PENNSYLVANIA, USA — The president of Penn State University has proposed a budget that slashes funding for the university's branch campuses.
The budget proposal for the 2025-26 school year includes cutting $54 million from what are called the Commonwealth Campuses, a drop of 14 percent.
Penn State lists 20 undergraduate schools in the Commonwealth Campuses.
This comes as enrollment continues to fall at these branches, down 20 percent since 2016.
The plan also calls for an effort to refocus what's offered at these campuses.
The budget goes before the board of trustees for approval this summer.
The board of Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education voted unanimously in 2021 to combine three separate state schools in our area into one university to streamline operations.
Those university campuses are in Bloomsburg, Lock Haven, and Mansfield. California, Clarion, and Edinboro campuses in western Pennsylvania were also combined after the vote.
The system redesign effort was put in place to bolster student success and institutional sustainability, according to PASSHE.
Neeli Bendapudi took over as the university's 19th president in July of 2022.