Penn State University is in the midst of a budget crunch and the university says to expect deeper cuts and more layoffs.

Spotlight PA investigative reporter Wyatt Massey reported this story and was on The Spark Friday.

Massey was asked how Penn State ran up a $125 million budget deficit last year,"Like many places of higher education across the country, (Penn State) is struggling with enrollment. Costs are up. Still kind of feeling some of the pandemic financial effects as well as just inflation are kind of the reasons they have given for the situation."

Massey talked about what Penn State is doing to try to bring the budget into balance and reduce the deficit,"We don't have a sense yet of the kind of specific programs that will be facing the biggest cuts. I mean, one one of the big takeaways from our story is that the university had said with this new budget model that the kind of central funding for individual departments and units won't be cut by more than 4%. That was their kind of commitment to ensure that there wasn't a huge drop off in some departments or units. But the president's memo that we had reported on made note that some individual units, because of their financial situation, were actually going to be facing cuts that were greater than that 4%. And it's kind of a convoluted how you get there, but essentially some units are going to have to make kind of internal cuts to shore up their budgets. The College of Engineering has been one that our local public radio station, WPSU has reported on. And that was another question that we had asked the university, with the president mentioning certain units if they could give us a sense of ones that they were eyeing, they were going to need steeper cuts."

What will it mean for Penn State students,"That's still kind of an open question. I mean, I think that there's a lot of fear or concern among faculty about the quality of education or what the kind of plan will be if there are pretty deep cuts in the teaching level, whether that will be more adjuncts or individual professors having to take on more course loads and kind of what that means for the quality of education. I know the university and the other state related universities like Temple, Lincoln and Pitt are asking the state for more money from their appropriation and those hearings are kind of ongoing, but they've already said that they will not commit to freezing their tuition for the upcoming year even if they get more money from the state."

Penn State University is in the midst of a budget crunch and the university says to expect deeper cuts and more layoffs.
Spotlight PA investigative reporter Wyatt Massey reported this story and was on The Spark Friday.
Massey was asked how Penn State ran up a $125 million budget deficit last year,"Like many places of higher education across the country, (Penn State) is struggling with enrollment. Costs are up. Still kind of feeling some of the pandemic financial effects as well as just inflation are kind of the reasons they have given for the situation."
Massey talked about what Penn State is doing to try to bring the budget into balance and reduce the deficit,"We don't have a sense yet of the kind of specific programs that will be facing the biggest cuts. I mean, one one of the big takeaways from our story is that the university had said with this new budget model that the kind of central funding for individual departments and units won't be cut by more than 4%. That was their kind of commitment to ensure that there wasn't a huge drop off in some departments or units. But the president's memo that we had reported on made note that some individual units, because of their financial situation, were actually going to be facing cuts that were greater than that 4%. And it's kind of a convoluted how you get there, but essentially some units are going to have to make kind of internal cuts to shore up their budgets. The College of Engineering has been one that our local public radio station, WPSU has reported on. And that was another question that we had asked the university, with the president mentioning certain units if they could give us a sense of ones that they were eyeing, they were going to need steeper cuts."
What will it mean for Penn State students,"That's still kind of an open question. I mean, I think that there's a lot of fear or concern among faculty about the quality of education or what the kind of plan will be if there are pretty deep cuts in the teaching level, whether that will be more adjuncts or individual professors having to take on more course loads and kind of what that means for the quality of education. I know the university and the other state related universities like Temple, Lincoln and Pitt are asking the state for more money from their appropriation and those hearings are kind of ongoing, but they've already said that they will not commit to freezing their tuition for the upcoming year even if they get more money from the state."

When people come together and talk about really interesting topics, great questions spark better understanding and opportunities for new ideas to form. On The Spark from WITF, hosts Scott LaMar and Aniya Faulcon start the conversations about what’s happening in the world and at home. Share your ideas at https://witf.org/programs/the-spark.

When people come together and talk about really interesting topics, great questions spark better understanding and opportunities for new ideas to form. On The Spark from <a href="https://www.witf.org">WITF</a>, hosts Scott LaMar and Aniya Faulcon start the conversations about what’s happening in the world and at home. Share your ideas at <a href="https://witf.org/programs/the-spark">https://witf.org/programs/the-spark</a>.

The Spark

When people come together and talk about really interesting topics, great questions spark better understanding and opportunities for new ideas to form. On The Spark from WITF, hosts Scott LaMar and Aniya Faulcon start the conversations about what’s happening in the world and at home. Share your ideas at <a href="https://witf.org/programs/the-spark">https://witf.org/programs/the-spark</a>.

Advertisement