Penn State's proposed closures draw anger, frustration. ‘We still want to be heard'

Yahoo

18-05-2025

When the news leaked earlier this week that Mont Alto was among seven Penn State commonwealth campuses recommended for closure, students Jawad Malik and Yara Amleh sprung into action to try and save it.
In less than four days, they gathered 37 pages of testimony from students, alumni and faculty and staff about the impact Mont Alto had on them and why it should continue to remain part of the Penn State system.
Amleh, a nursing student and president of the student government association, said it was devastating to hear Mont Alto was one of the recommended closures, especially through a leak, and was more upset to learn that the university originally didn't plan to release the report for the recommendation until after a vote had taken place. Despite the frustration, they've been pleased with the amount of engagement and support they've gathered.
'It is amazing how quickly Mont Alto was able to band together to show we don't want to close. We're active. We have a voice, and we still want to be heard,' Amleh said.
More than 3,000 students were enrolled last year in the commonwealth campuses that have been recommended for closure — DuBois, Fayette, Mont Alto, New Kensington, Shenango, Wilkes-Barre and York — and like Amleh and Malik, many others have made their voices heard this week. Faculty and elected officials have also pushed back on the report outlining the recommendations, which focus on issues including declining enrollment, poor financials and minimal room for growth.
For Amleh, it was never a question if she wanted to attend Mont Alto. Between a family full of Penn Staters and the close distance to her house, it made sense. Now if it closes, her younger sister — and many others — won't have the opportunity to go to Mont Alto and might not go to Penn State at all. The nearest campus is Harrisburg, about 65 miles away.
'So many people are losing access to what they call a 'public ivy,' It is top notch education. I mean, so many people are losing that chance to go to college. People are losing those memories that they've made,' Amleh said. '... I don't want to be the one of the last graduating classes from Penn State Mont Alto. I don't want to be that kind of historical statement. The community stands to lose a lot and they're pushing back a lot.'
Malik said he was a 'problem kid' and attended three different universities before landing at Mont Alto and thriving there.
'In a place that's much more rural, you would think that you get a lot less but you find a lot more, actually. The biggest reason why I stayed at Mont Alto is because the community is tight knit. I've been to a big university ... and I realized I need that one-on-one time. As a student-athlete, you get a level of care you don't get at University Park, at Altoona ... with these bigger class sizes. My favorite class so far is the class where it was me and one other student and the professor.'
Mont Alto has brought 'comfort to education,' and that is hard to find elsewhere, he said, and closing Mont Alto would be like losing a family.
That sentiment is felt across other campuses. Amelia Bradley-Rash chose to attend Penn State Fayette just like her mom and sister did before her. The campus is 25 minutes away from her home, an important factor to her.
Now she's transferring to another university for her second year because the campus closure proposal brought confusion and she didn't want to stay if it was going to close, among other reasons. The community stands to lose a lot if it closes, she said, which 'hurts my heart.'
'I think the community would lose an amazing amount of professors, people that truly want the best for the students. I mean, the women in the library are so helpful. ... Every time a patron came into the library, a student, they were so helpful. And I'm not even just saying that because I have love for them. It's just going to be so sad not having that faculty to help the community.'
Many faculty members have been sounding the alarm since President Neeli Bendapudi officially announced in February Penn State would close some campuses. On Tuesday she publicly released a recommendation report on commonwealth campus closures earlier than intended, following the news leaking a day earlier.
Bendapudi and other university leadership have stressed that no decisions are final until the board votes, and no campus closures will happen before the end of the spring 2027 semester. The board of trustees are set to meet in a virtual, public meeting at 5 p.m. May 22.
In an email to the university community Tuesday evening, Bendapudi expressed regret that news of the recommendation was shared through media coverage rather than by Penn State leadership.
But that messaging may have done more harm than good. Several faculty members told the Centre Daily Times that the leadership's communication focused too much on their disappointment with the leak rather than the actual news of campuses closing. Why, they wondered, didn't the university just share information with them to begin with?
Heather Page, student engagement and outreach librarian at Fayette, said her first reaction to seeing Fayette on the list of recommended closures was 'lots of swear words,' followed by a sense of relief. Even if it wasn't the news she wanted, she at least had information — something that had been lacking for months.
'They've been so opaque in their communication,' Page said. 'Just to have information at all was huge, even though it was not the information we hoped to find out.'
In the university email Tuesday evening, Bendapudi said they had planned to share the recommendation report following the board's vote, which at that time, was not yet planned. Angela Pettitt, associate teaching professor at Shenango, said that hurt a lot.
'It really set into stone the fact that their plan was always to shut us out of this process until the decisions were made. We weren't going to have access to that report until the board had reviewed it, discussed it, and voted on it, and that really did hurt because the faculty senate has been begging for shared governance, begging for input for months,' she said.
It's hard to keep the feelings about of how they found out vs. the news of recommended closures entirely separate, Pettitt said. She's still working through the stages of grief, noting that they're still being told nothing is final until the board takes action. Now the waiting game continues until the board meets Thursday.
Pettitt has been at Shenango since 2010 and has seen the enrollment numbers dwindle from 800 to 300 students.
'We're still very much getting those mixed messages, and we have this tug of war, this cognitive dissonance between knowing our campus has been recommended for closure in black and white, with all the numbers to support it and all the justifications to support it, but our emails still tell us no decision has been final yet,' she said.
Robin Yaure, a professor of teaching of human development and family studies, has been at Mont Alto for 36 years. Since hearing that Mont Alto was being explored for closure, and more recently, recommended to close, it's been frustrating and demoralizing.
'It just seems like it's been mismanaged from the very beginning, and this was just another example. That there's lip service about being kind to us, faculty and staff and everyone, and then yet, it's been dragged out for longer. We were supposed to know at the end of April. Now it's the middle of May, and the way we found out was through a leak. ... We should have had that information a long time ago,' she said.
She supports the Penn State faculty senate's recommendation to pause the decision, and hopes the trustees reevaluate how the process has occurred and understand the need to work with the faculty, staff and students on this.
Other entities, like the Penn State chapter of the American Association of University Professors, have done the same and urged the administration to keep the campuses open. On Friday the national AAUP also called on the board to reject the closures and develop plans that will serve all Pennsylvania students.
'The threatened campuses serve thousands of students and employ hundreds of faculty and staff across Pennsylvania. They are vital to the university's land grant mission. The proposal to substitute online classes for the in-person instruction, mentoring, research, and service conducted at these campuses does a disservice to students and their communities and threatens the academic integrity of existing programs as well as quality, equity, and access,' AAUP President Todd Wolfson said. 'Had President Bendapudi consulted with the faculty who teach, the staff who serve, and the students pursuing their education at these campuses, she would already know these things.'
Elected officials have also spoken out against the plan. Congressman Glenn 'GT' Thompson, R-Howard, asked the board to reconsider closure of Penn State DuBois. Closing would have devastating economic and social consequences, he said.
'The ivory tower of academia in State College has grown so high that Penn State has lost sight of its mission: to educate all residents of the Commonwealth. For nearly 100 years, Penn State DuBois has been an anchor in our community,' Thompson said in a press release. 'Penn State should work with local employers to identify affordable programming that will lead to workforce opportunities for Pennsylvania's residents, rather than chasing out-of-state and overseas tuition dollars.'
City of DuBois Council member Elliot Gelfand emailed the board and administration Friday, on behalf of the City of DuBois, asking to keep the campus open as well. Among the many reasons he shared against the closure, he said the region is already at risk of 'brain drain' and economic stagnation.
He understands the challenges facing Penn State. But closing isn't the solution, rather, innovation and reinvestment is, he said. They called for the university to pause the decision and commit to community-based strategic plan, and consider hybrid models that reduce operational costs but still maintain a presence, among other action items.
'While it may seem financially beneficial to close a small campus, the long-term losses in human capital, community trust, and economic vitality far outweigh short-term savings. We cannot afford to lose this campus, and both alumni and our local communities should not accept a vision of Penn State that excludes rural Pennsylvania,' he wrote.
State Senator Doug Mastriano, R-Franklin, said closing Mont Alto would also have significant job losses and a loss of local access to higher education. The campus is known for its nursing and forestry programs, both of which directly supports the local workforce, he said.
'Penn State's decision to close the Mont Alto campus appears to be a band-aid attempt at minor cost-cutting, rather than a thoughtful approach to maintaining access to higher education for communities across Pennsylvania,' Mastriano said in a press release. 'The university has more than enough financial resources to continue operating its satellite campuses, ensuring local students have access to quality education.'
In Fayette, state Rep. Charity Grimm Krupa said she was 'outraged' to learn the Fayette campus was on the list of recommended closures and called the plan short-sighted.
'Shutting down the Fayette campus isn't about financial responsibility — it's about walking away from the very students Penn State was created to serve. It's a betrayal of the university's land-grant mission and a slap in the face to rural communities,' she wrote in a Facebook post. 'Abandoning this campus sends a clear message: if you're not from a wealthy or urban area, Penn State doesn't see you as worth the investment. That's disgraceful, and I urge every trustee to vote no against these closures.'