Jun 19, 2026 · 35 min · 12 segments
Penn State University announced the closure of seven satellite campuses even as it adds more capacity to its flagship campus at University Park in State College, PA. The university is now looking at…
Randy NewnhamGuest
Sunil DasguptaHost
In a few months from now, if you look at the fluttering flags in front of homes on college football Saturdays in Montgomery County, Maryland, you will note the strong presence of the Nittany Lion, the Penn State University mascot.
Maryland, and particularly Montgomery County, are importers of people, of workers, and especially of teachers.
Most domestic migration to Montgomery comes via Washington, D.C., but Pennsylvania is a big state of origin.
For one, the Quaker state has double our population and generally a lower wage rate.
The difference between Pennsylvania and the Washington suburbs is even larger.
I bring this up to say that we should care about what's happening in Pennsylvania.
The last few years, Penn State, like other big land-grant universities, has been struggling with its mission, cost and delivery approaches.
Two years ago, Penn State began a reorganization effort that culminated this year in a plan to close roughly half its satellite campuses – Du Bois, Fayette, Mont Alto, New Kensington, Shenango, Wilkes-Barre, and York.
Penn State is the second regional public university after West Virginia to undergo painful reorganization.
With one big difference, Penn State's flagship location at University Park in the town of State College, Pennsylvania, is growing, making this a consolidation story rather than West Virginia's seemingly ideological retrenchment.
Though I imagine at the Penn State campuses that are closing, it feels different.
In a few months from now, if you look at the fluttering flags in front of homes on college football Saturdays in Montgomery County, Maryland, you will note the strong presence of the Nittany Lion, the Penn State University mascot.
Maryland, and particularly Montgomery County, are importers of people, of workers, and especially of teachers.
Most domestic migration to Montgomery comes via Washington, D.C., but Pennsylvania is a big state of origin.
For one, the Quaker state has double our population and generally a lower wage rate.
The difference between Pennsylvania and the Washington suburbs is even larger.
I bring this up to say that we should care about what's happening in Pennsylvania.
The last few years, Penn State, like other big land-grant universities, has been struggling with its mission, cost and delivery approaches.
Two years ago, Penn State began a reorganization effort that culminated this year in a plan to close roughly half its satellite campuses – Du Bois, Fayette, Mont Alto, New Kensington, Shenango, Wilkes-Barre, and York.
Penn State is the second regional public university after West Virginia to undergo painful reorganization.
With one big difference, Penn State's flagship location at University Park in the town of State College, Pennsylvania, is growing, making this a consolidation story rather than West Virginia's seemingly ideological retrenchment.
Though I imagine at the Penn State campuses that are closing, it feels different.
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