Penn State will consider enrollment as a factor in closing campuses. What does the data show?

Across the 12 Penn State commonwealth campuses under consideration for closure, enrollment has declined by 39% over the last 10 years, according to university data. But enrollment decline is just one of the factors university leadership will use to ultimately decide which campuses should shutter.

In a recent letter to the Penn State community, university officials said — in addition to enrollment — they’ll also consider the university’s evolving land-grant mission, population shifts, student experience and success, and the higher education landscape in Pennsylvania while making their recommendation on which campuses should close.

Still, public enrollment data doesn’t paint a positive picture. All but two of the 12 campuses have seen more than a 30% decline in enrollment between 2014 and 2024, and 11 of the 12 have seen enrollment decline by 15% or more in the last five years.

Here’s a closer look at the data.

Declining enrollment

Penn State president Neeli Bendapudi announced last month that 12 of Penn State’s 19 commonwealth campuses are under consideration to be closed, although how many of those 12, and which ones, have not been determined. The campuses under consideration for closure are Beaver, DuBois, Fayette, Greater Allegheny, Hazleton, Mont Alto, New Kensington, Schuylkill, Scranton, Shenango, Wilkes-Barre and York. Bendapudi pointed to declining enrollments and demographic shifts as reasons why campuses will need to close.

None of the 12 campuses that could close have more than 900 students enrolled as of the fall 2024 semester.

A small portion of the 12 campuses have seen slight enrollment increases in the last couple of years. Schuylkill has seen a consistent enrollment increase since fall 2021 — about 17.5%, or 104 students.

Between fall 2023 and 2024, DuBois saw about a 9% increase, or 32 students, and Mont Alto saw a roughly 4% increase, or 25 students. Hazleton also saw about a 9% increase, or 42 students, between fall 2022 and 2024.

Still, in most cases the fall 2024 enrollment numbers are nowhere near what they were in the past.

The 12 campuses heavily rely on residents in the home and surrounding counties to enroll at the campus. The letter from university officials cites a 2023 report from the Center for Rural Pennsylvania and the Institute of State and Regional Affairs at Penn State Harrisburg that projects a 5.8% population decline for rural counties in Pennsylvania by 2050.

“Because of this important role of campus location, county-by-county population projections are also an important guide helping us think about long-term campus viability,” the letter states.

Campuses not at risk of closing

Penn State’s seven largest commonwealth campuses — Abington, Altoona, Behrend, Berks, Brandywine, Harrisburg and Lehigh Valley, as well as the graduate education-focused campus at Great Valley — will remain open and Penn State will continue to invest in them, Bendapudi previously said.

Enrollment at those campuses has declined over the years too but the overall enrollment is, for the vast majority, more than 1,000 at each campus.

Fighting the closures

The campuses considered for closure are spread out across Pennsylvania and the proposal has drawn criticism statewide. Petitions have been started to fight the closures, including at Penn State Shenango, Penn State Mont Alto, Penn State DuBois and Penn State Fayette.

The committee’s closure recommendation should include “a continued presence for Penn State in the Northeast and the Pittsburgh regions of the commonwealth,” per Bendapudi’s request.

Several of the communities that the campuses are located in have urged Penn State not to close their campuses.

The Schuylkill County Chamber of Commerce asked Bendapudi to give the “strongest consideration” to keeping the campus open, the Republican Herald recently reported. In a letter written on behalf of the organization’s 800 members, they said Penn State Schuylkill offers an affordable higher education experience in a county that has a lower than average median household income.

The letter also noted the campus’ rising enrollment.

“Penn State-Schuylkill is the only Commonwealth campus with consistent rising enrollment,” the letter stated, per the Republican Herald’s reporting. “Consistent and rising enrollment is not an accident, rather a result of a concentrated strategic direction to support its growth.”

Penn State Scranton has the highest enrollment of the 12 campuses at 827 students as of fall 2024. Scranton’s mayor and council also asked Penn State to keep the campus open in a letter to the university, The Times-Tribune reported. The letter said more than half of Penn State Scranton’s students are from Lackawanna County and many are first-generation college students who can only get a higher education because of the close proximity to campus and affordable tuition.