IUP advances toward medical school opening, calls FAFSA mess 'a debacle'

What would be this state’s first college of osteopathic medicine on a public university campus is advancing toward a possible fall 2027 opening, Indiana University of Pennsylvania President Michael Driscoll says.

But as the 2024-25 academic year begins, a more immediate concern exists over IUP’s likely fall enrollment — uncertainty that Driscoll blames mainly on a deeply flawed rollout of the revamped federal financial aid form, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).

Speaking Friday to a campus audience, he called it a “debacle.”

Driscoll made no specific headcount projections during the event held in advance of Monday’s fall semester start at IUP. On Tuesday, spokeswoman Michelle Fryling said numbers won’t be available until after Sept. 16, which is the State System of Higher Education enrollment freeze date.

This time last year, said Driscoll, he was optimistic enrollment would grow, and it ultimately did — by 422 students, which is the largest headcount gain among the 10 State System universities. It halted an 11-year slide.

This year may be different. The revamped FAFSA and related improvements were severely delayed and riddled with errors, meaning IUP, like other universities, was months late receiving data from the U.S. Department of Education needed to make students financial aid offers, Driscoll said.

“Consequently, the number of new students who have deposited and registered for this year has been behind last year’s pace, although the gap has been closing,” Driscoll said without elaborating. “Demographics suggested increased enrollment this year, but because of the FAFSA issue, we cannot confidently expect our total headcount to be higher than last year.”

Nationwide, colleges faced worriesdeep into summer and in some cases said they are cutting budgets and employees because delays in making financial aid offers altered students’ campus choices.

It worsened effects of population loss, worries about price and debt that already were an enrollment drag for campuses, including regional public universities such as IUP.

Enrollment there of 15,126 students in 2010 fell to 8,832 by 2022, prompting academic restructuring as well as faculty, staff and program cuts. Headcount has since rebounded to 9,254 as of fall 2023.

Both IUP’s enrollment worries and a medical college update were topics Driscoll raised as he and other campus representatives addressed the Opening of the Academic Year gathering in the IUP Performing Arts Center’s Fisher Auditorium.

Efforts to develop a medical school first surfaced at an IUP Council of Trustees meeting in December 2022. The university has since hired staff including a founding dean, begun seeking accreditation and identified a renovated and expanded Sally Johnson Hall near the Oak Grove as a potential site.

The ambitious project is intended to enhance rural health care by reducing a shortage of family doctors. It is also seen as attracting new groups of students to IUP.

“We are on track to open the medical school in the fall of 2027,” Driscoll said.

“We have raised $27.8 million so far,” he said. “Also, IUP has verbal and written commitments from hospitals and other facilities for more than half of the clinical rotations required for accreditation.”

But he said more work is ahead, even though IUP says it has raised about a quarter of what’s needed for the new school.

“We must raise new funds for staff, faculty, facilities, renovation, and $38 million for escrow before we enroll medical students,” Driscoll said.

“Thanks to support inside and outside IUP, we are getting closer every day to having the pieces in place for accreditation,” he said.