HARRISBURG (TNS) — In many ways, Penn State President Neeli Bendapudi is staring at an abyss that is forcing drastic closings across the university’s commonwealth campuses.
In an interview with PennLive on Tuesday, Bendapudi described a ‘demographic cliff’ that will cause the number of college-age students to plunge sharply beginning in 2026. These college cohort populations will remain low until 2040, she said.
“We are looking ahead, not just what is today, but for decades to come,” Bendapudi told PennLive by phone.
“College-age students are going down significantly. It’s the demographic cliff people talk about. This will be here to stay,” she said.
The demographic and enrollment trends, along with Penn State’s budgeting and financial pressures, are why Bendapudi appointed a committee to review 12 of Penn State’s campuses for possible closing, with those recommendations coming as soon as May.
While the review is on the fast track, Bendapudi assured that the actual campus closing process would be deliberate and considered – both for enrolled students as well as faculty and staff. No campus identified for closure will shutter before the end of the 2026-27 academic year, she said.
Penn State plans to enroll students at all campuses for the fall of 2025.
“We have two years to do this appropriately,” Bendapudi told PennLive. “We are very, very committed to do right by our people. We have a timeframe to think it through. I can’t make promises. Please know that our people come first. We keep the commitment.”
On the positive side, shrinking the number of Penn State campuses will result in increased investment in those that remain, making student experiences much more “robust,” Bendapudi said.
The campuses that have been declared safe and poised for future investment and growth are: Abington, Altoona, Behrend, Berks, Brandywine, Harrisburg, and Lehigh Valley – along with the graduate education-focused campus at Great Valley.
Bendapudi said these campuses “comprise nearly 75% of total Commonwealth Campus enrollments and 67% of campus faculty and staff,” adding:
“These are campuses where we need to invest more. We are committing to support them.”
Still, news that “a number” of the 12 locations under review will be shuttered represents one of the biggest fears for faculty, employees and the communities where closings will occur.
The prospect of campus closings resulted in a contentious faculty senate meeting earlier this year during which Bendapudi and Margo DelliCarpini, vice president for commonwealth campuses, wouldn’t directly answer employees’ questions about possible closures.
Bendapudi told PennLive that at the time of the meeting, no final decision had been made about closing campuses. That changed with the president’s memo posted online Tuesday, which read in part:
“Enrollment at many of our Commonwealth Campuses continues to decline, and many of the counties that host these campuses are expected to decrease in population for the next 30 years. Given these realities, we must make hard decisions now to ensure Penn State’s future remains strong. It has become clear that we cannot sustain a viable Commonwealth Campus ecosystem without closing some campuses.”
The task of recommending which of the 12 locations should close is being led by DelliCarpini, along with Interim Executive Vice President and Provost Tracy Langkilde, and Senior Vice President and Chief of Staff Michael Wade Smith.
“Their work in the coming weeks will be focused on making the best possible recommendation to create a strong and sustainable Commonwealth Campus ecosystem for the future. We cannot continue with business as usual,” Bendapudi said in her memo.
Penn State Dickinson Law, the College of Medicine and the Pennsylvania College of Technology are not part of this process and will continue to operate as they are, she added.
Background on Penn State’s commonwealth campuses from Spotlight PA:
The campuses enroll a more racially diverse group of people, a greater percentage of Pennsylvania residents, and more first-generation college students than its flagship at University Park.
Shuttering locations would impact the livelihoods of hundreds, if not thousands, of Pennsylvanians. The move would also be the most extreme action Penn State’s administration has taken in its effort to reduce a budget deficit and restructure operations.
Penn State’s commonwealth campuses employ more than 5,100 people across the state, according to university data from fall 2024. Undergraduate and graduate enrollments at the campuses have slumped, dipping down around 24% over the past decade — with some individual colleges down 50%, according to the university.
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.
These changes paralleled steep budget cuts to the system. Under Bendapudi’s leadership, the university cut approximately 15% from the budgets of its Abington and Brandywine campuses, and more than 10% from the budgets of its Great Valley, York, and Lehigh Valley campuses over the past two completed fiscal years, according to data Penn State filed with the state’s Department of Education.
The university plans to cut an additional $54 million from the statewide system starting in July, according to the university’s budget projection.
