A Penn State Altoona student walks in the rain along the Reflecting Pond with Edith Davis Eve Memorial Chapel in the background at the Penn State Altoona campus on Tuesday afternoon. Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski

While Penn State’s Altoona campus is deemed safe, the university’s president announced Tuesday that declining enrollments, demographic shifts and financial pressures will require Penn State to close some of its 19 branch campuses.

Hours after the announcement, the Penn State Faculty Senate tabled a motion to vote no confidence in university President Neeli Bendapudi.

In a message posted on Penn State’s website Tuesday, Bendapudi said the university’s seven largest branch campuses — Abington, Altoona, Behrend, Berks, Brandywine, Harrisburg and Lehigh Valley — will remain open.

But the other 12 will be scrutinized for closure by an internal team that will deliver a recommendation to Bendapudi for a decision she said she’ll deliver by spring commencement.

The 12 campuses that remain in limbo are Beaver, DuBois, Greater Allegheny, Fayette, Hazleton, Mont Alto, New Kensington, Schuylkill, Shenango, Scranton, Wilkes-Barre and York.

Bendapudi said Penn State has tried to save the campuses, but enrollments are declining at most schools and populations in nearby areas are projected to continue declining.

“Given these realities, we must make hard decisions now to ensure Penn State’s future remains strong,” Bendapudi said. “It has become clear that we cannot sustain a viable Commonwealth Campus ecosystem without closing some campuses.”

Vote tabled

The motion to express no confidence in Bendapudi was brought by Julio Palma, a chemistry professor at Penn State Fayette. Daniel Foster, a professor in the College of Agricultural Sciences, moved to table the vote. The motion to table the issue passed with 69.4% of senators in favor, according to statecollege.com.

“This motion is not just because of what is happening at the campuses,” Palma said of the proposed no confidence vote. “This motion is because of what is happening at our university.”

In addition to the anticipated closure of some Commonwealth campuses, Palma, in calling for the no confidence vote, cited the university’s new budget model and its impact on research and education, the failure to uphold commitments to diversity, equity and inclusion, the cancellation of a Center for Racial Justice and the failure to work with the senate on decision making.

A faculty vote of no confidence is symbolic, as Bendapudi cannot be removed from her position by the faculty and a vote would not stop the plan to close some campuses.

The no confidence vote could resurface at a future senate meeting.

Declining enrollment

Historically, the smaller campuses draw most of their students from their local area, and it’s not realistic to recruit elsewhere to maintain those enrollments, Bendapudi said. About 6,000 students were enrolled at those 12 schools last fall, out of about 23,000 total at the branch campuses, according to Penn State’s data.

Bendapudi said the school’s graduate education-focused campuses at Great Valley, Penn State Dickinson Law, the College of Medicine and the Pennsylvania College of Technology will remain open.

No campus will close before the end of the 2026-27 academic year, Bendapudi said.

After learning of the university’s plans, state Sen. Wayne Langerholc Jr., R-Cambria/Centre/Clearfield, said he was eager to showcase the DuBois campus and welcomed discussions on how to improve its efficiency in light of other campus closures.

“I am confident that the special committee will be enlightened to the tremendous successes the DuBois campus has realized, the impact on the community and the integral role this campus plays in the broad Penn State Collaborative,” Langerholc said in a statement.

“Penn State DuBois is delivering cutting-edge, real-world and essential education to many from our region and beyond. It makes little sense to close the door on their success.”

Group to make recommendation

In her message, Bendapudi said she has tasked several Penn State officials to co-lead a group that will give a final recommendation on the future composition of the Commonwealth Campus ecosystem. Those leading the process are 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.

“I have charged Margo, Tracy and Michael Wade with recommending which of the remaining 12 campuses should also remain open and which should close,” Bendapudi said. “While it is clear that not all 12 campuses can continue, it is equally clear that a number of them will. I have asked Margo, Michael Wade and Tracy to focus on a recommendation that continues to meet our land-grant mission and that will ready us for another century or more of success. 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.”

Bendapudi said faculty, staff and shared governance bodies will be “actively engaged in the planning and the transition to support our students, employees and communities as effectively as possible. We also want to be thorough — if we need to adjust the timeline to make the best decisions, we will.”

The university’s president said the final decision on closures is hers to make.

“While I respect and value the role of shared governance, this particular decision — determining which campuses will remain open and which will close — is an administrative one that I will make,” Bendapudi emphasized in her message.

In closing, Bendapudi said, “Penn State has adapted and evolved for 170 years. The decisions we make now will position the University for another century of academic, research and service excellence. This is about strengthening Penn State’s Commonwealth Campus ecosystem so that it can continue to thrive, in a form that aligns with today’s realities.”