Deficit, enrollment trends spur leadership revamp for Penn State's Fayette campus

Students value the small-college atmosphere at Penn State Fayette, The Eberly Campus near Uniontown, but that increasingly intimate nature is triggering a major change.

In the face of declining enrollment and budget deficits, Penn State is consolidating oversight of some of its branch campuses and is paring its payroll.

The Fayette County and New Kensington campuses will fall under the direction of Chancellor Megan Nagel at the Greater Allegheny campus in McKeesport.

There are about 40 faculty members at the Fayette campus and a staff of 75.

Penn State announced that 383 employees from among its sites across the state have opted to leave this year, under a separation incentive buyout. Staff members, rather than faculty, account for about 77% of that payroll downsizing.

It wasn’t immediately clear how that move might affect course offerings or staff assignments at the Fayette campus.

Having a vibrant college campus in Fayette County is important for the students, said Richard Evans, interim superintendent of Connellsville Area School District. The district’s high school is 10 miles north of The Eberly Campus. Students in the Connellsville area come from diverse backgrounds and need to be close to home if they attend college, Evans said.

“I think it is real important to have a four-year college campus in our backyard. They might not be able to afford to go away (to college). The more opportunities there are for our students, the better it is for everyone,” said Evans, who has been in Connellsville Area School District for 20 years as a teacher, principal and superintendent.

Sophie Machesky of Lemont Furnace is a rising senior at Penn State Fayette who is majoring in corporate communications and business and serves as editor-in-chief of the campus newspaper, the Roaring Lion. She said the campus that has served the county for nearly 60 years merits continued support.

”I believe it is pertinent to continue to financially support the smaller campuses that are truly thriving in spite of not having the resources that larger campuses and universities have,” Machesky said. “It would be a shame if the privileges that I was given with my small campus are not provided to the future generations of college students.”

In more ways than one, the administrative consolidation marks the end of an era at the Fayette location.

W. Charles Patrick is set to retire June 28, ending a decade as chancellor and chief academic officer at the campus. An internal search is underway for an interim chancellor who will serve during the transition to Nagel taking over responsibility, according to Fayette campus spokesman Bill Hager.

“I have heard positive affirmations regarding the chancellor for Penn State Greater Allegheny,” Machesky said. “I believe she means well and will take student opinion into consideration when making important decisions, which is what the students deserve.”

Downward trend

Enrollment at Penn State’s Fayette campus has been on a downward trend. According to its website, the campus annually averages about 500 students. Enrollment was at just 419 in the fall 2023 semester, down from 589 in 2019.

Located in North Union, the Fayette campus offers nine bachelor’s degree programs and five two-year associate degree programs, according to its website. Students also can finish the first two years of study toward more than 275 degrees that can be completed at another Penn State campus.

Popular programs of study include nursing, physical therapy assistant and business.

Penn State, like other colleges, faces stiff competition for would-be students. Many of those would-be students are looking for programs where they can learn a trade, earn a good salary in blue-collar professions and not be burdened with college debt, Evans said.

“I think colleges really have to keep in mind (that they need) to do whatever they can to keep costs down,” Evans said. “Colleges right now have to reinvent themselves. If they don’t make such changes, how will they be able to survive?”

Penn State said in January its 20 branch campuses would be saddled with $54 million out of a proposed $94 million in universitywide spending cuts.

The branch campus is an important part of the economic development in Fayette County, said David Lohr, a Fayette County commissioner and a Fayette campus graduate who earned an engineering degree.

Lohr said Wednesday he is working with some entities to expand the academic offerings at the campus in the subject areas of agriculture and engineering.

While Penn State warns of cuts pending in its branch campus system, Lohr pointed out the nursing program at the Fayette campus provides much-needed nurses for hospitals in the area. Both Connellsville and Uniontown have hospitals.

Among goals set forth in 2020 as part of a five-year strategic plan for the campus were recruiting and supporting a more diverse student population and increasing retention 20% by 2025.

At the Fayette campus, 73.7% of students who enrolled in 2022 still were attending a year later. During the same period, the Penn State Behrend campus in Erie County had the best retention rate — 82.3% — among branch locations, while the Shenango campus in Sharon trailed, with 52%.

The University Park main campus in State College had a 92% retention rate.

Penn State Fayette got its start in 1965, initially operating from several buildings in downtown Uniontown. Community leaders such as Orville Eberly, a bank president whose family owned a natural gas exploration and production company, joined forces in reaching out to Penn State to provide a setting for higher education when Waynesburg University said in 1964 it would close its Uniontown campus.

Penn State had a campus in Uniontown during the Great Depression in the 1930s, but it closed in 1940, at the onset of war in Europe, according to a 1967 brochure touting the new campus.

Three years later, the campus moved to its current location, on former farm property. It awarded associate degrees to its first graduating class in 1967 and had 535 students by 1968. It has grown from 28 acres to about 100 acres along Route 119 between Connellsville and Uniontown.

In 2004, Penn State Fayette gained the additional designation of The Eberly Campus, recognizing the Uniontown family that has made philanthropic contributions to the institution.

That same year, the campus added a $10 million community center containing a 1,500-seat arena and a 450-seat auditorium.

Jeff Himler and Joe Napsha are TribLive staff writers. They can be reached at at jhimler@triblive.com and jnapsha@triblive.com.