Chancellor Daniel Greenstein visits Edinboro on PASSHE tour

Several higher education questions and concerns were addressed by Dr. Daniel Greenstein, chancellor of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE), at Edinboro University on Wednesday, Oct. 9, from around 1 to 3 p.m.

During an introduction by EU President Dr. Guiyou Huang in the Frank G. Pogue Student Center multipurpose room, he mentioned a few positive improvements at EU regarding enrollment, including an increase in the freshman class of around 130 members. In addition, he mentioned the overall incoming freshman GPA average had increased to approximately 3.55.

“That’s higher than ever before, that’s great news,” said Huang, shortly before turning attention over to Greenstein. The chancellor began with a brief story about moving one of his children to college and how it was an experience that helped him reflect on his job and its objectives.
“I believe powerfully in public higher education for a few reasons,” he said.

One of those reasons cited was social mobility, to which he stressed that most of the jobs people earned around the time he graduated high school are gone. He’d eventually point out that, “in higher education today, you’re five times more likely as a wealthy person to have a degree by the age of 24 than you are if you’re a poor person,” said Greenstein. Therefore, he explained, higher education is an avenue toward closing the wealth gap and achieving greater financial stability.

His second reason was economic development, and another statistic Greenstein shared is that, “by 2025-2026, 54 percent of jobs in Pennsylvania will require some form of post-secondary education.”

With that in mind, he said, “it’s virtually 100 percent of new jobs.” Therefore, improvement must be made regarding financially underserved students.

Greenstein is excited about the energy and progress being made by PASSHE schools, including Edinboro and especially concerning the new addition of Huang. He would then address the entire system.

PASSHE has created committees to approach and find solutions to issues such as investment and budget, shared academic programs, online education, developmental education and supplemental instruction.

Upcoming committees will also focus on mental health and wellness, affordability, holistic advising and the workforce.

At one point during his speech, the audience was asked to text responses to a four-question survey. Questions touched on their favorite part about Edinboro, their sense of belonging to the university, and the university’s ability to challenge the status quo on operations.

Greenstein eventually discussed potential obstacles in a Q&A session where no subject was off limits. Topics included universities defining their students differently in their enrollment records and registrars not giving outside access to transcripts.

Concluding remarks were made by Huang. Students and faculty can visit the PASSHE website regarding school information such as visits, news, system redesign and more.

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