COLLEGES, UNIVERSITIES Pa. has unique, confusing higher education system

The schools of the state-operated, public system have been tailoring offerings to fit their communities.
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) -- Pop quiz: Which of the following is a state-operated, public university -- the University of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania State University, or Indiana University of Pennsylvania? Which receives more state funding, Penn State's medical school or Penn's veterinary school?
The answers might surprise you.
With its combination of public universities and state-related schools, and a variety of public schools that receive both direct and indirect support from the state, Pennsylvania has a unique -- and confusing -- higher education system in which it's hard to tell the players without a scorecard.
"To my knowledge, Pennsylvania is the only state that has all of these different pieces," said Judy Hample, chancellor of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education.
Most don't know
And just what is the State System of Higher Education?
Don't worry if you can't answer that question -- you're in good company. Officials with the state system said in October 2002 that a study found the majority of Pennsylvanians didn't know what the state system was.
"We need to do one of two things," said Hample, who came to the state system after that study was completed. "We either need to change our name, or we need to do a better job of branding to help people recognize what the State System of Higher Education is."
From a collection of teachers colleges, the schools of the state-operated, public state system have broadened their role significantly since the system was created in 1983 from Bloomsburg, California, Cheyney, Clarion, East Stroudsburg, Edinboro, Indiana, Kutztown, Lock Haven, Mansfield, Millersville, Shippensburg, Slippery Rock and West Chester universities. More than 100,000 students are enrolled in the system.
"All of our institutions offer teacher education, and my expectation is that long into the future we will continue to do that. It's an important part of our mission," Hample said. "But it's been a long time since teacher education was our only mission."
Instead, many of the member schools have begun to tailor their academic offerings to meet the needs of their local communities. Most have added nursing programs, and many are pursuing high-tech training programs, including a computer security program at East Stroudsburg "that draws significantly more applicants every year than they can possibly accept," Hample said.
In addition to the state system, the state also runs, through the Department of Education, 14 community colleges with 19 campuses.
With an emphasis on certificate programs, associate degrees and adult education, these schools combine to enroll more than 100,000 students and received a state appropriation of more than $207 million for the 2001-02 school year.
Penn State
So if those are the state's "public" universities, what is Penn State University?
Chartered as Pennsylvania's land grant institution, Penn State was the original "state-related" college, operating under an independent board of trustees, but receiving an annual appropriation from the state.
Since its creation in 1855, Penn State has grown to include more than 20 campuses around the state, including a medical school, a law school and a technical college.
Penn State president Graham B. Spanier describes the institution as "one university, geographically dispersed."
"We have a unique organizational and governance model that's not found anywhere else in higher education in the United States," he added.
Penn State continues as the state's land-grant university, and agricultural extension and other outreach programs are a central part of the university's mission.
But it is no longer the only "state-related university." In 1965, the Legislature voted to add Temple University in Philadelphia as a "state-related" institution; the University of Pittsburgh was added in 1966, and Lincoln University in 1972.
Including their satellite campuses, the four "state-related" schools enroll some 140,000 students on more than 30 campuses.
Tuition at the state-related universities tends to be higher than in the state system, but lower than most private colleges.
Although all four universities receive state funding -- nearly $800 million dollars for the 2001-02 school year -- they are not funded through the state budget, but instead through a "nonpreferred" appropriations process that takes place after the budget has been approved.
Nonpreferred appropriations require a two-thirds vote in both the state House and Senate, as well as the governor's signature, for approval.
Funding private schools
Of course, just because a school is private, that doesn't mean it's not getting state money. In fact, the state awarded more than $266 million to private colleges and universities for the 2001-02 school year.
Eight private schools receive direct appropriations from the state through the nonpreferred process. In most cases, such as the University of Pennsylvania's School of Veterinary Medicine or the Pennsylvania College of Optometry, these appropriations support programs that are not available anywhere else in the state.
Penn's vet school, for example, gets more state funding than Penn State's medical school. Penn has the only veterinary school in Pennsylvania, while the PSU College of Medicine is the newest of several medical schools in the state.
But most of the state aid to private colleges goes through the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Association, a state agency that provides need-based grants to attend in-state schools.
Don Francis is president of the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Pennsylvania, which represents 82 of the state's 93 private schools.
He says PHEAA grants -- and a long tradition of financial aid at the state's private schools -- help to make college more affordable no matter where a student chooses to enroll.
"We have a strong student-aid program," Francis said, "and we have a lot of private institutions providing a lot of private dollars in financial aid to students."
Roughly 40 percent of the PHEAA dollars go to students attending private colleges, which enroll 240,000 students, or 41 percent of the state's total college enrollment. Private schools also receive an "institutional assistance grant" of about $1,000, intended to offset some of the general costs of education, for each PHEAA student they enroll.
The big question
This is where much of the controversy lies. Should Pennsylvania keep tuition low at its public schools by giving them more financial support? Or should the state make all schools more accessible with programs like PHEAA that students can take to the colleges of their choice?
"I don't know that there is a right or wrong answer to that question," Hample said. "I think that Pennsylvania's higher education funding has emerged over a number of years, and lots of variables feed into that process."
Spanier, who has been an administrator at four public universities, would like to see more money for public and "state-related" schools.
"It was a strategy during the [former Gov. Tom] Ridge administration to have only modest increases in appropriation and to put more of the money in financial aid through PHEAA -- in other words, to have tuition rise so those who could afford it could pay and those who couldn't afford it would have financial aid," Spanier said.
"It's not a strategy that I supported, or that I support now, because there is a public good in supporting public higher education."
But Francis said the state also has a responsibility to the private schools, which have long been a central part of the state's higher education infrastructure. There are even financial benefits to supporting private schools through PHEAA, Francis said.
"There's going to be a benefit to the state if [students] choose a private institution because it's going to cost the state a lot less money," Francis said. "It's also going to put less pressure on the state, because ... our public institutions won't have some of the crowding problems you find in other states."
"I think you really have to look at where you are when you try to judge higher education policy in a state," Francis said. "Private higher education, in Pennsylvania, is a key component of our system."