At SRU’s state of the university, President Karen Riley notes accomplishments, concerns
SLIPPERY ROCK TWP — While Slippery Rock University continues to buck many trends causing strife at colleges across Pennsylvania, university president Karen Riley says hard work will be needed to navigate upcoming challenges like the potential “enrollment cliff.”
With a new academic year underway, SRU’s leadership gathered Thursday afternoon, Sept. 10, to hear about the university’s direction. Riley delivered the annual state of the university address to highlight the positives, the challenges and the ways the university is adapting to meet the moment.
“There’s some great things we’ve got to celebrate, and we should be popping corks today, but we’re not because we’ve got a couple of places where we took our foot off the gas,” she said. “It doesn’t mean we’re in bad shape, but it does mean we’ve got some areas that require a little bit of attention.”
While she stated the university is on solid ground, she emphasized the importance of striving for excellence to keep the university solid for years to come.
Riley touted a preliminary number of 8,685 enrolled students at the university this year, with 1,646 being first-year students — the highest since 2010 and just eight below the university’s record. However, she noted a small decrease in retention from 86% to 84%.
“84% is great … for the other people. 84% is not great for us because we know we can do better,” she said.
She mentioned that SRU student athletes led the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference in terms of GPA with an average of 3.528. She also highlighted faculty contributions outside of class, such as books and other academic articles.
When mentioning some challenges the university can anticipate, the “enrollment cliff” — an upcoming drop-off in high school graduates due to changing population and demographics — was the first issue brought up.
“It’s grim, right? These are strong headwinds. Now, that does not mean we’re going to go like that, but it does paint the realities of what we’re up against,” Riley said.
Carrie Birckbichler, the university’s vice president for finance and administration, took faculty on a deep dive of the university’s finances.
She said revenue from tuition and state appropriation is only seeing small increases, while costs such as utilities and student aid are seeing much higher increases. However, the exact amount some items will rise is unknown.
“With those unknowns, we’re really looking at a mixed revenue picture,” she said.
One other topic Birckbichler highlighted was internal discussions about a “strategic use” of $5 million in reserve funding toward paying off the university’s nearly $20 million in outstanding debt.
She said using the funds could create some flexibility in the university’s finances in 2032 or 2033, when the “enrollment cliff” may arrive.
Before wrapping up the address, Riley took some time to highlight initiatives happening campuswide.
For one, she said the university was able to buy heavily discounted university apparel from its old vendor, Sports Locker, so nonteaching staff can enjoy rocking some university merchandise for free.
She also said the university is making strides toward improving things behind the scenes, including its cybersecurity.
“I came from Regis University that had a cyberattack before COVID. They had a cyberattack, they were completely locked out of everything. They had to pay a $1 million ransom, which was the least of their worries,” she said.
Riley said she is also tasking the president’s commissions to do an “outward facing” project at the same time as their normal duties.
“How are we, Slippery Rock University, the anchor institution of certainly this town but this region, how are we making a difference in the lives of people? Particularly people who are represented in our president’s commissions, mostly underserved,” she said.
To end, she said the university needs excellence from everybody to enjoy continued success.
“We have rising costs, and we have flat revenue. Now, that’s not insurmountable. We can do this. We have to recognize where we are. We’re beating the trends already. But what we talked about today was even a couple little misses by a little bit really make a difference for us,” she said.
