Penn State board plans to vote next Thursday on Commonwealth campus closure plan

Pennsylvania State University’s board of trustees will meet next week to vote on a plan to close seven of its 20 Commonwealth campuses.

The board plans to meet Thursday at 5 p.m. via Zoom. The meeting was planned following a more than two-hour private session of the board, also on Zoom, held Thursday morning.

Board chair David M. Kleppinger said it was “a fruitful discussion” but declined to release details. He said he remains optimistic that the plan will be approved by the board.

» READ MORE: Penn State administration is proposing to close seven Commonwealth campuses

The seven campuses proposed for closure are Dubois, Fayette, Mont Alto, New Kensington, Shenango, Wilkes-Barre, and York. The board will consider a single motion to close all seven campuses; there will not be individual votes on each campus, he said.

If approved, it would be the largest remake of the Pennsylvania flagship university’s Commonwealth campus system in its history. The move is being considered following a precipitous decline in enrollment at the campuses since 2010. The Inquirer earlier this week reported the seven campuses recommended for closure and detailed the recommendations, which were laid out in a 143-page report from a committee appointed by Penn State president Neeli Bendapudi.

Kleppinger said earlier this week he expected to have a vote within a week or two after the proposal had been leaked to the media.

“The input that we’ve received from a variety of constituents is that the uncertainty creates anxiety, and the best solution to eliminate uncertainty is to get to a final conclusion,” he said.

» READ MORE: Penn State details its rationale for campus closures in 143-page report

Faculty from various corners of the nearly 88,000-student institution have been speaking out against the proposal, saying that they have been kept out of the decision process and that more time is needed to consider such a major change.

“If we are serious about winning and keeping campuses open, then all of the campus groups that exist, we will have to come together and form a coalition,” said Michele Rodino-Colocino, president of the Penn State chapter of the American Association of University Professors. ”That’s what it’s going to take. Everyone is going to have to do something to save these campuses, and we should because it’s an attack on us."

Rodino-Colocino, an associate professor in film production and media studies at University Park, cited other cases, including Hampshire College in Massachusetts, where campuses had been slated for closure and were saved following a broad-based effort.

Penn State’s strong financial position does not justify closing these campuses, she said, pointing to the school’s net liquid reserve assets of $5 billion and strong credit ratings.

Calling it Penn State’s “most significant employment crisis,” the Penn State Faculty Alliance, which is currently attempting to organize a union, scheduled a Zoom meeting for 6 p.m. Thursday to discuss the proposal.

“These campuses are not just buildings under threat; they are workplaces, classrooms, and communities that deliver a high-quality Penn State education across the Commonwealth,” the group said in a statement. “The administration’s narrative that campuses are financial drains is misleading and harmful.”

During the 90-minute meeting, more than 80 faculty listened and discussed the devastating impact the closures will have on students, faculty, and communities and emphasized that forming a union is even more important to mount a successful fight against them. They plan to deliver a petition to the administration, opposing the move, ahead of the vote.

They questioned how the university could spend hundreds of millions on football stadium renovations but be unable to support the campuses. And they were critical of the administration’s report, asserting that it cherry-picks facts to support the closure of one campus, while ignoring similar information about another.

But the campuses slated for closure, administrators said in their recommendation report, have experienced falling enrollment and finances, low student housing occupancy, and a significant backlog in maintenance.

“The projected low enrollments pose challenges for creating the kind of robust on-campus student experience that is consistent with the Penn State brand,” the report said.

By closing the campuses, the university would erase an annual net loss of nearly $20 million in direct expenses, which could be redirected toward programs and employees serving a larger proportion of the student body, the recommendation report said.

The campuses would not close for two years, allowing the administration time to help students graduate or transfer and to allow faculty and staff to find other positions. The university is committing to keeping tenured faculty and honoring contracts for nontenured faculty, administrators have said.

Collectively, the seven campuses, which are spread from Western Pennsylvania to Northeastern Pennsylvania, 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.

Overall, the 20 Commonwealth campuses have seen declining enrollment since 2010, some more precipitously than others. At the 12 campuses reviewed, enrollment slid by 51.3% since 2010 and by 35% in the last decade alone, the report said. Ten of the campuses enrolled fewer than seven students in more than 20% of their classes.

The campuses are operating in a severely challenged higher education market, with the number of high school graduates beginning another sustained dip starting next year and public confidence in higher education waning.

The five that were studied but not recommended for closure are Hazleton, Schuylkill, Beaver, Greater Allegheny, and Scranton.

The three Commonwealth campuses in the Philadelphia region — Brandywine, Abington, and the graduate education-focused campus at Great Valley — were not considered for closure. They are among the system’s largest. The others not considered for closure are Altoona, Behrend, Berks, Harrisburg, and Lehigh Valley.

The report included pages of data analysis, profiles of each campus, and arguments for why each should close or remain open, plus financial projections.

“I’m really impressed with how thoughtful and thorough it was,” said Julie E. Wollman, a professor of practice at the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education and an expert on higher education leadership.

She said closures have to happen because it is not sustainable to run campuses of 400 or fewer students.

“No matter how small a campus is, there are fixed costs,” said Wollman, formerly president of Widener University.

She especially liked how the university had laid out other colleges surrounding the campuses proposed for closure. It will be important for Penn State to partner with those schools, she said, to help streamline student transfers and close higher education service gaps that could be left by shutting a campus.

A few board members already have expressed opposition to closing campuses. But it takes only a simple majority of the more than 30-member board to pass the plan. It is unclear how many board members currently support it.

The proposal also is subject to approval by Pennsylvania’s secretary of education, in this case acting Secretary Carrie Rowe, who is also an ex-officio member of the Penn State trustee board.

“The Shapiro Administration respects the autonomy of our Commonwealth’s higher education institutions to make their own financial decisions, and we will continue to engage with Penn State, members of the General Assembly, and — most importantly — students and parents as the university releases more information,” the state education department said in a statement.