Pennsylvania State University announced Tuesday that it will close some of its branch campuses in the next two years.
“It has become clear that we cannot sustain a viable Commonwealth Campus ecosystem without closing some campuses,” Penn State President Neeli Bendapudi said in a message sent to the campus.
Bendapudi did not specify how many or which campuses would be closed, but she indicated that none would be shut down before the end of the 2026-27 year, which will allow current students either to complete their associate’s degree or finish their first two years of a baccalaureate degree before transferring to another campus.
“Every student who begins a Penn State degree will have the opportunity to complete it at Penn State,” she said.
Bendapudi said that seven of the system’s larger branch campuses — at Abington, Altoona, Behrend, Berks, Brandywine, Harrisburg, and Lehigh Valley — would remain open. In addition, Penn State Dickinson Law, the College of Medicine, and the Pennsylvania College of Technology will not be closed.
However, 12 other Commonwealth Campuses will be evaluated further for possible closure. Some, but not all, of those will be shut down according to Bendapudi, who said she expects to receive a final recommendation on possible closures “no later than the end of the semester” and that she would make a final decision before spring commencement.
Bendapudi appointed Vice President for Commonwealth Campuses and Executive Chancellor Margo DelliCarpini, Interim Executive Vice President and Provost Tracy Langkilde, and Senior Vice President and Chief of Staff Michael Wade Smith to co-lead a group that will make final recommendation on the future size and structure of the Commonwealth Campus.
Tuesday’s announcement is just the latest in a series of actions in response to the financial difficulties faced by the university’s branch campuses.
“We have exhausted reasonable alternatives to maintain the current number of campuses,” Bendapudi said. “We now must move forward with a structure that is sustainable, one that allows our strongest campuses — where we can provide our students with the best opportunities for success and engagement — to thrive, while we make difficult but necessary decisions about others.”
Distributed across the state of Pennsylvania, Penn State’s Commonwealth Campuses enroll, in the aggregate, a bit more than 23,000 students in associate, baccalaureate, and graduate resident degree programs. However, enrollments at those campuses have been dropping over the past decade, and they are down about 24%, according to the university.
Last May, the university introduced a Voluntary Separation Incentive Plan in an effort to reduce a budget deficit that had soared to $49 million. The plan gave eligible employees of the Commonwealth Campuses the opportunity to take an early retirement from Penn State in exchange for a lump sum payment equal to a year’s salary. About 21% of eligible employees opted for the VSIP, equivalent to roughly a 10% reduction in personnel overall.
Penn State has also introduced a regional leadership model that consolidated the administration of several of the campuses, and it increased its use of a shared-service model of operations in an attempt to save costs.
Earlier this year, the university revealed that it planned to cut the budget for the Commonwealth Campuses by another 7.3% for FY 2026-27, a decrease of $25 million out of a total $314.9 million allocation.
That raised or renewed concerns that some of the institutions might be on the chopping block, a fear that Bendapudi didn’t dispel when she was asked about it last week during a state house appropriations committee hearing. Bendapudi acknowledged that the university was looking carefully at each of the campuses, and when asked directly if closing any of them was a possibility, she responded,“all options are on the table.”
That answer was similar to the one given by DelliCarpini in response to faculty questions about the future of the institutions. “Our current campus ecosystem, which we know was created decades ago when things were very different in higher education — it’s not sustainable in its current (form), the way that it’s operating, DelliCarpini said in January. “So we are looking at a number of ways to think about the best path forward.”
Now, the wait begins to see which campuses will be shut down. Bendapudi acknowledged the concern that the upcoming closing may “mark just ‘phase one’ of ongoing cuts or restructuring,” but she said her intent was arrive at a comprehensive, long-term plan for success. “We recognize that no campus can thrive without sufficient support. That is why, once we finalize decisions, we will do so with the intent of preserving a thriving, sustainable Commonwealth Campus ecosystem — one that meets the needs of today’s students and remains robust for the next 100 years.”