus, a 31% decline compared to the 1,459 students who lived on campus 10 years ago.
California applications surge, while Edinboro and Clarion numbers fallBut while enrollment and housing numbers have declined at all three campuses, the California campus has actually seen a surge in first-time, first-year applications. PennWest applicants must choose a campus or online program when submitting their applications.
In fall 2023, over 3,800 people applied to PennWest California. That’s 24% more applicants than the campus received in 2014, at 3,069 applicants, and 23% more than the 3,105 applicants in 2019, according to Department of Education data.
That application surge is consistent with experiences of schools across the country.
A fall analysis by the Post-Gazette found that most colleges in the Pittsburgh region reported growth in the number of freshman applications they received between 2018 and 2022. Experts have attributed growth to factors like test-optional admissions, unpredictable costs, the popularization of the Common App, and university efforts to increase applicants.
But at PennWest, application increases aren’t universal. Edinboro and Clarion have both seen their applicant pools diminish in the past decade. These drops persisted in fall 2023.
Nearly 1,900 students applied to PennWest Clarion in fall 2023 — a 14% drop from Clarion’s 2014 data (2,208 applications) and a 29% fall from its 2019 numbers (2,640 applications).
Similarly, PennWest Edinboro received 33% fewer applications in 2023 than it did in 2014, and 26% fewer applications than in 2019. The campus reported over 2,100 applications for fall 2023, while it received 3,143 applications in fall 2014 and 2,872 in 2019.
Freed attributed California’s boost and the other campuses’ declines partly to academic program offerings.
“When a student is looking at PennWest, they can be looking at all three of our campuses, but as they start to narrow down their focus on what they want to study, then they have to look at which one of our campuses offers that program, and they’re asked to apply to that campus,” she said. “[California’s increase] is [caused] in part [by] where the academic programs are placed and at what campus.”
In fall 2023, PennWest received a total of 8,088 first-time, first-year applications. Compared to the total number of applications that the three campuses received in 2014 (8,420 applications), that’s a roughly 4% decrease.
Moving forwardLooking to the future, university officials are hopeful that enrollment downturns will turn around soon. At the university’s January Council of Trustees meeting, officials projected that enrollment will continue to decrease in 2024, but they anticipate growth during the following three years.
In part, this can be accomplished by PennWest recognizability. Freed said prospective students and their families are becoming more familiar with the PennWest name and brand.
“We spent time this past year building that brand, building our name, so that when our recruitment team is out traveling, they know students and families know PennWest,” Freed said.
And PennWest is attempting to draw in both traditional and non-traditional students. Its online programs provide pathways for adult learners to earn their degrees with more flexibility.
Perhaps most importantly for the school’s future will be the selection of its next leader. Laurie Bernotsky, the university’s interim president who has served in that position since July, will step down this summer to become president of another state system university, West Chester. Ms. Bernotsky was the second person to lead the young university.
On Monday, PennWest announced it had assembled a 25-person search committee to find the university’s next president. Committee members span all three campuses.
The ultimate goal of the search is to hire a long-term leader.
Finney believes it is key for PennWest to find an “innovative” president. She thinks that someone who has led a non-traditional institution — such as a community college or online-focused school — would fit the role well.
“I think you need somebody who has led a non-traditional institution [and is] willing to bring in good ideas from the outside. I don’t think you need a leader who’s led a traditional institution serving 18 to 22 year olds,” Finney said. “I think [PennWest’s next president] is going to really have to be very creative.”
During an interview with the Post-Gazette, state system Chancellor Daniel Greenstein said he believes PennWest’s next leader must be honest, transparent and knowledgeable of the “business” of higher education.
And the next leader must be a healer, he said.
“I think PennWest needs a healer,” Greenstein said. “[The campuses] have been through some pretty challenging times … You need somebody who brings empathy to the role.”
