The Penn State University Board of Trustees voted Thursday to close seven Commonwealth Campuses, including Penn State DuBois, as a result of declining enrollment. Courtesy photo

Emotions around Clearfield County and the DuBois community varied following Penn State University’s decision to close its DuBois campus — along with six of the other 19 Commonwealth Campuses — in two years, but disappointment and frustration are the most prevalent.

Clearfield County Commissioner Dave Glass and DuBois Mayor Pat Reasinger are hoping that if things break right, the DuBois campus can continue as some sort of school. Michelle Rodino-Colocino, associate professor of media studies at University Park, however, is hoping that a consortium of closure opponents can convince enough university trustees to change their minds, so the closure of the seven targeted campuses can be reversed.

The Board of Trustees voted Thursday to close those seven campuses due to declining enrollments, demographic shifts and financial pressures, while continuing to invest in the remaining Commonwealth Campuses, including Penn State Altoona.

“I’m frustrated and disappointed” in the closure decision for DuBois, Glass said.

The targeted campuses are among the university’s most rural ones, which “points to (the university) not really caring about rural Pennsylvania in general,” Glass said.

“I’m kind of shocked,” Reasinger said. The closure will take away an affordable option that allowed area residents to get a college education close to home, the mayor said.

“But there’s not a lot we can do about it now,” he said. “We need to look toward the future.”

That might ideally mean that after closure is complete, the campus could turn into a “medical college” to produce registered and licensed practical nurses, occupational and physical therapists and pharmacists, all of whom could find work at Penn Highlands DuBois hospital and the many nursing homes in the area, Reasinger said.

Conversations with local leaders and with officials at the hospital would be a necessary precursor to that, he said.

The closure will likely force some faculty and staff at the campus to leave the area, according to Glass.

It may also mean the end of the Penn State Athletic Conference, along with its baseball and softball championships, which are held each year in DuBois — along with the town no longer hosting the Small College World Series, he said.

Student housing near campus and nearby restaurants are also likely to suffer, he said.

But as an antidote to the closure, Clearfield County could conceivably join with nearby Elk and Jefferson counties to develop “some kind of tri-county community college” on the DuBois campus, Glass said.

The commissioners of those other counties are at least willing to talk about that, he said.

“I don’t want the (educational) opportunities to be gone for (area) kids,” he said.

Still, at this point, the community college ambition is a “Hail Mary,” he said. “We’re on step 1 of probably a thousand,” he added.

But the closure of Penn State DuBois, coupled with the planned closure of the Lock Haven University Clearfield campus after the spring 2027 semester, has vitiated the higher education environment in the region, so something needs to be done to reverse the trend, according to Glass.

It will be critical for Penn State to be cooperative for the idea to work, he said.

“Otherwise, I worry (the buildings) will just sit there and rot,” he said.

Penn State has signaled it plans to be cooperative.

It intends to have “local communities included in decision-making regarding the future of these facilities and land,” a May 22 university news release states. “University leaders are committed to partnering with local, state and federal officials — as well as local and regional business leaders, developers and community members — to reimagine what could come next,” the news release stated.

Whether or not the future use involves the university directly, “we will play a convening role to help catalyze possibilities that benefit the surrounding regions,” the news release states.

Taking action

Reasinger is “sad” about the pending closure, but not resentful against Penn State, especially given that enrollment at the campus has declined significantly.

It was at 366 in 2022, down 32% in the last five years, according to online sources.

“I feel bad for (the university) that they are dealing with that,” Reasinger said. “I’m sure the decision was not made easily.”

That jives with a statement by Penn State President Neeli Bendapudi: “These were incredibly tough decisions,” she said, as stated in the news release. “(W)e did not make them lightly.”

That may have been especially true for the DuBois campus, in which there were recent significant investments in gym and auditorium renovations that the university is apparently willing to “walk away from,” Reasinger said.

Rodino-Colocino wasn’t as sympathetic to the university’s situation.

“This is a horrible, devastating decision,” she said.

The financial situation that the university claims needs to be cured with the help of the closures is actually healthy, according to Rodino-Colocino.

“Penn State is not in a financial crisis,” she said. “Quite the opposite.”

The university has $5 billion in liquid net assets as of last year, up from $3 billion in 2020, she said.

The university’s “Consolidated Financial Statement” for June 30, 2024, states that there are $3.8 billion in “total current assets.”

“Current assets” for a university are “financial resources that are expected to be converted into cash or used within one year,” according to online sources.

The university is rated as a good financial risk, according to Rodino-Colocino.

The long report that helped create the foundation for the closures is an argument designed to reach a desired conclusion, and the evidence doesn’t support that conclusion, said Rodino-Colocino.

Moreover, the university didn’t adequately involve the faculty in the closure decision, she said.

In voting 25 to 8 to close the seven campuses, the board seems to be acting like corporate boards that make deep cuts to save money “like shark(s),” she said.

A land grant university like Penn State shouldn’t be operated like a corporation, with an eye to maximize profits, because its purpose — to educate — is a “public good,” she said.

Moreover, the small commonwealth campuses have a special benefit that was reflected in two outstanding students cited in recent graduations, both of whom studied two years at campuses slated for closure — both of whom benefited from the small classes and close relationships that thrive in those settings, Rodino-Colocino said.

She would like professors, students, community members, businesses and lawmakers to get together to protest and lobby the 25 trustees who voted for closure to reverse their votes, she said.

She’s “strategically optimistic” about success, she said.

Disheartening news

Mia Margolies is co-owner of Luigi’s Ristorante & Catering near the DuBois campus.

The restaurant will lose some business, but will survive, she said.

But she feels bad for the faculty, staff and students, she said repeatedly in a phone conversation Friday.

“I feel deeply for everyone,” she said. “It hurts our heart.”

Her restaurant caters events like baseball dinners, she said. Faculty and the chancellor come to the restaurant to eat routinely, she said.

Restaurant employees go to the campus to dance at its “THON” fundraiser, she said.

So “it’s hard for our community right now,” she said. “It’s definitely not news we want to hear.”

Dr. Jungwoo Ryoo, the chancellor, is “disheartened by the decision to close,” he stated in an email. For now, “our primary focus is on supporting our dedicated faculty and staff and helping our students succeed,” he stated. “We are profoundly grateful to our community and campus family for their unwavering support, compassion, and strength, and we remain committed to caring for one another.”

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.