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LOCK HAVEN -- Lock Haven City Council was urged to speak out against staff changes expected to take place soon at Lock Haven University.
Peter Campbell, Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties (APSCUF) president at LHU, spoke to council during its regular meeting held via livestream, highlighting the economic impact the retrenchment of nearly 100 LHU staff could have on the city.
Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education Chancellor Daniel Greenstein and the system's board of governors has placed guidelines on all 14 state schools to return to its 2010-2011 financial standards. To do so, LHU will have to let go of nearly 100 employees -- 47 faculty and 53 staff -- in the next two years.
"These individuals and their families own or rent property in Lock Haven, pay county and school district taxes, and spend their disposable income at local businesses," he said.
Pulling statistics from the 2015 Economic and Employment Impact report from the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, Campbell said the university has an economic impact of $148,709,294 on the state and an employment impact of $85,461,682.
"Our university has an impact of 2.4 percent on the employed labor force -- 19,200 -- of Clinton County," he continued.
City Manager Gregory Wilson noted that the university is the city's third highest employer behind commuters to Williamsport and the Keystone Central School District.
"Within the city of Lock Haven, the university is within the city's borders and also a major employer within the city," Wilson said.
"The firing of these employees will have a detrimental effect on their families and will damage the local economy," Campbell said. "It will also reduce the academic programs available at LHU that attract students from near and far who invest in the community to pursue their academic dreams."
Included with the retrenchment, the university is expected to place 13 academic programs in moratorium.
Campbell said the faculty at LHU share administrators' goal of restoring financial responsibilities, but believe these issues can be handled in-house.
"We are willing to work with management to achieve financial solvency without the loss of 20 percent of our faculty and deep cuts to our academic programs that would gut the educational core, character, identity, value and worth of our university," he said.
He continued, noting that the faculty is supportive of steps made by President Dr. Robert Pignatello to reverse the university's enrollment decline locally.
"We believe that if given five years by the chancellor, which was originally planned, with everyone working together -- management, faculty, staff -- we could grow enrollment at LHU and overcome the current financial crisis," he said.
The university's $53 million in reserves supports to the initiative, he said.
Campbell asked council to write to Greenstein, board of governors chairwoman Cindy Shapira and Gov. Tom Wolf and express concerns over the retrenchment of employees.
He also requested council become further involved in the topic of integration.
PASSHE has proposed the integration of LHU with sister schools Mansfield and Bloomsburg. If approved, the process would begin as early as 2022.
"The final plan for this integration has not been devised yet. In fact, Dr. Pignatello has encouraged local representatives to be involved in the discussions on integration," Campbell said. "I hope that members of council will accept this offer and work with the university to develop an integration plan which is robust and supports a strong physical presence in the community of Lock Haven."
Campbell expressed his concerns that the merger could lead to more online classes and less in-person instruction at the university.
"Our students do not come to LHU for online classes. They come from rural communities for a supportive and familiar learning environment with small-town values," he said. "Students do not come to LHU to be an anonymous face in classes of 60 to 90 students, or to have their course work split and spread across three campuses."
Campbell believes a "high-quality education in knowledge-based disciplines should continue to be a foundation of Lock Haven University."
Mayor Joel Long told council he had received information along with KCSD Superintendent Jackie Martin and the Clinton County Commissioners to hold meetings and discussions about the integration and other problems LHU faces.
"I will try to keep you all abreast of this information," Long said.
Wilson also said that any members of council who would like to take part in the discussions could reach out to him and he would forward their contact information to Pignatello's office.
"It's very important to us, Lock Haven University has been here a very long time," Long said. "Hopefully we can all get through this and look back and say we were able to overcome this. We'll work hard together, that's what we've done in the past and that's what we'll do now."