Penn State to close WPSU after board committee votes against ownership transfer
Penn State will go into a wind down period and end WPSU no later than June 30, 2026, the university announced Thursday, after a committee of its governing body voted against transferring its assets to another public media entity.
The board of trustees’ finance and investment committee was presented with a proposal for WHYY, a public media organization in Philadelphia, to acquire WPSU. Sara Thorndike, senior vice president for finance and business/treasurer and chief financial officer for the university, said WHYY approached Penn State about acquiring WPSU to continue public broadcasting in central Pennsylvania. WPSU is the PBS and NPR Member station and a service of Penn State Outreach.
If approved, the university would have entered into a purchase and sales agreement to transfer all WPSU assets to WHYY, which would have formed a new entity that it controls. The new acquirer would have paid Penn State $1 at closing, and the university would have subsidized the post-closing operations of WPSU over the next five years, Thorndike said.
That last part was a concern for some trustees, as Penn State would have paid a total of about $17 million over five years. But, as Thorndike pointed out, that is a similar amount to what the university would have funded WPSU with during the same timeframe. She said it was a “fair offer.”
“Still, we acknowledge this is not a small sum. We appreciate the value of WPSU to our community, but can no longer fund WPSU with student tuition, giving our declining resources for core teaching and research needs. If the board does not approve this offer from WHYY we will start the wind down process of WPSU,” she said.
The committee unanimously voted against the measure. There was little public discussion, as the matter was discussed in an executive session, but a couple of trustees gave insight into why they were voting against the measure.
Trustee Anthony Lubrano said more work needed to be done before he could support the deal.
“As much as I think that we certainly need to make a difficult decision, I don’t think the way this deal is structured maximizes value to this institution, and I think we need to do a little bit more exploratory work before I’m comfortable approving a deal like this, so I’ll be voting against it,” Lubrano said.
The proposed agreement stated Penn State intended to lease the current office space used for WPSU operations to the acquirer, as well as other real property necessary for continued operations. It stated WHYY may offer employment to any current Penn State employee who works in the WPSU operations. In a release, the university said while it would have allowed WPSU to continue broadcasting, most of its staff would have likely been laid off from Penn State, with some being offered positions by WHYY.
Trustee Robert Fenza said he didn’t like the proposal for a number of reasons. Primarily, he said, he didn’t like the idea of paying someone a subsidy to run a business.
“At the end of the day, there’s no guarantees they’ll stay in business. They’re going to get all these assets. And then the thing that bothered me the most is that they have not committed to hire our employees. In the agreement it said they may, and that also means they may not, and that’s not good enough for me,” Fenza said.
Thornike said the university has been cutting costs recently, including through sales of some assets, in order to focus on its core mission. Penn State provides WPSU an allocation of at least $3.4 million a year out of student tuition, she said, but that is no longer feasible. WPSU was hit with funding cuts last year and this year its federal funding was cut to zero.
“As we all know, we are facing challenging landscape financially,” Thorndike said. “Running WPSU has become increasingly expensive for Penn State. Universities are facing uncertainty in terms of federal funding, especially in the research space, which has created budget pressures. And across the country, colleges and universities also face additional budget pressure from a decrease in enrollments resulting from a sharp decline in the number of students that are graduating from high school.”
Trustee board chair David Kleppinger, in a release from the university, said it was an “incredibly difficult decision.”
“We have worked with the administration to find the best path forward for the station and our people who work there. But, given the significant headwinds facing higher education and public media, we could not support the proposed transaction. We know this is a deeply disappointing outcome and we are grateful to the dedicated WPSU employees whose work has enriched our lives and made our community stronger,” Kleppinger said.
Penn State has budgeted funds for WPSU through the end of June 2026, the release states. University officials are meeting with WPSU employees Thursday to talk about next steps and answer questions, according to the release. In an article published by WPSU, it said it will share more information about the decision and impact as it becomes available.
WPSU is a source for news, information and education in a mostly rural service area of 1.3 million Pennsylvanians, its site states. It provides free access over-the-air, cable, satellite and digitally. The studio is located at Innovation Park in State College.
This story was originally published September 11, 2025 at 5:18 PM.
