LEMONT FURNANCE, Pa. — The Penn State Fayette Eberly Campus is one of 12 branch campuses that could potentially be closing. It’s one of four local branch campuses in southwestern Pennsylvania.
“We’ve got to be loud, we’ve got to be heard, and we’ve got to do it quick,” said Muriel Nuttal, director of the Fayette County Chamber of Commerce.
She said she was stunned when she heard the Fayette campus could be on the chopping block.
“My first thought was, ‘I can’t even imagine a Fayette County without Penn State Fayette Campus,’” she said.
Nuttal, along with elected leaders at the local and state level, want to gather as much community support that they can to make sure Fayette is not one of the Penn State branch campuses to close.
“Those experiences and opportunities deserve to be passed on to another generation,” said Republican State Representative Ryan Warner.
The Fayette campus had 407 students enrolled for this past fall semester. That’s down 30% from 577 students in fall 2020. It’s likely one of the reasons the university is looking to close it down.
“I can’t understand how they don’t view the campus the way we do,” said Republican State Senator Pat Stefano.
He said enrollment and credit hours shouldn’t be all the university is considering. He said the campus has a huge impact on the community, and now the community has to help shine a light on that.
“This requires grassroots to get up through the layers of the university and to get to the right people who are making these decisions so they can understand what I call unmeasurable metrics,” Stefano said.
But time is of the essence. The university is expected to announce what branches will close before the spring semester is over.
Leaders in the county are now working to form two committees. One is for community outreach and social media messaging. The other is a community, student, and alumni communications strategy to help form a letter-writing campaign to university officials.
There’s also a change.org petition that was created by a Fayette campus student and shared by Republican State Representative Charity Grimm Krupa.
Nuttall said if you’d like to help, you can reach out to the Chamber of Commerce.
“We would love to hear from people who want to save this campus,” she said.
These committee meetings in Fayette County are going to continue. The next one is scheduled for Wednesday morning.
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