4 min read September 2023 — West Chester University is a comprehensive public university in Pennsylvania with enrollment currently hovering around 17,000 undergraduate and graduate students, making it one of the largest state-owned universities in the country. Invest: spoke with Christopher Fiorentino, president of West Chester University, about the new building that was opened recently, the different programs the institution offers and their partnership with community colleges in Penn.
What have been some of the key highlights and milestones for the university since we last spoke?
We’ve just celebrated our 150th anniversary as an institution. It was a great year looking back at the institution’s history and looking forward to the next 150 years. We’re now in the middle of a fundraising campaign that we launched a few years ago and we’re pleased that we recently hit the 85% level of the campaign goal. The campaign, which is targeting $65 million, still has two years left, so that’s undoubtedly good news for us. We opened a new building at the beginning of this academic year – the 175,000-square-foot Sciences & Engineering Center and The Commons (SECC). The SECC, which is the largest project and most complex building in the University’s history, is a game-changer as it provides a living-learning environment for the next generation of scientists, physicists, engineers, nurses, nutritionists, and other critical-demand positions; it even houses our new dining hall. We were also recently reclassified by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education to the level of R2 research institutions. We’ve gone from a normal (teacher-training) school to a state teacher’s college and then to a state college and ultimately a university. We’re graduating more than 20 doctoral students each year, so that is a significant achievement. Like most universities in the nation, we experienced a slight enrollment dip related to the pandemic, but the flip side is that we had the largest incoming first-year class this past year. And this coming year, we’re expecting our first-year class to exceed those figures.
How would you describe the role of West Chester University in the region in continuing the growth of the greater Philadelphia region?
As part of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, we are a public university in Philadelphia and the Philadelphia-region. Our mission is to graduate students who are well-prepared to be professionally successful. Our challenge is trying to do that at the lowest possible cost, so we focus on controlling our costs. We are one of the largest institutions in this region, with enrollment hovering around 17,000 right now, and we have about 180+ academic opportunities in 40 fields of study across undergraduate, graduate and doctoral levels. In the business disciplines, we have an internationally accredited business program, and we graduate many students from accounting, marketing, management, and finance. Our health sciences programs are extremely popular, too, and our nursing program is in high demand. We started as a teacher education institution, and this long-standing tradition is still a major area of focus for graduating teachers.
We have a strong program in the health sciences and social work, and we are focused on meeting the needs of the businesses in this region. The SECC also houses one of our newest high-demand programs – the biomedical engineering program. The biomedical engineering program responds directly to the needs of businesses in the region.
We are a focal point for medical research and the biomedical space. We’re trying to remain focused on ensuring that we’re meeting the needs of these businesses, so we’re cautious about adding new programs. We’ve added applied statistics, an important research aspect in recent years. We also have a very robust pre-med program, and our graduate students have a high success rate in medical school. We also have a long tradition as a very well-respected music school, and we graduate many music teachers.
What are some of the most in-demand skills and how is your team addressing workforce needs?
I was involved in a meeting recently with several startup companies in the medical research space, and they were talking about their needs. They need scientists and PhDs to engage in research, but it was interesting that they were also talking about the need for smart people with good critical thinking and communication skills. People who can work as part of a team and fill in some of the basic workloads needed to support the people doing the research. They are looking for good communicators who can work as part of a team and a diverse workforce. We’ve worked very hard to diversify our student body and make sure that our workforce also reflects the diversity of the region and the student body. There’s a general feeling in the business community that they are looking for well-educated people whom they can teach some aspects of the job. Still, they’re looking for people who bring curiosity, work ethic, critical thinking and problem-solving skills that can be applied to different job situations.
Student expectations have changed after the pandemic. Students who were in the K-12 space during the pandemic, at different levels, experienced a setback in their level of preparation. That is a significant challenge, and it will impact students on our campus that are now juniors and seniors. As more students enter our pipeline, we anticipate seeing preparation deficits, but we are not sure yet what those deficits are. Some uncertainty is that students are experiencing mental health issues, and we’re seeing a slight enrollment dip from students who have shared that they need to take a break; hopefully, they will return.
How do you expect the university to navigate this period of economic uncertainty?
We are involved in the Moonshot for Equity project. We recognize that many students joining us do not have the level of preparation that we expected in the past. We want to be prepared for these students and not the other way around. We’re working with a leading research and advisory firm that has been identifying high-impact practices at schools nationwide. We need to be graduating students prepared to be nurses, accountants, social workers, teachers, or whatever professions require licensure. The challenge is to raise the students in our community who are prepared to support their success, which is crucial.
Nationwide, today’s students face massive debt, which we’re very sensitive to. We are an affordable, high-quality institution that has not raised its tuition for four years, although our costs continue to rise. We receive about 30% of our funding from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the Commonwealth also has many challenges and needs additional support. We can’t just expect the Commonwealth to continue providing other resources to support us. We’re working in a constrained environment and facing increasing challenges. We must be vigilant about operating the organization efficiently and appropriately aligning our resources. It’s an ongoing challenge for us.
How do employers utilize and support their local higher education institutions?
About 75% of our graduates settle around greater Philadelphia or Eastern Pennsylvania. In fact, recent results gathered from a survey conducted with members of WCU’s Class of 22 indicate that 93% of those surveyed were employed or pursuing further education within six-months of graduation. So, we are graduating students who will join the workforce in this region. Many schools, like the University of Pennsylvania and many others, are great, but often students graduate and leave the region. However, that’s not the case for our graduates, and the vast majority of students from public universities provide the bulk of the workforce. A university is a massive asset for a region; students can volunteer, participate in internships, etc. Universities are significant economic drivers in many communities. Businesses and organizations in the region have realized the value of higher education. Philadelphia is one of the country’s critical higher ed and meds hubs, and that is a significant selling point for the city to recruit businesses into the region.
What is your perspective on the value of a college degree?
Curiously, some people are questioning the value of a college degree. Significant evidence supports that a college degree is beneficial in terms of lifetime income. A college degree develops critical thinking and problem-solving skills. These are skills that are going to serve people well throughout their entire lifetime. There’s a lot of talk about people today who will change jobs and careers several times, and those skills will be fundamental to take anywhere. There are undoubtedly many opportunities today for successful careers without a college degree. The trades are areas of great concern right now, and people can make an excellent living working in the trades these days. Still, the concern about the value of a college degree is that it will continue to be very important to the individuals who achieve them and to the overall economy and the society that we live in. West Chester University’s mission is to create successful graduates who contribute to the common good and we are excellent at what we do.
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