Commonwealth of Pennsylvania House of Representatives
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COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE BUDGET HEARING STATE SYSTEM OF HIGHER EDUCATION STATE CAPITOL HARRISBURG, PENNSYLVANIA ROOM 140, MAJORITY CAUCUS ROOM WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2, 2016 9:30 A.M. BEFORE: HONORABLE WILLIAM ADOLPH, MAJORITY CHAIRMAN HONORABLE JOSEPH MARKOSEK, MINORITY CHAIRMAN HONORABLE KAREN BOBACK HONORABLE JIM CHRISTIANA HONORABLE GARY DAY HONORABLE GEORGE DUNBAR HONORABLE KEITH GREINER HONORABLE SETH GROVE HONORABLE SUE HELM HONORABLE WARREN KAMPF HONORABLE FRED KELLER HONORABLE JIM MARSHALL HONORABLE KURT MASSER HONORABLE DAVE MILLARD HONORABLE DUANE MILNE HONORABLE MARK MUSTIO HONORABLE JEFFREY PYLE HONORABLE MARGUERITE QUINN HONORABLE CURT SONNEY HONORABLE MIKE VEREB HONORABLE MATTHEW BRADFORD HONORABLE LESLIE ACOSTA HONORABLE TIM BRIGGS HONORABLE DONNA BULLOCK HONORABLE MARY JO DALEY HONORABLE MADELEINE DEAN HONORABLE MARIA DONATUCCI HONORABLE PETER SCHWEYER 2 1 (CONTINUED) 2 HONORABLE KEVIN SCHREIBER HONORABLE MARK ROZZI 3 HONORABLE STEPHEN KINSEY HONORABLE MICHAEL O'BRIEN 4 5 NON-COMMITTEE MEMBERS: 6 HONORABLE MATT BAKER HONORABLE WILL TALLMAN 7 HONORABLE BERNIE O'NEILL HONORABLE KRISTIN PHILLIPS HILL 8 HONORABLE STAN SAYLOR HONORABLE RICK SACCONE 9 HONORABLE ROBERT GODSHALL HONORABLE MARK GILLEN 10 HONORABLE JAMES ROEBUCK 11 COMMITTEE STAFF: 12 DAVID DONLEY, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR (R) 13 RITCHIE LAFAVER, DEPUTY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR (R) CURT SCHRODER, CHIEF COUNSEL 14 MIRIAM FOX, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR (D) TARA TREES, CHIEF COUNSEL (D) 15 16 17 18 TRACY L. MARKLE, COURT REPORTER/NOTARY PUBLIC 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 3 1 INDEX TO TESTIFIERS 2 NAME PAGE 3 FRANK T. BROGAN, CHANCELLOR 6 4 MICHAEL DRISCOLL, PRESIDENT 23 INDIANA UNIVERSITY OF PA 5 LOIS JOHNSON, ASSOCIATE VICE CHANCELLOR 138 6 FOR ADMINISTRATION AND FINANCE, PASSHE 7 DREW JOHNSON, PRESIDENT, STUDENT SENATE 54 SAA, INC., EAST STROUDSBURG UNIVERSITY OF PA 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 4 1 ---oOo--- 2 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN ADOLPH: Thank you. 3 And good morning, everyone. I'd like to 4 reconvene the Pennsylvania House Appropriations 5 Committee Budget Hearings for the fiscal year 6 '16-'17. 7 This morning, we have before us 8 Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, 9 the Chancellor, a student, and his staff. But 10 before we get started with the testimony, I'm 11 just going to go over a little housekeeping. 12 I don't know why I say this, because 13 nobody listens to me anyway. This is being 14 televised by PCN and, you know, iPhones and 15 iPads and all those electronic devices interfere 16 with the telecast. 17 I see that the testifiers have the mics 18 as close to them as possible. These are really 19 not that powerful of mikes, and it's a big room 20 and you need to talk into them. Okay? 21 It's also customary that we go through 22 some morning introductions so the viewers at 23 home and the testifiers have an understanding of 24 how large this Committee is. It also gives you 25 an idea of where the members of this Committee 5 1 reside, and we cover all the areas of 2 Pennsylvania. So I'm going to start. 3 My name is Bill Adolph; I'm the 4 Republican Chair of the House Appropriations 5 Committee, and I reside in Springfield, Delaware 6 County. 7 MINORITY CHAIRMAN MARKOSEK: Thank you, 8 Mr. Chairman. And just an aside, Chairman 9 Adolph's cell phone went off the other day and 10 he got mad at himself. Okay? So just -- Hi, 11 everybody. Good morning. I'm State 12 Representative Joe Markosek, the 25th 13 Legislative District, which is the eastern 14 suburbs of Allegheny County. 15 (INTRODUCTION TO MEMBERS AND STAFF.) 16 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN ADOLPH: Thank you. 17 These hearings take so long mainly because of 18 just the introductions. And when you add the 37 19 members of the Appropriations Committee and 20 throw in a couple of the standing committee 21 chairs, you know, we are the size of the State 22 Senate. So you're going to hear from everybody 23 today. 24 And with us today, also, it's my 25 pleasure to introduce Representative Matt Baker, 6 1 who's a member of the Board of Governors for 2 PASSHE. Also here today is Representative 3 Bernie O'Neill and also Representative Will 4 Tallman. And, of course, it's customary that 5 Chairman Markosek and I invite the standing 6 committee chairs and Representative Jim Roebuck, 7 the Democratic Chair. And I'm under the 8 impression that Representative Stan Saylor, the 9 Republican Chair, was supposed to be here. He's 10 probably on his way. 11 (Cell phone interruption.) 12 So somebody's not listening to me 13 already, so we'll try to figure out who that is 14 and send the Sergeant in Arms over there. Okay? 15 So, Chancellor, if you would begin. 16 MR. BROGAN: Yes, sir. 17 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN ADOLPH: Thank you. 18 MR. BROGAN: I will. And I hope you'll 19 indulge me, members. Good morning. And thank 20 you, Mr. Chairman and Mr. Chairman, for giving 21 us the opportunity to be with you this morning. 22 I'm going to save until last, the 23 introduction of my colleagues here at the table. 24 But if you'll indulge me, just a few members of 25 the audience who are here and important to us. 7 1 We have with us today the Chairman of the Board 2 of Governors, Chair Guido Pichini, who is 3 somewhere behind me. Also, we have Governor Ron 4 Henry. Ron is also the Chairman of the Finance 5 Administration & Facilities Committee for the 6 Board of Governors. 7 We also heard introduced, Representative 8 Matt Baker. One of the interesting pieces of 9 our government structure in the Commonwealth is 10 the fact that we have four seated members of the 11 General Assembly on the Board of Governors, 12 active members: Two Republicans, two Democrats, 13 two members of the House, two members of the 14 Senate. 15 I found that to be very productive and 16 very helpful in terms of maintaining a line of 17 communication between our system and the General 18 Assembly. Representative Baker is here, and 19 also Representative Mike Hanna is a member of 20 our board, as well. 21 Also with us in the audience today is 22 Marcia Welsh, who is the President of East 23 Stroudsburg University. She is here also to 24 support one of her students who is seated at my 25 right -- that's not you, Mike; I'm sorry -- who 8 1 will be joining us today, and I'll introduce him 2 in just a moment. Also with us today, President 3 Jody Harpster, the President of Shippensburg 4 University; he is with us in the audience. And 5 representing President David Soltz from 6 Bloomsburg is Dan Knorr, who is from Bloomsburg 7 and works at that institution. 8 I will now go, if you'll allow me, to an 9 introduction of my colleagues at the table. 10 Starting with my left, your right, is Lois 11 Johnson. Lois is a longtime member of the 12 System office and is here today to help support 13 me and us in the event we get questions 14 regarding statistics, data, or information that 15 you would like to have and quickly try to help 16 us find that if we've got it, but also to note 17 it if we don't so that we can get it back to 18 you. 19 To my right, I already talked about, but 20 I will introduce more formally, is President 21 Mike Driscoll. President Driscoll is President 22 of Indiana University, and is doing an 23 outstanding job at Indiana. And we believed, 24 because of the unique positioning of Indiana 25 University within our system, because they are 9 1 our comprehensive research university, that it 2 would be good to have not always a president as 3 we do, but in this particular case, this 4 particular president; and we hope that you will 5 use him through the course of these 6 conversations to your advantage in terms of 7 on-the-ground representation by a president. 8 They are the folks who are there every 9 day. And I think you will find him to be very 10 helpful, as he is to our entire system, not just 11 to Indiana University. 12 To Mike's right, we have our student who 13 is with us today. Drew is from East Stroudsburg 14 University, Drew Johnson. He is a 15 communications major, a senior at East 16 Stroudsburg, so he'll be leaving us at the end 17 of the year unless we can coax him into staying 18 and doing some graduate work. Drew, it's 19 always a possibility. And he's also student 20 body president at East Stroudsburg University; 21 and so we're very proud of him, his 22 accomplishments and, again, how he represents 23 not only the students of East Stroudsburg; but 24 today, I really believe strongly you will find 25 he represents the over 107,000 students that we 10 1 have as part of our system; and we're delighted 2 to have him with us today. 3 So those are the members of our group 4 today, Mr. Chairman. And, again, indulge me, if 5 you will, just a few comments; because, more 6 importantly, we want to get to your questions.