The board overseeing Pennsylvania’s 14 state-owned universities has put its hopes for a system turn-around in the hands of a former University of California system administrator and Gates Foundation official, naming him Monday as chancellor of the State System of Higher Education.
Daniel Greenstein until earlier this year led the Postsecondary Success strategy at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, a position he held for six years. Previously, he was a senior administrator in the University of California system.
His appointment, effective Sept. 4, makes him the fifth permanent chancellor in the State System's 35 years. He succeeds Frank Brogan, who led Pennsylvania's state-owned universities from October 2013 until until Sept. 1. Mr. Greenstein, 57, will earn a salary of $380,000.
Shortly before the board of governor’s unanimous vote, Chairwoman Cynthia Shapira called the recommendation of the search committee a game-changer, “one that I truly believe will set the course for the State System for the future. (It’s) a bold and historic statement on behalf of our students.”
“I am deeply honored by the trust you put in me,” Mr. Greenstein said moments after the board voted. “I can’t wait to get started.”
Gov. Tom Wolf, in a statement, praised Mr. Greenstein's 30-plus years in, and working with, higher education.
“Dr. Greenstein will focus the efforts of all involved in the State System on student success while creating a sustainable financial path forward for our 14 universities,” Mr. Wolf said. “Tens of thousands of students depend on the State System to get a quality and affordable education, so they can achieve the American dream.”
The Gates Foundation is one of the largest philanthropic organizations in the world, system officials noted. It is a key supporter of public higher education endeavors, providing upward of $125 million in grants and contracts annually.
Mr. Greenstein will take the reins of the largest provider of public university education in Pennsylvania, with 102,000 students at 14 member universities, among them California, Clarion, Edinboro, Indiana and Slippery Rock in Western Pennsylvania. It has 12,000 employees.
But the system he takes over has 17,000 fewer students than it had eight years ago. It is facing financial, admissions and leadership challenges greater than at any previous time, including two recent consultant reports with competing visions and starkly different recommendations for how to keep the campuses viable. Some of those campuses have lost 30 percent or more of their enrollment.
One set of recommendations came last July from the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems (NCHEMS), a Colorado consultant hired by the system. It recommended no university mergers or closures, but said the weakest campuses should be reconfigured and the system’s governance structure should be overhauled and its current board of governors be replaced with a lay panel.
Even as system leaders began implementing those recommendations, a study by Rand Corp. that was commissioned by a state legislative committee and released in April went further, suggesting the State System's best hope rests in some combination of merging with, or being brought under management of, one or more state-related universities like the University of Pittsburgh or Penn State.
Whichever consultant's plan prevails, the new chancellor will have as a chief responsibility securing dollars from a state government that consistently ranks near the bottom in support of higher education -- 47th per capita out of 50 states, according to the Illinois State University Grapevine report.
In a mid-afternoon conference call with reporters, Mr. Greenstein said that any plans to reshape the system must flow from a fundamental question about the sort of education students should be getting.
"What does that student need and why, and how can we get that to the student in the most effective way?" he said.
The new chancellor said it's premature for him to opine on recommendations in either the NCHEMS or Rand reports, but he said he is pleased that neither study recommended closing entire universities.
"I was really impressed with this idea that you can't just eliminate educational opportunity from whole regions," he said
Reacting to one of the more provocative parts of the Rand study, Mr. Greenstein said he would need to see more detail to imagine how blending of the State System with state-related schools like Penn State or Pitt could be viable.
Though he has never headed a university system or campus, Mr. Greenstein said the challenges facing the 14 schools require unconventional approaches. Asked if the search drew others who had led universities, Ms. Shapira said it did, but that Mr. Greenstein nevertheless stood out.
This chancellor search, like the one that brought Mr. Brogan to Pennsylvania, produced no public shortlist of contenders or even a count of the applicants. The State System's board of governors in 2013 imposed a secrecy order, requiring several dozen individuals who took part in finalist interviews to sign confidentiality agreements.
The system typically discloses names of finalists in campus presidential searches. However, the board concluded in 2013 that better candidates could be attracted for what is the highest-paying job in Pennsylvania state government, if they did not have to risk being exposed for being in the job market.
Last year, Mr. Brogan announced his retirement in July, days after NCHEMS called for sweeping changes to the system including its governance. In January, he was tabbed to handle the duties of assistant secretary of post-secondary education for the U.S. Department of Education.
As director of the Gates Foundation’s Postsecondary Success strategy, Mr. Greenstein worked with other higher education leaders nationwide on initiatives intended to boost educational-attainment, in particular among low-income and minority students, system officials said.
He created and put in play a national strategy for increasing the number of degrees awarded and narrowing achievement gaps.
Before joining Gates in 2012, he held leadership posts in the University of California system for almost a decade, including serving as vice provost of strategic planning, programs and accountability in the Office of the President.
He was responsible for introducing UC Online, revising the system’s long-range enrollment plan and developing a transparent means for distributing state resources to the UC campuses, according the the State System statement.
It said he also provided leadership to the Regents’ Commission of the Future, focusing on educational and curriculum reforms.
Kenneth Mash, head of the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties, who is a professor at East Stroudsburg University, welcomed the appointment.
“My colleagues and I look forward to Dr. Greenstein’s leadership,” Mr. Mash said. “He comes to the State System armed with experience as a faculty member, an administrator and as a nationally recognized advocate for innovative and proven approaches to public higher education."
But Senate Education Committee Chair John Eichelberger Jr., R-Blair, a harsh system critic, was less upbeat, saying the system won’t last long without drastic change.
“I don’t know anything about this individual. I wish him well,” he said. “I think he’s jumping on the Titanic right before it goes down.”
Ms. Shapira said the choice "makes the strong statement that we are committed to our mission of providing accessible, affordable, quality higher education to students while serving the needs of the Commonwealth, even as we redesign ourselves for the future.”
Mr. Greenstein has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in history from the University of Pennsylvania, according to the system. He studied at the London School of Economics, receiving a doctoral degree in social studies from Oxford University.
His career in academia dates to 1989, when he was senior lecturer in modern history at Glasgow University in Scotland. He was founding director of the university’s arts faculty computing service and founder of the Department of Humanities Computing.
Mr. Greenstein was the founding director of Arts and Humanities Data Service in London, which the State System said built a national internet service “to support research and teaching at universities in the United Kingdom by ensuring ready access to high-quality, online information sources.”
He returned to the United States in 1999, the year he became executive director of the Digital Library Federation in Washington, D.C., working to assist collaboration among 26 major research universities.
Greenstein moved on to the University of California system in 2002. His initial duties were creating next-generation services for UC’s 100-library system.
In addition to the five campuses in Western Pennsylvania, the state system includes Bloomsburg, Cheyney, East Stroudsburg, Kutztown, Lock Haven, Mansfield, Millersville, Shippensburg, and West Chester universities of Pennsylvania
Bill Schackner: bschackner@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1977 and on Twitter: @Bschackner.
First Published: May 21, 2018, 4:42 p.m.
Updated: May 21, 2018, 7:22 p.m.
