After a media report on Monday identified the seven Penn State Commonwealth Campuses proposed for closure, the university issued a statement saying no final decision has been made and sharply criticizing the leak of the purported plans.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that the university administration has proposed closing the DuBois, Fayette, Mont Alto, New Kensington, Shenango, Wilkes-Barre and York campuses, citing sources “sources close to the board of trustees.” The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette separately confirmed the campuses with a source on Tuesday.
“It is regrettable that our communities who may be impacted by campus closures are hearing information before a final decision by the Board of Trustees and an announcement from the university,” Penn State wrote in a statement. “We certainly recognize how personal this decision is to every member of our Commonwealth Campus community, and our broader Penn State family. That someone would share this information with the media, knowing how this news would impact our campus communities, is truly disappointing.”
The Board of Trustees originally planned to hold a public meeting on Thursday to consider a recommendation, but after meeting privately before its regular public meeting last week to discuss the future configuration of the Commonwealth Campuses and a wide range of related issues, trustees asked for additional time to evaluate the proposal and changed the upcoming special meeting to an executive session, a Penn State spokesperson said.
Information about the date and time for a public meeting, during which any vote would need to occur, will be shared after the executive session.
In its statement on Monday night, the university said until that public vote is held no decision is final.
“It’s disheartening to learn that information in advance of a board vote has been reported,” Board of Trustees Chair David Kleppinger said. “Given the complexity of this decision, trustees will be taking additional time to review the President’s recommendation and the supporting materials. There is significant information in the full recommendation which will be shared following a board vote.
“I find it deeply frustrating that someone with early access to this recommendation decided to share it with the media with absolutely no regard for how this information would impact members of our campus communities. Our students, faculty and staff deserve better.”
The seven campuses identified are among 12 that President Neeli Bendapudi said in February are under consideration for closure, along with Beaver, Greater Allegheny, Hazleton, Schuylkill and Scranton. The other seven Commonwealth Campuses, which are the largest in the system, as well as the graduate studies-focused Great Valley and the university’s special mission campuses would not be affected.
A committee led by Commonwealth Campuses Vice President Margo DelliCarpini, Interim Executive VP and Provost Tracy Langkilde and Senior VP and Chief of Staff Michael Wade Smith was tasked with evaluating the campus system and delivering recommendations to Bendapudi, who said she would make the ultimate decision on the proposal to the board.
In a March update, the committee wrote that a several factors would go into the recommendation, including enrollment and population declines, how the campuses can fit into the university’s land-grant mission and the student experience delivered by campuses.
Enrollment declines over the last five years at the seven campuses reportedly proposed are:
- DuBois -32%,
- Fayette -31%,
- Shenango -23%,
- Wilkes-Barre -22%,
- New Kensington -21%,
- Mont Alto -16%,
- York -15%
Bendapudi asked the committee that any recommendation maintain a Penn State presence in Northeastern PA and the Pittsburgh area. While the reported proposal would eliminate the Wilkes-Barre campus, it would maintain Hazleton, Schuylkill and Scranton in NEPA. In the Pittsburgh area, Fayette and New Kensington would be closed and Beaver and Greater Allegheny would remain.
The university will continue offering admission to all Commonwealth Campuses for fall 2025. All students who begin a Penn State degree will have the opportunity to complete it at the university, Bendapudi said.
Potential closures have been met with pushback from faculty groups, technical service union representatives, several state lawmakers and some trustees.
In an op-ed published on StateCollege.com, current trustees Jay Paterno and Ted Brown, former trustees Alice Pope and Randy Houston and former Alumni Association Council member Jeffrey Ballou wrote that closing campuses should be a last resort, and that more time was needed to develop innovative options that would “preserve and build upon our land grant mission.”
Academic trustee Nicholas Rowland, a professor at Penn State Altoona, wrote in a separate op-ed on StateCollege.com that the Commonwealth Campuses “are not line items to cut or assets to liquidate; they are integral parts of the whole.” Writing that discussions about the role of the campuses should have been ongoing for years, he urged that the university “not mistake the need for renewal as justification for abandonment.”
The University Faculty Senate, meanwhile, voted 97-62 in late April to approve a positional report calling on the administration to “pause” planning for potential campus closures, citing concerns that the process has moved too quickly, that the impacts have not been fully assessed and that other options have not been adequately considered.
The report expressed “strong opposition to closures of small Penn State campuses” without conducting “transparent, detailed public assessments and thorough community review.”
