SLIPPERY ROCK — The new chancellor of the State System of Higher Education said one of his key messages is for the system's 14 universities to work together.

“We've got to organize ourselves as a system. It's cold out there to go it alone,” said Frank Brogan, who spoke Wednesday at Slippery Rock University.

Brogan was hired in August by the state system board of governors. Before this, he was the lieutenant governor in Florida under Gov. Jeb Bush from 1999 to 2003, and he had been the chancellor of the State University System of Florida since 2009.

He replaced John Cavanaugh, who left in February.

Brogan's arrival to SRU comes during a period of difficulty for the state system because of rising costs and declining enrollment.

Edinboro, Clarion, Mansfield and East Stroudsburg universities all have announced plans to lay off multiple employees and cut programs.

SRU last week announced that only one tenured faculty position would be cut and six positions would be modified, but no programs are planned to be cut right now.

Brogan said, “We're going through some tough times as a system, but guess what, who isn't?”

He said that two things separate the state system from other higher education systems: geography, with the schools originally designed to be regional, and affordability.

However, he said that rising costs are threatening the state system's competitiveness.

He said there are two ways to deal with declining enrollment: give up or get creative, innovative and aggressive.

“That's the only alternative,” Brogan said.

He noted that the state has a lot of universities, saying the state system is in the most competitive higher education market possible. To stay competitive, state schools need to keep doing what they are good at, but also to change when necessary.

Although research and graduate programs increasingly are popular, Brogan said state system schools should not lose track of what they do.

“This system is largely focused on undergraduate education,” Brogan said.

He said a school cannot be a great research and graduate institution without first having great undergraduate programs.

Brogan also said the arts and humanities still play an important role in state system schools.

“We are not, nor should we ever become, giant vocational-technical schools,” Brogan said.

However, he said there are places for the schools to expand their programs.

He said the system soon will be doing a supply/demand gap analysis to see what jobs exist as a guidepost to look at areas where the system could expand.

Brogan said the system needs to keep what works and consider changing where needed. He said educators should not be afraid to examine programs and change when necessary.

“Together, I think we can constantly do that, and more importantly, we have a responsibility to do that,” Brogan said.

Brogan is visiting all state system schools, something that he said is the “right thing to do.”

Brogan visited California (Pa.) University earlier in the day and he visited Edinboro University today.

SRU President Cheryl Norton introduced Brogan and praised his decision to travel the state.

“It says a lot about the man that he wants to visit all 14 schools,” Norton said.