Pennsylvania Western University
The National Center for Higher Education Management Systems (NCHEMS) was asked to conduct the review, gather data and produce a report.This report, Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education Strategic System Review Findings & Recommendations, published in July 2017, identified two critical problems: declining state funding and demographic decline, as Pennsylvania's citizens increasingly trended older.Notably, this plan stressed that there were, in its view, some options that would be ill-advised, and fail to address and possibly worsen the core issues."[7] On July 1, 2020, Act 50 of 2020[8] was signed into law, which granted the Board Of Governors authority to develop a procedure to "create, expand, consolidate, transfer or affiliate an institution".The Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) of University of Massachusetts Amherst published a report which shared the Impacts of the PASSHE Redesign and Consolidation."[12] On April 23, 2021, the Board of Governors approved the proposed west and northeast integration plans, and initiated a 60-day comment period.[24] In late April 2022, the NCAA announced that it would allow Division II sports to remain as separate teams at the three campuses and compete against each other.