How will Penn State decide which campuses to close? University leaders share more details
The committee that Penn State President Neeli Bendapudi charged with making a recommendation about which commonwealth campuses should close released more details about the factors they would use to make the recommendations in a letter to the community.
Bendapudi announced last month that they were considering closing 12 of its 19 commonwealth campuses, although how many of those 12, and which ones, had not been determined. The seven largest commonwealth campuses — Abington, Altoona, Behrend, Berks, Brandywine, Harrisburg and Lehigh Valley, as well as the graduate education-focused campus at Great Valley — will remain open and Penn State will continue to invest in them, Bendapudi said.
The proposal has drawn criticism statewide from students, faculty and even some state lawmakers. At least two petitions have been started to fight the closures, including at Penn State Fayette and Penn State DuBois. State Rep. Charity Grimm Krupa, R-Fayette County, said she plans to introduce a package of bills that would, in part, include legislation that states publicly-funded universities can’t close campuses without legislative oversight and public input.
“Decisions of this magnitude will likely shutter campuses in rural and working-class communities, devastating regional economies while removing educational opportunities to students who may otherwise have no path forward,” she wrote in a memo about the legislation.
Margo DelliCarpini, vice president for commonwealth campuses and executive chancellor, Tracy Langkilde, interim executive vice president and provost, and Michael Wade Smith, senior vice president and chief of staff, will co-lead a group that will give Bendapudi a final recommendation of which remaining campuses should close.
Until now, what they would consider while making their recommendation has been unclear, although Bendapudi pointed to declining enrollments, demographic shifts and financial pressures that higher education has been facing as reasons why they have to close campuses. In a letter to the Penn State community, DelliCarpini, Langkilde and Smith said they’ll consider enrollment, Penn State’s evolving land-grant mission, population shifts, student experience and success, and the higher education landscape in Pennsylvania.
Their recommendation should include “a continued presence for Penn State in the Northeast and the Pittsburgh regions of the commonwealth,” per Bendapudi’s request, the letter states.
Across the 12 campuses under consideration for closure (Beaver, DuBois, Fayette, Greater Allegheny, Hazleton, Mont Alto, New Kensington, Schuylkill, Scranton, Shenango, Wilkes-Barre and York), enrollment has declined by 39% between 2014 and 2024, the letter states, or a decrease of 3,222 students. During that time, the university’s overall enrollment saw a 4% decrease but University Park’s enrollment increased by 5%.
The letter states that Penn State’s land-grant mission has always been about serving the commonwealth. That is done through not only the commonwealth campus system, but also through Penn State Extension, World Campus and the impact of research and industry partners. They’ll look at how other land-grant institutions fulfill their missions, DelliCarpini, Langkilde and Smith wrote.
“No other land-grant university maintains a statewide footprint as extensive as Penn State’s 19 undergraduate-serving campuses. Instead, many peer institutions focus on fewer, larger regional campuses, robust extension programs, and strategic partnerships to provide education and service at scale,” the letter states.
In terms of population shifts, the 12 campuses under consideration for closure heavily rely on residents in the home county and surrounding counties to enroll at the campus. Some of the home counties contribute up to 70% of the enrolled students at the campus, according to the letter. But it also cites a 2023 report from the Center for Rural Pennsylvania and the Institute of State and Regional Affairs at Penn State Harrisburg that projects a 5.8% population decline for rural counties in Pennsylvania by 2050.
DelliCarpini, Langkilde and Smith wrote Pennsylvania’s overall growth in the next 30 years is expected to be lower than it was from 2010 to 2020.
“Because of this important role of campus location, county-by-county population projections are also an important guide helping us think about long-term campus viability,” the letter states.
With that, Pennsylvania has more postsecondary institutions per capita than nearly any other state, according to the letter, noting that they’re all fighting for the same decreasing student population.
Bendapudi talked a lot about the student experience and success during a recent faculty senate meeting, in which senators asked questions about the decision to close campuses for about two hours. The letter includes that as a decision-making factor and says it will consider the nature of the campus environments and how they deliver “vibrant” educational experiences with diverse courses, meaningful extracurricular activities and essential student services.
“Success, represented in part by six-year graduation rates, is also critically important. Students who enroll but do not graduate accumulate debt without a degree to show for it, an outcome that is misaligned with Penn State’s commitment to student progress and success,” DelliCarpini, Langkilde and Smith wrote.
As they work toward finalizing a recommendation, they said they have launched workstreams on issues related to upcoming transitions. The leaders of those workstreams will work with experts and shared governance bodies to help shape solutions. They include student transition and retention, faculty and staff retention, facilities and finance, regulatory issues, accreditation and data, alumni, community and donor engagement, communications, and research and external funding.
They provided an email address, cwc2025@psu.edu, that people can send their questions and feedback to.
“For 170 years, Penn State has continuously adapted and evolved, and the choices we make now will shape a strong, sustainable and student-centered future for the next century. We value your engagement as we move through this important work together. We will continue to engage and provide updates in the weeks ahead,” the letter states.
Their recommendation will come no later than the end of the semester and Bendapudi expects to make a final decision before the spring commencement in early May. In her announcement, Bendapudi said that not all 12 campuses can remain open but a number of them will.
