The Penn State Lion outside the Science Building at Penn State Wilkes-Barre.
Times Leader file photo
Wilkes-Barre, Hazleton and Scranton locations among those in jeopardy
After weeks of speculation, Penn State announced it will consider closing some of its campuses — including Wilkes-Barre, Hazleton and Scranton — following the 2026-2027 school year.
In a message released Monday, President Neeli Bendapudi said that the university “cannot sustain a viable Commonwealth Campus ecosystem without closing some campuses” sighting declining enrollment, demographic shifts and financial pressures as some of the reasons for the potential closures.
“Across higher education, institutions are grappling with similar headwinds, and we have reached a moment where doing nothing is no longer an option,” Bendapudi said.
Penn State’s largest campuses — Abington, Altoona, Behrend, Berks, Brandywine, Harrisburg, and Lehigh Valley — along with its graduate education-focused campus at Great Valley, will remain open, according to Bendapudi, along with Penn State Dickinson Law, the College of Medicine and the Pennsylvania College of Technology.
Those campuses comprise nearly 75% of total Commonwealth campus enrollments and 67% of campus faculty and staff, the memo said.
However, the remaining 12 campuses, including Penn State Wilkes-Barre located in Lehman, Penn State Hazleton and Penn State Scranton, will undergo a review from a special committee led by 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.
Following that review, the group will make recommendations on which campuses to close and which to keep operational.
No campus will close before the end of the 2026-27 academic year, which the memo said, “will allow associate degree students enrolling in fall 2025 enough time to complete their degrees and 2+2 bachelor’s degree students enough time to reach the point at which they would transition to another Penn State campus.”
Additionally, the university said it will continue extending offers and admitting new students for Fall 2025 at all campuses.
The president expects to make a final decision on which campuses to close before spring commencement.
“We have exhausted reasonable alternatives to maintain the current number of campuses,” Bendapudi continued, “We now must move forward with a structure that is sustainable, one that allows our strongest campuses — where we can provide our students with the best opportunities for success and engagement — to thrive, while we make difficult but necessary decisions about others.”
Faculty and staff will be given the opportunity to be reassigned to another campus or given “career transition support,” the memo said.
According to Spotlight PA, rumors of possible campuses closures have been swirling for weeks and university officials fielded questions from concerned employees regarding that possibility during a Penn State Faculty Senate meeting in January.
At that time, Spotlight reported that officials did not “directly answer” those questions.
“Overall, the university is in a strong and stable position. This is a complex undertaking with many variables, voices and perspectives to consider, and we will move thoughtfully but as expeditiously as possible through this process,” a spokesperson for Penn State told Spotlight PA a the time.
According to university data from the Fall of 2024, commonwealth campuses employ 5,174 people.
In addition to possible closures, Penn State announced in January 2024 plans for budget cuts starting in July of this year as part of its ‘Roadmap to the Future’ initiative.
According to that announcement, the budget allocation for commonwealth campuses was expected to be $49 million less than in 2024-2025.
