Sen. Pat Stefano (R-32)
Over the weekend, the Penn State football team broke a six-game losing streak to defeat Michigan State and claim the rivalry’s coveted Land Grant Trophy — an award established to honor the two universities as the first land-grant institutions in the United States. Both schools were founded to bring practical education to smaller communities, making agriculture, science and mechanical arts more accessible to the working class.
But when I saw the final score, my immediate reaction wasn’t excitement — it was how absolutely undeserving this university has become of that Land Grant Trophy.
Earlier this year, the university announced the closure of seven commonwealth campuses, including my alma mater, Penn State Fayette, The Eberly Campus. These branch campuses have carried out the mission of our commonwealth’s land-grant university by providing affordable education to local students while serving as economic lifelines for their communities. By shutting them down, Penn State has stripped students of opportunity and abandoned areas dependent on a local, post-secondary institution to train their workforce.
These communities are left to pick up the pieces of broken promises the university made due to what university leaders cited as “financial strain” and declining enrollment.
Frankly, hearing “financial strain” from a university pouring $700 million into Beaver Stadium renovations rings hollow. “Financial strain” is a far cry from offering a football coach a $50 million buyout or awarding its president a raise of nearly half a million dollars, boosting her total compensation to $2.8 million, making her one of the highest-paid university presidents in America.
Penn State’s lack of fiscal responsibility is beyond unacceptable. It’s heartbreaking and reveals exactly where the university’s priorities now lie. Though the commonwealth campuses account for only a fraction of Penn State’s total operating budget, they are the first sacrifices made while the university continues spending lavishly elsewhere.
In Fayette County, we are fortunate to have a strong, determined community rallying to fill the lion-sized hole our campus closure leaves behind. For generations, Penn State Fayette has been a hub of opportunity, a source of pride and a cornerstone of our workforce. I am grateful to everyone working to preserve a future for our campus despite the university’s neglect.
But many other counties are not so lucky. Some lack the resources or economic cushion to absorb this blow. Tragically, these are precisely the communities the land-grant mission was created to uplift.
I will always be proud of what Penn State Fayette has done for our region. But my support for Penn State as an institution ENDS TODAY as I voted against its request for state funding — not out of spite, but out of loyalty to my constituents in Fayette County and for each community mourning the loss of its campus, and to send a clear message to University Park:
WE ARE disappointed.
WE ARE resilient.
And WE ARE communities whose futures deserve far more investment than any trophy.
As the Land Grant Trophy sits in Happy Valley, I hope the university’s administration takes a close look at it and remembers the values that their school used to stand for. And then, I hope they look up to see how far they’ve fallen.