LEMONT FURNACE, Pa. — According to a report from the Philadelphia Inquirer, the administration at Penn State University proposed closing seven of its 20 branch campuses to the board of trustees.
In our area, those campuses are Fayette, New Kensington, and Shenango.
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Penn State has pushed back against the report, saying in part, “It is regrettable that our communities who may be impacted by campus closures are hearing information before a final decision.”
“They didn’t deny that these campuses are up for the conversation to be proposed to be closing, what they’re upset about is it being leaked out, so I want to make that clear. There’s no denial here from what I’ve seen,” said Jonathan Light, President of Teamsters Local 8. That’s the union that represents technical support employees at Penn State’s Main Campus and all of its branch campuses.
Light said these closures are going to impact a lot of employees that his union represents. They do things like landscaping, cooking, maintenance, and more.
“The work that we do is the backbone that people don’t get to see, the things that make this university run,” Light said.
Light said that at the three branch campuses that report claims Penn State is closing, 30 union members could lose their jobs. There are 12 at Fayette, eight at New Kensington, and 10 at Shenango.
“I would be lying if I didn’t say I would love for the campus to continue being there,” said Robert Eberly, III.
Eberly, III, the president of the Eberly Foundation, is a member of the family the campus is named after. He said he’s unhappy that the proposal was made public before any official word came from the university.
He said losing any branch campus of Penn State would be a huge hit in the communities they serve, from weakening access to education, to hurting community development.
“We have always been of the opinion that access to education is something that really will drive personal and communal economic growth,” he said.
The Philadelphia Inquirer said the board of trustees is expected to discuss the plan again on Thursday. It’s unclear if a vote will also happen.
“The fight’s not over,” Light said.
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