Separate studies into how the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE) operates and what cost-savings can be found amid dropping enrollments could have significant implications for our own Lock Haven University. The PASSHE board has hired the nonprofit National Center for Higher Education Management Systems (NCHEMS) of Boulder, Colo., for a maximum cost of $400,000, to assess the system and its 14 state-run universities, including Lock Haven. The state Senate this week ordered a similar study that tasks the Legislative Budget and Finance Committee to finalize a review by Dec. 1. Combined enrollment at the 14 schools — Lock Haven, Bloomsburg, California, Cheyney, Clarion, East Stroudsburg, Edinboro, Indiana, Kutztown, Mansfield, Millersville, Shippensburg, Slippery Rock and West Chester universities — has dropped by 12 percent to nearly 105,000 since peaking in 2010. As a result, some things have to give. The already deficit-ridden state government cannot afford to give the state system the additional $61 million it is requesting to maintain programs and facilities. At the same time, PASSHE says it’s operating on state funding levels that mirror 1999. Whether two studies are needed is another question, though state Sen. Dave Argall, R-Schuylkill County, who sponsored the resolution calling for the Senate study, said he considers it necessary to do an outside study of the system because “there are always some concerns when a system studies itself as to how independent, no matter how hard they try, their study may be.” In its nearly 50 years of studying higher education, the nonprofit NCHEMS has recommended public universities closing or merging in other states due to falling enrollment, rising costs, reduced state funding and duplication of services and degree programs, the nonprofit’s vice president Patrick Kelly told The (Allentown) Morning Call newspaper (www.mcall.com) this week. But politics, he said, often trumps recommendations and schools stay open. “The reality is the mergers, conso