Penn State administration is proposing to close seven Commonwealth campuses

PHILADELPHIA — Pennsylvania State University’s administration has proposed closing seven of its 20 Commonwealth campuses, according to multiple sources close to the board of trustees.

They are: Dubois, Fayette, Mont Alto, New Kensington, Shenango, Wilkes-Barre, and York, according to the sources. Collectively, they enrolled nearly 3,200 students as of the fall semester and experienced enrollment declines over the last five years ranging from 15% at York to 32% at DuBois, according to enrollment data on the university’s website. The seven, which are spread from Western Pennsylvania to Northeastern Pennsylvania were among 12 campuses that initially were targeted for study for potential closure.

The five that also were studied but are not part of the current closure proposal are: Hazleton, Schuylkill, Beaver, Greater Allegheny, and Scranton.

The board was presented with the plan this week and discussed it in executive session, but there were more than 75 questions raised by board members, so a vote initially planned for this week has been postponed, the sources said.

Board members plan to discuss the issue again in a private session Thursday.

“With a full agenda for this regular May meeting, there was not enough time to fully discuss the recommendation,” the university said in a statement. “Given the importance of this matter, board members expressed a desire to have more time to examine and discuss the recommendation.”

In another statement, the university declined to provide more information about the seven campuses selected.

“The Board of Trustees, who must meet and hold a public vote, have not done so and until then there is no more information to share,” the university said. “It is regrettable that our communities who may be impacted are hearing this information ahead of a formal decision and announcement.”

Board Chair David Kleppinger said “there is significant information in the full recommendation which will be shared following a board vote,” adding that it is “deeply frustrating that someone with early access to this recommendation decided to share it.”

The university said last month that a plan to announce the campuses to be closed before commencement would be moved back until mid-May.

Opposition to closing campuses

Last month, a Penn State faculty group and several current and former trustees spoke out against closing campuses, saying faculty should have been part of the decision-making and that more time was needed for study. The president of the Penn State chapter of the American Association of University Professors said closing campuses could “roll back recent improvements in serving students from underrepresented backgrounds — Black/African American, Hispanic/Latino, American Indian/Native Alaskan, or Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander. The administration credited such gains in diversity to the accessible ‘flexible’ Commonwealth Campus model and recruitment in diverse cities such as Pittsburgh and Philadelphia …"

Trustees Jay Paterno and Ted Brown, who serve on the more than 30-member board, were among a group that released a letter publicly criticizing potential closures. They said that while Penn State loses $40 million to $50 million a year operating the 20 campuses, that amount represents just 0.4% of the $10 billion annual budget.

“That 0.4% is an investment in the soul of Penn State and the heart of our land-grant mission to bring access to the university to people across the commonwealth,” they wrote in an op-ed published on StateCollege.com. “That 0.4% seems like a small price to pay for our soul.”

State Sen. David Argall, R.-Schuylkill, said he received 5,000 emails about Penn State’s proposal to close campuses, 97% of them against the idea. The Hazleton and Schuylkill campuses, which are not part of the current plan for closure, according to the sources, are part of his district.

“It could be devastating for rural Pennsylvania,” he said. “Some of these campuses have been the heart of the community for almost 100 years.”

Penn State, he said, “should drop back ten and punt and just take their time and look and see if there is a way to strengthen each one of these campuses.”

Declining enrollment

Enrollment has been declining steadily at the Commonwealth campuses. It stood at roughly 24,000 last June, down about 30% since 2010. This fall, overall enrollment at those campuses fell about 2%, but the decline in first-year enrollment was steeper: 8.4%, or 578 students.

At just the 12 campuses initially under consideration for closing, enrollment has slid 39%, or 3,222 students, from 2014 to 2024, the university said. Penn State’s overall enrollment fell by only 4% during that time, and University Park’s enrollment alone increased by 5%.

“It has become clear that we cannot sustain a viable Commonwealth Campus ecosystem without closing some campuses,” Penn State President Neeli Bendapudi said in February, announcing the closure plan under which no campuses will shut before the end of the 2026-27 year.

The three Commonwealth campuses in the Philadelphia region — Brandywine, Abington, and the graduate education-focused campus at Great Valley — will not be considered for closure, Bendapudi said in February. They are among the system’s largest. The others that also are among the largest and are safe from closure are Altoona, Behrend, Berks, Harrisburg, and Lehigh Valley, Bendapudi said.

The 12 campuses considered for closure were evaluated by a team led by several top administrators appointed by Bendapudi.

Margo DelliCarpini, vice president for Commonwealth campuses and one of three people heading that team, announced earlier this semester that she would be leaving the system this summer to become provost and vice president of academic affairs at the College of New Jersey. The other two are: Michael Wade Smith, senior vice president and chief of staff who followed Bendapudi to Penn State when she left the University of Louisville and Tracy Langkilde, interim executive vice president and provost.

The team looked at various factors, including enrollment, projected population in the surrounding communities and student success including graduation rates.

“For each of the 12 campuses, residents in the county where the campus resides — along with those in the immediate surrounding counties — are the most significant sources of enrollment, with some home counties contributing up to 70% of the enrolled students at that campus," the evaluation team said in March.

Though the campuses have lost a lot of enrollment, the drop has been flattening, the trustees said in their letter, urging Bendapudi to give them more time.

“We are calling for this administration and this board to look a while longer, to look for innovative solutions before making legacy decisions that will have impacts lasting long after we are gone,” said the letter, also signed by trustee emeritus Alice Pope, former trustee Randy Houston, and former alumni council member Jeff Ballou.

_____