Penn State president Neeli Bendapudi gets high marks (and a standing O) from board and staff after completing her third year
Neeli Bendapudi recently began her fourth year as president.
As she begins her fourth year as Pennsylvania State University’s president, Neeli Bendapudi earned high marks from members of the board of trustees in her most recent evaluation and got a standing ovation at its meeting Friday.
“Your evaluation reflects what so many of us see every day, a president who leads with courage, clarity and conviction, a leader who builds trust not by avoiding the hard decisions, but by meeting them head-on — and doing so with empathy, discipline, and resolve,” board chair David Kleppinger said during the meeting held at Penn State Abington.
With the evaluation in hand, the board will be considering Bendapudi’s new compensation likely in September. Bendapudi currently has a rolling five-year contract, with another year added each year unless the board acts by June 30. Her base pay has remained at $950,000, but the board in February 2024 awarded her increases in deferred compensation and added an agreement to pay her a $1.5 million lump sum if she stays 10 years through June 30, 2032.
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The evaluation, which included input from trustees and Bendapudi’s direct reports, was presented to the board in a private session this week.
Kleppinger at the public meeting credited Bendapudi for making the hard decision to close seven Commonwealth campuses, balancing the budget a year ahead of schedule and garnering record fundraising. The university received $560 million in donation commitments, including 17 gifts of $5 million or more, beating a record of 12 established six years ago, he said.
“These aren’t just numbers,” he said. “They are a resounding vote of confidence in where we’re headed and in your ability to take us there.”
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Bendapudi has faced criticism from some faculty for budget cuts and the Commonwealth closure plan, and a move for a vote of no confidence in her was tabled at the faculty senate meeting in February. Some faculty are attempting to form a union, citing concerns about lack of shared governance, salary and workload inequities across campuses, and transparency.
In an interview before the meeting, Bendapudi said she is pleased with how her team has performed since she started as Penn State’s president in May 2022, given the turbulent times higher education has faced.
“We are very, very, very proud of where we are,” she said, “because the tough work we had to do with our budget process ... candidly has given us a little bit more comfort at this time of uncertainty.”
Temple University also has been making cuts to close a projected deficit. The university announced Friday it is eliminating 190 positions, 50 of them through layoffs.
Bendapudi said Penn State is continuing to monitor the impact from the federal government’s planned cuts in research spending at universities across the country. It helps, she said, that a lot of Penn State’s work is centered on defense and engineering.
“Much of the work that we do, it’s still a big national security priority,” she said.
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The university received $834 million in federal research funding in 2024. And the university spends $300 million of its own dollars on research, independent of any grants.
The university also has benefited from the expense cutting it has done to balance the budget over the last few years, she said.
“All those difficult things that we’ve done give us a little bit of a cushion, but we’re watching anxiously and eagerly as every other institution of higher education is,” she said.
If severe federal cuts come, Penn State will have to curtail some of its research, she told board members at a committee meeting Thursday.
“I want all of you to know there’s no amount of private philanthropy or industry that can come in and substitute for federal dollars,” she told them.
Asked in the interview how the school is faring under President Donald Trump’s administration, Bendapudi said every new presidential administration poses challenges.
“We are adapting,” she said. “It’s all about showing our value and what we are bringing to the table.”
Bendapudi earlier this week moderated a panel on technology and energy at Carnegie Mellon University with Sen. Dave McCormick, (R., Pa.)., Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro and Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman. They discussed the potential for Pennsylvania to be a hub for technology and energy investment. Trump also attended the summit and announced what he said would be billions in planned projects for the state.
“I loved that I got to moderate a panel at Senator McCormick’s invitation where it was both Senator McCormick and Governor Shapiro and Matt Garman ... because I think it shows exactly the type of collaboration,” she said. “It was delightful to be in a bipartisan forum to say there are many things that we profoundly disagree on but we are united in trying to do the right thing for Pennsylvania.”
Everyone knows that nuclear power will be critical, she said, and Penn State is well positioned with the nation’s longest continuously operating university research reactor. The Breazeale Nuclear Reactor opened at Penn State in 1955, and now the university in partnership with Westinghouse Electric Co. is seeking approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to open a new nuclear research facility featuring the eVinci microreactor. It would be the first university to have one. The microreactor would provide a sustainable energy model for powering the school’s research facilities and campus buildings for eight years without having to be refueled.
“It would be nice to be the first to get that, too,” she said.
On Commonwealth campus closures, Bendapudi said meetings are underway at each site to discuss the process for the closures and begin to brainstorm new uses for the campuses. The board of trustees in May voted to close seven of the 20 campuses at the end of the 2026-27 academic year. They are: Wilkes-Barre in Northeastern Pennsylvania; York, Mont Alto, and DuBois in central Pennsylvania; and Fayette, Shenango, and New Kensington in Western Pennsylvania.
“So even though it’s two years out, the work has begun,” she said.
It’s too early to tell if the closure announcement will affect fall enrollment figures at the campuses impacted, Bendapudi said.
On July 1, the university began a new approach to support nontenure line faculty and staff at the closing campuses by offering them “priority hiring” for other positions in the Penn State system. They will get a seven-day period to apply for the positions before they are opened to others, and the most senior employees will be interviewed in order as long as they meet minimum requirements and are in good standing.
The university also has committed to keeping tenured faculty employed.