For Tim Pryle, Keystone College’s course forward is like rebuilding a boat while it's in the water.
“We don't have time to put the boat in dry dock and let it sit for a year while we work on it and then bring it back out,” said Pryle, Keystone’s vice president of enrollment, institutional advancement and marketing.
Pryle has repeated it so much that the college’s leadership is on board, including President John Pullo.
Pryle and Pullo sat in the president’s office in Ward Hall. From the windows, students shuffle between classes. It’s an early spring day in April. The trees are just about to bloom. After a year of uncertainties about the college’s future, they’re cautiously relieved to be able to start attracting students again to the private non-profit liberal arts school in both Lackawanna and Wyoming counties.
“Rebuilding a college in 2025 is complicated. That's the easiest thing I can say, because it is unbelievably complicated. It is unbelievably regulated,” said Pryle.
Keystone had been on a Department of Education watchlist for more than a decade because of its financial struggles. Since as far back as 2015, the college has faced economic challenges. Keystone laid off faculty and staff members and condensed or eliminated programs, like its culinary arts program. The COVID-19 pandemic only worsened enrollment at not just Keystone, but institutions of higher education across the nation. Students were either set back in their college studies or deterred from enrolling in college altogether.
“A lot of dynamics going on, generally speaking, as the demographics started going against you, you know, what did colleges do? They started reducing expenses in order to meet the lower enrollments that they were having,” said Pullo.
Pullo was on Keystone’s board before he was president. They started having conversations about their options.
“Eventually, you get to a point where you start matching revenues with expenses, and there's no additional capital to invest in growth. So we needed a growth partner, and that's where we started looking,” he said.
Then, in March 2024, the college's accreditor got involved.
A tumultuous year
Last year, Keystone partnered with the Washington Institute for Education and Research (WIER) and entered into a “membership interest transfer agreement.”
Then the deal fell through.
The accreditor, the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, asked the school to write a teach-out plan to ensure students can complete their education elsewhere if the school closes.
Months later, Keystone again signed a letter of intent with WIER. In June, the college cut 29 faculty and staff positions to try and reduce costs, a move estimated to save $3.5 million a year.
Leaders had a hearing with Middle States. They felt optimistic going into it.
“But unfortunately, the accreditor had a different view. There were still some gaps in the evidence that we had that they felt, and they put us on an adverse action and withdrew our accreditation at that time,” Pullo said.
Middle States is an accreditor recognized by the United States Secretary of Education. The organization ensures students and the public of the educational quality for its over 500 institutions of higher education.
The commission planned to pull the college’s accreditation by Dec. 31.
Leaders at Keystone had to decide: close or appeal.
“We chose to appeal and we weren't going to give up the fight,” said Pullo.
Keystone’s 'why'
Pennsylvania allows colleges and universities to operate as institutions of higher education, said Pullo. Middle States allows those institutions to access federal funds that students need to pay for their education.
That is beyond important for the students at Keystone.
Between 50 and 60% of students are eligible for Federal Pell grants, which are given to students who display exceptional financial need. That percentage is higher than the state average, said Pullo.
The college's enrollment is over 1,000 students. Keystone lost about 200 students last year.
Many of those students are the first in their families to go to college.
“This is a population that, in spite of all of the things that are being said about education, feels that a college education is their ticket to social mobility,” said Pullo.
He described social mobility as the ability to advance economically and build wealth because of education and experiential learning along the way.
“And the opportunities that a college education under those circumstances would create,” he said.
Pullo is among those first generation students to go through Keystone. He points to his diploma on the wall of his office, Class of 1969. He works in the building that was once his dorm when Keystone was still a junior college.
Pullo said Keystone occupies the “strata” of small, private nonprofit colleges.
“Which … is really the segment in the industry that's really the most vulnerable right now,” he said.
Keystone kept tuition flat over the past 10 years; it costs $32,000 for tuition, room & board and fees; and $16,000 for just tuition, said Pryle.
The leaders say what sets Keystone apart from the other schools of their size is that they meet students where they are. Keystone has a 13 to 1 student-to-instructor ratio.
“You’re a name, not a number,” said Pullo.
Outside of class, students have many ways to express themselves. There’s 30 student clubs, 18 Division III varsity athletic teams, including its championship baseball team; intramural sports, music programs and art.
“So there's a great deal going on here that really speaks to personal development in ways that you might not get in a larger institution,” said Pullo.
The wooded college campus is lined with buildings of all different sizes and shapes. Some even look like family homes — because they were at one time. Pullo said faculty members lived on campus for years. Keystone’s last president, Tracy Brundage, lived in the 14-room Victorian meant for presidents called Hedgewood Home. That’s being turned into an event space.
There’s seven miles of community hiking trails and a 170-acre woodlands campus. A portion of that campus is serves as a nature preserve to honor professor Howard Jennings.
The South Branch of the Tunkhannock Creek meanders through the property where Keystone's Environmental Education Institute offers many educational experiences for grade school and college students and community members. The college is home to an apiary and a sugar shack where students tap the campus' trees and learn how to make maple syrup. There's also an observatory just seven miles from campus in Fleetville.
Pullo said Keystone is known for the personal attention that is paid to students.
“I've heard stories of professors going into dorms and pulling kids out of their beds to go to class," he said. "I mean, it's crazy, you know, but that's the school, that's the ethic."
Pryle said Keystone adheres to the core principle of higher education institutions to educate individuals and get them to that next level.
“It’s just like the American automobile industry, everyone doesn't have to drive a Lexus or Mercedes, but there are quality cars at a different level, and there are quality institutions of higher education at every price point. And that's what ultimately, Keystone is fighting for. That's why we're still here, because the demographic of students that we serve at our price point are getting less and less opportunity, right? They're getting less and less options as you look at schools that are closing,” he said.
Pryle said their reality is that for Keystone’s population of students, a college degree will make a significant difference for them. They’re challenged and supported at Keystone.
“These are the things that we feel, that we're fighting for, is for those students that have stuck with us through this past year, especially, right, and to provide that opportunity for them and their families and other students like them,” said Pryle.
Pullo added: “The mission that we have is so profound, so impactful.”
The path forward
Keystone is not totally out of the water, but repairs have begun on that ship.
Middle States is currently reviewing the college’s change of ownership. If approved, Keystone will need to merge with the WIER.
Pullo and Pryle are hoping that will be settled by the end of May.
“It certainly created a much stronger working relationship between ourselves and Middle States,” said Pullo.
Keystone’s merger with WIER puts them under the umbrella of the Washington, D.C.-based organization that works around the world. Pullo called the organization a “very forward-thinking group.”
“And a very interesting group, you know, kind of fit the model we were looking for. Wasn't another institution of higher education, but whose goal was basically to support post secondary education,” he said.
Keystone will still have control over academic affairs and everything that makes a college function.
“That was really a criteria that we wanted in any relationship we would have created with a partner and that was perfectly acceptable to them,” said Pullo. “It is Keystone College, period.”
The past year has put Keystone on a better path to the future, leaders say.
“I think we're a leaner, stronger, much more focused organization than we were a year ago,” said Pullo.
'We're rebuilding the college'
The strife has also made them rethink higher education.
“It certainly caused us to think about how we function internally and how we could operationally improve what we do, and there's been a great deal of focus put on that. So we're a very different organization internally than we were a year ago,” he said.
Keystone has consolidated a number of programs and reduced the number of majors. The general studies program was retooled to target what Pullo calls “degree completers.”
Students are now enrolling into college at around 20 or 21, instead of 18 or 19 years old. They might have started college, then dropped out. Or held off on undergrad because of the pandemic.
“In those cases, what we want to do is find a way to accelerate them through a process where they could obtain a degree,” Pullo said.
That’s a student who may have studied chemistry and a couple other related courses, took some time off and came back and studied something completely different. Pullo said most students start in one place when they enter college and end up in another.
“They can get a degree in general studies, as opposed to maybe a core discipline, but at least they get the college degree, and they can use that to move on,” he said.
Pullo said general studies also allows students to experiment in different areas of study
They’ve also strengthened and accelerated their masters programs and added new programs and concentrations, like community mental health.
Keystone will continue one of its original missions, supporting veterans, and provide opportunities for learners at all stages of their lives.
They’re also moving ahead with a $3 million renovation and expansion of the college’s library that will add a new front to the building and additional instructional and event space.
The college was awarded two $1 million Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program (RACP) grants from the state for the project. A Keystone College alumna also gave a generous $1 million bequest that will be used for the project.
With Middle States reviewing the change of ownership, the college can once again attract students.
Keystone couldn’t recruit students for the last three months. Pullo says they have to rewind that recruiting machine.
“There should not be any hesitation about going to Keystone,” he said.
They’re looking to recruit international students and online learners as well as students from outside of the region.
“It's a hard job, as it always is. It's a very competitive world, as you know, we're also doing some things with our programs that I think are really important,” said Pullo.
Pryle said their messaging and outreach can’t be a blanket approach. They need to think about different markets. For example, in Northeast Pennsylvania it might be about rebuilding but that message could be different in the Allentown and Philadelphia markets.
“Doesn't mean we change those hallmark principles that we want to focus on … affordability, quality, access, private school education. So that's a delicate balance.” he said.
“The message is, we're open, we're accredited, we're growing, we're reinvesting in the college. We're rebuilding the college. And this has always been a great place to come, come join us,” added Pullo.
The last month is probably the most optimistic they’ve felt in a year.
“We've gone through a really, really rough year, but through a lot of persistence and resilience, and, you know, a very dedicated and committed team as well as a very dedicated, committed partner. We've come out of this on the other side with a great deal of energy and hope for tomorrow,” said Pullo.
Pullo is a member of the WVIA Board of Directors.
