Jul 26, 2017 3 min read

Frank Brogan can hardly shoulder the blame for all the problems bedeviling the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education.

The chancellor of the system that oversees 14 state-owned universities across the commonwealth can’t hammer together a time machine, go back to the 1990s and urge Pennsylvanians to have more babies, and make sure they stay in the area, so that campuses in the 2010s will not suffer from dipping enrollment. It would also be well beyond Brogan’s powers to stop the decades-long escalation in tuition and withdrawal of state funds, both in Pennsylvania and elsewhere, that has put higher education out of reach for so many young people.

Nevetheless, the announcement last week Brogan would be stepping down as chancellor effective Sept. 1 is well-timed. The former lieutenant governor of Florida and leader of a similar system of universities in the Sunshine State is departing following a report unveiled earlier this month by the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems that said, among other things, the chancellor’s office lacked sufficient authority, the board of governors for the PASSHE should be reconstituted to have laypeople in its membership rather than individuals with administrative or political axes to grind, and universities in the system, including California University of Pennsylvania, tend to compete with one another, rather than collaborate.

Brogan’s departure will undoubtedly add a dose of uncertainty to an already unsettled landscape for the system, which also includes campuses in Indiana, Edinboro, West Chester, Bloomsburg, Cheyney, Slippery Rock, Millersville, Clarion, East Stroudsburg, Kutztown, Lock Haven, Shippensburg and Mansfield. But for the State System of Higher Education to effectively turn over a new leaf, it should have new leadership at the top.

In a statement, Brogan said, “This is the system’s opportunity to make bold choices that will ensure our universities are here to meet the needs of our current and future students and the commonwealth for decades to come, and beyond.”

The chancellor came on board in October 2013, and departs with an annual salary of close to $346,000, one of the highest-paid officials in Pennsylvania. Even as enrollment fell from 119,000 in 2010 to 105,000 last year, Brogan is credited with promoting online initiatives in his four years heading the system, spurring the outside review of the universities, and, we hope, setting the table for much-needed reforms.

In fact, one reform already being talked about would allow universities to set their own tuition rates rather than adhere to one state standard. This would allow campuses that are struggling and in relatively unaffluent areas to set rates that would attract more students.

The campuses within the State System of Higher Education are too important to Pennsylvania to be allowed to starve from lack of funding or drift as a result of indifferent leadership. They are important economic engines in the regions where they are located, and provide an opportunity for growth, enrichment and training for students who can’t afford state-related institutions like the University of Pittsburgh or Penn State University, or private schools like Waynesburg University or Washington & Jefferson College. Whoever succeeds Brogan will have to try to wring more funding from the Legislature, increase enrollment and help change how the system is governed. We don’t envy the enormity of their task.