Pennsylvania's 14 state-owned universities lost another 5,000-plus students this fall, dropping total head count enrollment below 89,000 — a level not seen in three-plus decades, dating nearly to the system’s founding — according to just released data Monday. The 5.4% downturn and anticipated loss of more than $36 million in tuition revenue is likely to further complicate efforts to redesign the State System of Higher Education and merge six of its universities — California, Clarion and Edinboro in the west, plus Bloomsburg, Lock Haven and Mansfield in the northeast — into two institutions.
