UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Child care, employee recruitment, health care and information technology security were some of the topics covered during a Penn State Town Hall meeting on June 2 that gave faculty and staff the opportunity to ask University administrators questions and share concerns.
Provost Nick Jones and Senior Vice President David Gray took questions from those in the audience as well as those who submitted comments online. It was the first in a series of planned University Town Hall meetings. Jones said the University administration wants to be “sensitive to the fact that a lot of change coming in a relatively short period of time can cause a lot of stress in our community.”
“This is an opportunity to talk openly about change, the changes that you are experiencing, the changes that are coming your way, the changes that you’re concerned about,” Jones said.
Penn State Today and the University Staff Advisory Council sponsored the meeting, which was held in Kern Building on the University Park campus and was streamed live online, allowing members of the University community from across the state to participate.
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Child care and a changing work force were among the topics that came up several times, and Jones noted that the University is committed to making investments in the areas the community values. He said there are many areas across the University where greater efficiencies would allow for greater investment in people.
“The challenge we have is when a lot of our investment is tied up in things that it doesn’t need to be tied up in like cumbersome processes, legacy systems, antiquated processes — all of which are costly — our ability to increase revenue, to do more things is more limited than it used to be in the past,” Jones said. “What we’re looking to do is to pull resources out of those places where we don’t need to be spending so that we can invest in the things that we value as a community. There’s a whole host of areas where, I think, we’d like to be making greater investment if we had the resources to do so. Our goal is to pull from the inanimate, if you will, so that we can invest in those things.”
In addition to answering questions, Jones and Gray used the meeting to provide the community with updates on issues including a multi-year initiative to make human resources more streamlined and cost effective; Project LionPath to update the student information system; a structural review of Finance and Business support services; and heightened IT security.
“What we’re asking you all to do is really to join us as we tackle the change that we must,” Gray said. “And it isn’t about taking on change just for its own sake. It’s really about tackling change that’s inevitable and necessary to drive the University forward, to ensure that we’re competitive and financially sustainable for the years to come.”
Gray and Jones provided an update on the state of the University, including its positive financial and academic outlook. Moody’s Investor Services recently affirmed Penn State’s Aa2 rating, as a strong, healthy University with a positive outlook. The University just completed the academic accreditation process with Middle States Commission on Higher Education, with a draft report commending the University in 14 areas of institutional strength.
In response to a question about what the University community can do to be engaged in the process, Gray said the Town Hall was the first in a series of conversations to share thoughts on Penn State’s strengths, challenges, concerns and areas of opportunity. Through that process, he said, the administration will be able to make sounder decisions.
“I think that’s the key thing for us is to have this dialogue so you understand we have a finite resource pool. There’s not any great number of buckets the University can draw upon … We’re going to have to make some difficult calls about priorities and choices and necessary investments that we need to make, whether it’s in child care, whether it’s in health care, or other activity areas,” Gray said. “Engaging each other in that conversation and becoming well-informed about the choices and the challenges the University faces is one of the most important things faculty and staff can do in support of and in alignment with the administration.”
Gray and Jones noted that some of the changes that are expected do not fall under the University’s control. A new state law, for example, has added fingerprinting requirements for those who work directly with minors. Gray said that is something all institutions of higher education in Pennsylvania are working to come to grips with.
“This is not something prescribed by the University, it’s something prescribed by this new state law that we’re all struggling with,” he said.
Gray and Jones also fielded questions and listened to suggestions on a range of topics including making sure all cups and containers used on campus are compostable, expanding mentoring programs and offering free or reduced-cost fitness classes for employees.
“We hope that this will represent the first of many opportunities that we’ll be able to provide for you to share your thoughts, concerns, issues, ask questions, make suggestions, have input, find out things that you didn’t know about, what was going on around the University with us directly,” Jones said, adding that “this is really an opportunity to engage a little bit more deeply.”
Faculty and staff who attended the meeting in person or online are invited to provide feedback about the event by taking an online survey.
The meeting can be viewed online. A second Town Hall will be held in the fall, with details to be announced.