Penn State asking for a 33% increase in state funding for upcoming year

• Anne Danahy
  BioRecent Stories

  

  Anne Danahy has been a reporter at WPSU since fall 2017. She was a reporter for nearly 12 years at the Centre Daily Times in State College, Pennsylvania, where she earned a number of awards for her coverage of issues including the impact of natural gas development on communities.
  
  She earned a bachelor's degree in communications from Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, and a master's in media studies from Penn State.
  
  She worked as a writer at Penn State, including with the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute. She’s a volunteer host at C-NET, Centre County's government-education access station.

 Tim Tai / Philadelphia Inquirer

Old Main is pictured on the Penn State University campus in State College, Pennsylvania.

Penn State will ask the state for a 33% increase in funding for the upcoming budget year, even as the university waits for Pennsylvania legislators to agree on funding for this fiscal year.

The full Penn State board approved the 2024-25 appropriations request for $483.4 million Friday. It includes a request of $368.1 million for general support appropriation, an increase of $108.8 million, or about 42%, over what the university expects to get this year based on Gov. Josh Shapiro’s budget proposal. The university says that general funding is what allows it to charge a lower tuition rate to in-state students.

Penn State Senior Vice President for Finance Sara Thorndike presented the funding request to a board of trustees committee Thursday.

“What we’re requesting would bring us up to the next lowest-funded per-student institution,” Thorndike said.

Right now, Penn State’s per-student state funding is the lowest of public universities in Pennsylvania, according to the university.

“Penn State currently receives funding of $5,757 per Pennsylvania student. Comparatively Pitt receives $9,436; Temple receives $9,233; and PASSHE receives $8,754,” Thorndike said. PASSHE is the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, which oversees Pennsylvania’s public schools.

The university sends a request to the state each year as part of the budget process. But how much Penn State asks for and what it gets can be very different. And Penn State, Pitt and Temple — which are state-related universities — still have not received this year’s state funding. It’s tied up in a budget impasse in Harrisburg.

Thorndike said because of the budget delay, Penn State will submit the 2024-25 request in October.

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