CAPITAL TIMES, October 5, 1990,
Vicki's Voice...
Recently some state legislators and a local newspaper suggested the
construction and operation of a four-year university in Harrisburg--
financed by the taxpayers, of course--to create a new image for the city.
The legislators in favor of a new university claim it would boost the
area's .economy and provide better service to college-bound residents of
Pennsylvania.
Yes, by all means, provide direct competition to PSH and use
available resources to build a new university instead of funding much
needed expansion at PSH. That means existing institutions, like PSH,
will see even less funding from the state to improve educational facilities
and curriculum.
PSH and other olleges in the area began expansion studies to
determine if they could accommodate the need in the city. Expanding
existing facitlities would clearly cost the taxpayers much less money
than building a new "Harrisburg University."
The problem with "Harrisburg University" is that legislation cannot
seem to find enough money to increase funding to existing state
universities, so how do they plan to finance a new institution that would
cost millions--therefore diverting state funds from already strained
educational resources. In addition, Pennsylvania ranked 47th among
the 50 states according to state finances devoted to higher education. Is
Legislation trying to put us in last place instead?
Harrisburg Area Community College (HACC) and PSH already
provide students with facilities for higher education. Instead of using
the taxpayers' money to build a new four-year institution, legislators
should increase state funding for established schools to expand and
improve on their current facilities and add to their staffs. This would
allow the schools to admit more of the students declined admission
because of space restrictions.
Improving and expanding our existing facilities and offerings at PSH
is a more sensible solution to the problem than pouring millions of tax
dollars into building a new university.
A four-year Haiiisburginstitution will only hurt PSH and HACC by
putting even more stress on the state budget--which is already
underfunding higher education institutions.
The only rational solution is to help Penn State University fund the
expansion of PSH and provide education for four years plus graduate
classes. Penn State conducted its own studies and then announced the
institution is ready to respond to requests from legislators and the
community to expand from a two-year school to a four-year school.
Obviously, Penn State administration did their homework and are not
willing to see PSH silently kicked out of legislators' paths or the minds
of the community. If legislators worry. about furthering economic
development, perhaps they should take an economics course--say at
PSH--to learn the best way to accomplish the task.
Or perhaps we should elect Penn State economics professors to
legislative positions. Penn State administrators are definitely using their
heads and available resources to find a solution to the problem, but state
legislators are proposing a project that will only hurt existing institutions
and the Harrisburg economy.
Victoria Cusano
Editor -i,n-Chief
CAIPITAIL TIMES STAIRIF ICICIETINGSz Please
plan to attend a meeting on Monday, October 8 at 10:00 a.m.
or on Tuesday, October 9 at 12:30 p.m. in the office.
Attendance to one of these meetings is mandatory. If you
cannot attend, please contact Vicki or Jon!
ATTENTION: The Capital 'nines editors decided to change the
publication day to every third FRIDAY instead of Wednesday for
production reasons. ,
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