This is part 2 of the forum, previously posted questions are available in this earlier post.
Chancellor John Cavanaugh of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE) came to BU for a brief student forum, while also appearing on President David Soltz’s television show, “Husky Connections.” Below contains additional questions that the student representatives from varying majors asked the chancellor at the forum.
PASSHE Chancellor John Cavanaugh (left) and BU President David Soltz (right) attend a student forum, photo couresty of Justin McDonald
Question: “What separates Bloomsburg University from other schools in the system…where do you see us fitting in within the system?”
-Joe Arleth, senior, mass communications major
Answer:
“I think that what is wonderful about the state system is each institution has something unique about it. Most people know us for teacher education, Bloomsburg has managed to build on that strength on a number of different areas. I made a comment earlier about the “French Fry Bus,” said Cavanaugh. “That would be something that most people may not know about Bloomsburg. It relates to science, technology, engineering, and math…Well if you’ve got a program that shows people you can take french fry grease and turn it into biodiesel, renewable fuel–most people like to eat french fries, but what do you do with the grease?”
“Another area, audiology. Audiology is a long-time, powerhouse program here at Bloomsburg. It actually stimulated conversation within the system about how we can provide more opportunities for doctorate programs and Bloomsburg was really a major reason why we started that conversation across the whole system.”
Question: “How do you think the PASSHE has an impact on the whole state in general because of how many schools are located across the state?”
-Connor Showalter, sophomore, mass comunications major
Answer:
“90 percent of our students in the system come from Pennsylvania,” said Cavanaugh. He said that when talks to members of the general assembly he says, “Look whatever you provide us is an investment, ‘Why?’ because the students that are from here, they’re going to stay here. There going to move back to your collectively district. They’re going to buy a house, get a job, pay taxes, and they’ll vote. So when they’re investing in us, they’re investing in the future, not only of perhaps own political career, but they are certainly investing in the future direction of the state, in terms of policy issues and in a third formidable way they’re investing in the economy of Pennsylvania down the road.”
“Everybody tells us, what’s going to bring us out of a recession–no more spending. Well if our graduates stay here in Pennsylvania, that is the economy. So what better investment can you make? We’re the backbone of the state.”
Question: “I know that around the campus and different PASSHE schools there have been a lot of actions that have been taken to prevent the spread of the seasonal flu and the swine flu. Here at this university, there wasn’t enough seasonal influenza vaccines for all the students that wanted to get one. Since the swine flu is predicted to hit people 25 (years of age) and younger, is PASSHE doing anything to make sure that the swine flu vaccine is available to all students who would like to receive one?”
-Ashli Truchon, senior, communications studies major
Answer:
“We’re not in control of how many vaccines we get that’s determined by the companies that make the vaccine,” said Cavanaugh. “As you’ve probably have followed the story, in the beginning they thought that the vaccine could not be produced as fast as they’d hoped because initial results in the lab showed that they grew much slower the culture than they had thought before. So right off the number of doses that are available is not going to be where they wanted it to be. The Centers for Disease Control and the Pennsylvania Department of Health (PADOH) determines how much vaccine goes where and the priority of who gets the vaccine.”
“At this point the vaccine that’s available is going to the highest risk groups: health care workers, pregnant women, and so on. When more of that vaccine becomes available then they’ll come down the list of priority. We’ve already worked it out with the PADOH that all our campuses will be vaccine distribution centers. The way that that will work is that PADOH will send folks in to help give the vaccine because we don’t have enough people in our health centers to do that.” Cavanaugh is expecting to hear more information about the flu vaccine within the next two weeks.
