Penn State Fayette campus: The final chapter begins

By JOE NAPSHA
TribLive

For Lilyan Hermann, a 2025 Southmoreland High School graduate, returning to Penn State Fayette was different knowing this school year will be the final chapter of the 61-year-old branch campus.

“It takes me back a bit. It’s just really different … not to have that option of staying at the campus” to complete college, said Hermann, a Lowber resident.

Hermann, a sophomore studying finance, plans to go to the main campus at University Park for the remainder of her college experience.

But, Hermann said, she realizes some students will not be able to further their education at Penn State’s main campus because of the higher costs.

“It’s way more expensive to go there,” Hermann said, compared to a commuter campus like Penn State Fayette, also known as The Eberly Campus.

There were few students walking around Penn State Fayette on Monday as the last academic year begins at the Commonwealth Campus, the official name for Penn State branch campuses.

“It’s strange. A lot of people are leaving at the end of the (fall) semester. It’s weird” walking around campus, said Joelle Harrison, a 19-year-old sophomore from Waynesburg who is studying meteorology.

Harrison knows her plans for the next academic year because she will be going to the main campus at University Park. She admitted to being a little nervous going to the much larger campus.

The plans to close the campus at the end of this school year were announced in May 2025. The Fayette campus in North Union will close along with the Penn State New Kensington in Upper Burrell and five other Commonwealth Campuses.

Some of the students walking around campus said the closure will not impact them because they will be able to complete their academic career at the local campus.

One of those, Ryan Glagola of Brownsville, a marketing major, is among those seniors who will graduate in the spring.

Glagola said he was a little nervous when Penn State announced the decision in 2025 because he was not certain he could finish his academic career close to home.

“I got lucky,” Glagola said. The one benefit of attending a campus that won’t exist next year is the small classes, Glagola said.

“My one class had five people. It is crazy,” Glagola said.

About 400 students were enrolled at Penn State Fayette in the 202425 academic year. A Penn State spokesman could not be reached for comment on the current enrollment.

The future of the 100-acre campus once Penn State is finished has yet to be decided.

Fayette County officials and community leaders, business owners and educators have formed a transition team to help determine what is the best use for the campus along Route 119.

Fayette County Commissioner Scott Dunn, board chairman, could not be reached for comment Monday.

The Fourth Economy, a consulting firm in Pittsburgh, is conducting the study. A spokesman for the consulting firm could not be reached for comment Monday.

The future of the Coal and Coke Heritage Center in the basement of the Penn State Fayette campus library also has yet to be revealed. The mining heritage center is filled with hundreds of artifacts, archives and donations from mining families in the region.

Penn State has had a message posted on its website for several months that the university is exploring opportunities to relocate the collection to ensure its continued preservation and accessibility. The university has not addressed whether or how families that have donated items will be able to have those returned.

Abby Tancin, archivist at the Coal & Coke Heritage Center, did not elaborate on the future of the center’s collection.

A spokesman for Penn State Fayette could not be reached for comment.

Faculty bitter

The sentiments of the faculty at the campus can be summed up in a few words: bitter and betrayed, said Doug Rutledge, who teaches physics, computer science and electronics at Penn State Fayette and is chairman of the Faculty Senate.

“We really feel betrayed,” said Rutledge, a California Borough resident.

The faculty are scrambling to find other jobs. Some are adjunct faculty, essentially part-time teachers with short-term contracts.

The university did not respond to a request for the number of faculty at the campus.

A few of the tenured faculty have been able to land other jobs at Penn State’s Commonwealth Campus schools, Rutledge said.

Non-tenured faculty are to get priority hiring for faculty openings, but Rutledge said, in some instances, the university did not give priority to those current faculty.

“As far as I know, I am out of a job” when the campus closes, said Rutledge, who said he has yet to find an opening within the university system. “I am actively looking for a job.”

Even if some professors find an opening within the system, it might be in the northeast or Philadelphia area, requiring a move. Some are worried, if they turn down a job requiring an across-the-state move, Penn State would challenge any application for unemployment compensation, Rutledge said.

“I don’t want anything to do with the Penn State system anymore,” Rutledge said.

The professors, he said, also are frustrated by the lack of information from the university about the situation.

“They’re releasing information only in little dollops. It’s probably worse for the students,” Rutledge said.