State university campus in Phila. is proposed

The new chancellor of Pennsylvania's State System of Higher Education plans to explore opening a university campus in Philadelphia to help Mayor Nutter boost the city's college-degree attainment rate, he said in an interview yesterday.

John C. Cavanaugh, who began work July 1, said he would approach Nutter and other officials to begin discussing the project, which could open greater access to the state system for city students. He already has discussed the possibility with the state system's Board of Governors and has their support, he said during an interview at his office in Harrisburg.

"This collaborative type of approach is exactly what's needed," said Doug Oliver, Mayor Nutter's press secretary.

Oliver said the Nutter administration looked forward to discussing the proposal with Cavanaugh.

Ray Betzner, a spokesman for Temple University, said the university supported Nutter's higher-education goals and looked forward to the involvement of other institutions in helping to achieve them.

"We welcome the addition of other institutions of higher education who want to join us in providing quality education," Betzner said.

The campus would be modeled after the Dixon University Center in Harrisburg, where several of the system's 14 universities offer programs both online and with in-person faculty. Clarion University, for example, runs library science; Indiana University of Pennsylvania, administration and leadership studies; and Shippensburg University, advanced studies in business.

Several private schools, including Elizabethtown College, Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, and St. Francis University, also offer courses at the center.

"If you bring the opportunity to the people at the right location in the right way, you can really help raise that educational-achievement level," said Cavanaugh, 54, the former president of the University of West Florida in Pensacola. "Not everybody has a computer at home to take online classes."

Cheyney University currently has a site in Philadelphia, but Cavanaugh said he envisioned a larger campus for the project.

At his inauguration, Nutter pledged to double the city's college-degree attainment rate in the next five to 10 years and cut the high school dropout rate in half. About 18 percent of city residents have college degrees, ranking Philadelphia 92d among 100 cities.

The proposal from Cavanaugh comes as Nutter and Community College of Philadelphia plan to introduce a program at a news conference today that will offer financial help to Philadelphia students to complete their degree if they have already earned 30 credits or more. The program is to be funded by an anonymous donor.

Cavanaugh said he had no location in mind for the campus and emphasized that many discussions would need to be held to determine what degree programs would best serve city students.

Also during the more than hour-long interview, he acknowledged that the 110,000-student state system, which operates on a $1.4 billion budget, must do a better job of preparing teachers for urban schools. That will help boost the college-degree attainment rate, he said: Better-trained teachers will help more students graduate and go on to college.

"We have to get more of our students to do their student teaching in urban settings," he said.

Cavanaugh, who is paid $327,500 to oversee the system, said he also would look to have the 14 universities collaborate on degree programs, using distance education. Several of the universities could offer, for example, a foreign-language program.

"We have the technology now to really look at those opportunities," he said.

Cavanaugh also said that the state system was still investigating financial woes and other problems at Cheyney University and that the process would likely take several more months.

Cavanaugh plans to discuss ways with Cheyney's Board of Trustees next week to improve the residence halls at Cheyney. "Living learning communities" are being created at some other campuses around the country in which residence halls are matched with classrooms and retail space, he said. Cheyney has the land for such an arrangement, he said.

Other state-owned universities are West Chester, Bloomsburg, California, East Stroudsburg, Edinboro, Kutztown, Lock Haven, Mansfield, Millersville and Slippery Rock.