Final say on Penn State campus closures might not involve the university's governing board

Four days before Penn State President Neeli Bendapudi announced her intention to close some commonwealth campuses, she met privately with the university Board of Trustees.

The board was shown enrollment figures — data that are generally public and show steep declines at some locations — but Bendapudi didn’t tell them about her administration’s plan to explore which campuses to shutter, according to three trustees who were present.

Those trustees said they were surprised to learn about the closure plan just hours before the news was made public.

It’s unclear what authority the university’s Board of Trustees has in approving Bendapudi’s eventual closure plan.

These trustees spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the board’s recently updated bylaws that allow for the sanction or removal of members who make public statements critical of Penn State or who share information the university considers confidential.

A university spokesperson, in an email to Spotlight PA, said trustee involvement “will depend on the specific scenario, of which there are many at this time.” The university did not respond to requests for more details, including whether closing a campus requires board approval. Under the board’s bylaws, trustees are responsible for approving Penn State’s operating budget, strategic plan, and real estate sales.

In her announcement, Bendapudi said: “While I respect and value the role of shared governance, this particular decision — determining which campuses will remain open and which will close — is an administrative one that I will make.”

Many details of the president’s plan, including which campuses will close, remain undetermined. The university will keep at least eight of its locations — Abington, Altoona, Behrend, Berks, Brandywine, Great Valley, Harrisburg, and Lehigh Valley. These campuses have the largest enrollments and are in regions of the state with stable or growing populations, Bendapudi said in the news release.

The remaining locations — Beaver, DuBois, Fayette, Greater Allegheny, Hazleton, Mont Alto, New Kensington, Schuylkill, Scranton, Shenango, Wilkes-Barre, and York — are under review by Bendapudi’s administration and could close after the 2026-27 academic year.

Trustees might not publicly discuss their views until Bendapudi has made her final decision. At this time, the university’s board is not scheduled to meet again until early May, the same week as the president’s stated deadline.

Penn State made deep cuts to the statewide system in recent years in an effort to reduce its multimillion-dollar budget deficit. Last year, Penn State consolidated the leadership of several campuses and gave buyouts to nearly 400 statewide employees, which the university said would cut nearly $43 million from future budgets.

Prior to last week, rumors had circulated among employees about the future of the campuses. Vague answers from university officials heightened anxieties.

On Feb. 25, the day of the announcement, Bendapudi told the university’s Faculty Senate she wanted to clear up the “misinformation” that had been circulating. In describing her decision, the president referenced several decades-old reports that called for action on the campuses.

A university spokesperson told Spotlight PA the president was referring to “internal reports for planning and analysis only” and those documents would not be made public. The university is largely exempt from Pennsylvania’s open records law due to a special exemption approved by the General Assembly for the state’s four state-related universities.

Some state lawmakers voiced concern about Bendapudi’s plan. Each year, the General Assembly sends hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars to Penn State to subsidize the tuition of Pennsylvania residents.

Penn State is funded at a lower level per student than Pennsylvania’s other three state-related universities, a fact the university cited in its closure announcement. Last year, the university received $242.1 million annually, which accounted for around 10% of the total revenue in its education budget.

Last week, state lawmakers representing districts that include the Hazleton and Schuylkill campuses said closing those locations would harm local economies and make it more difficult to receive a college education in northeast Pennsylvania, according to WFMZ. “There is no plan to close these campuses we would accept,” the six lawmakers said in a joint statement.

State rep. Charity Grimm Krupa (R., Fayette) told Spotlight PA in an email that closing the campus in her district is “unacceptable” and that Penn State “cannot turn its back on rural Pennsylvania.”

“Penn State is our land-grant university, founded to provide education to all Pennsylvanians — not just those near State College or in wealthier, urban areas,” Krupa said. “Fayette campus is a lifeline for students who can’t afford to uproot their lives to get a degree. Without it, too many of them will have no path forward.”