It is no secret the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE) is, and has been, facing budget problems. Though, it is not too well known what all Chancellor Frank Brogan is putting on the table to fix the problems. The answer — everything.

“As we take this new look at the system, everything has to be on the table,” said Brogan during a hearing at Pennsylvania’s Senate in March. Without being willing to change or cut anything in the state system, not even a light bulb can be changed without asking for permission, he said.

The changes Brogan talks about are in some cases, ambiguous, but he emphasizes a push toward cutting costs by increasing PASSHE’s efficiency. That sounds reasonable and obvious, but some of the changes that are on the table may raise a few eyebrows.

“I was in a meeting with some council of trustee members, and when we presented their budget, they said, ‘Gee, do we really need 14 universities in this system?’” he said to the Senate committee, explaining no one would want their own school closed.

“Everything has to be on the table,” Brogan said, “and people need to be ready to have an adult conversation about where this system goes, or we will all be wasting our time.”

When Brogan said everything has to be on the table, he meant it. The leader of Pennsylvania’s higher education is ready to do whatever is necessary to cut costs in PASSHE, including closing a university if it is fiscally necessary, he said.

That makes sense, because offering Pennsylvanians a place to go to college really is not the point of PASSHE. Oh wait, that is exactly the point of PASSHE.

From a fiscal standpoint, shutting down a school, laying off faculty, or as Brogan also suggested, moving more classes to an online setting, is one way to keep PASSHE functioning — if it is treated strictly like a business.

It is one thing if Brogan demanded the General Assembly to raise PASSHE funding, but then say everything is on the table if he could not get enough funds. It is another thing that he did not ask for more money. Instead he put every asset the state system has to offer on a platter.

This is after Brogan pointed out to a House committee that PASSHE has about the same funding it did in 1997 — except now it has about 13,000 more students, and who knows if he adjusted the funding levels for inflation. He also said to state legislators that in the past eight years 900 hundred staff positions were cut.

A state educational institution cannot be treated exactly like a business because its standards are not the same. A business bases its functions on profits, while an educational institution maintains standards on educating the state’s populace. Closing down a university does not help meet that standard.

Healthcare, retirement and faculty salary costs were another concern of Brogan and the General Assembly.

“At 97 grand,” said state Sen. John Eichelberger, chiming in about professor salaries, “these are people that are working 17 hours a week. Wow. Can I get a signup list here going in the Senate?”

Professors, of course, work countless hours outside of the classroom to prepare for those 17 hours of lecture and office hours. State legislators may want to consider donating “97 grand” from their six-figure salaries to people, like PASSHE students, who were affected by the more than eight-month long budget impasse.

The point, however, is that a society is supposed to have certain values. Accessible, affordable and quality education seems like a useful thing to have on that list of values. But some people have a different perspective.

“Markets change. Needs change,” Brogan said. “Higher education changes, and that might mean necessary changes in our system.”

If PASSHE truly needs to change, and everything is on the table like Brogan said, then maybe there needs to be an adult conversation about how necessary a chancellor is to the state system.

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