Between a myriad of legal and public relations issues, Penn State President Eric Barron knows that it can be hard for the university to “get our good story out there.”
But speaking to Penn State’s faculty senate on Tuesday, Barron had two good stories that he felt every professor on campus had a hand in. Two external agencies recently evaluated Penn State’s financial and academic outlook for the future, and both agencies said the future looks bright.
“When external people come in, take a look, and that’s the feedback you hear, you all have the right to be proud,” Barron told the faculty senate.
The first piece of good news came from Moody’s credit rating agency, with graded Penn State an “Aa2” with a positive outlook for the future. The “Aa” category is the second highest rating that the agency awards, which indicates “high quality…subject to low credit risk,” according to Moody’s website.
Even though most universities aren’t doing well enough to earn the “positive outlook” qualifier, that’s not why Barron was so proud to hear this news. Moody’s noted Penn State’s record number of applications and “significantly strengthened governance and management practices” as part the reason Penn State earned such a high rating.
“We all know there is a great deal of controversy in our governance,” Barron said. “… But the fact that our board comes from so many different directions was viewed as a safety against having a particular agenda come forward with no counterpoint.”
Barron also gave the faculty senate a preview of the Middle States Commission on Higher Education’s latest look at Penn State, which he says is filled with praise for Penn State’s academic performance. The commission specifically noted Penn State’s commitment to its land grant mission, which Barron says reflect the fact that “we very much feel that we are a part of this commonwealth.”
Penn State Provost Nick Jones took the podium after Barron and summarized the university’s position on evolving employee benefits.
“We are recommending these changes as a package as a way to try to modernize a policy that’s over 70 years old,” Jones said.
One of the major points of change will be the 75 percent tuition discount offered to family members of university faculty and staff. Under the proposed changes, the discount would apply to all undergraduate work instead of only the first bachelor’s degree. However, any child using their parents’ benefits would have to be under 26 years old to take advantage of the discount, which Jones said includes the vast majority of such students.
“Limiting it up to age 26 is equitable with what our Big Ten counterparts are offering and aligns with other benefit eligibilities,” Jones said. “To maintain our policy without an age limitation would be fiscally irresponsible.”
Jones also said that Penn State is in the middle of a lengthy and complicated attempt to update its health insurance policy, which currently costs the university around $200 million each year. But those costs are expected to go up eight percent each year, which Jones said is “unsustainable from a budget perspective.”
Jones said that Penn State wants to reduce its overall cost of healthcare, instead of just forcing its employees to pay more to offset rising costs. Some possibilities the university is exploring include an on-campus clinic partnered with the college of nursing, increased healthcare education for faculty, and using lower cost health care providers.
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