Today deserves a major sigh of relief.  The appropriation for Penn State University finally becomes law, providing the University with $306.2 million of support for its educational programs, agriculture and medicine.  It has been a long wait – we are nearly nine months into the fiscal year.  Up until last week, the state-related universities in Pennsylvania (Penn State, Pittsburgh, Temple and Lincoln) were collateral in a Harrisburg budget battle.   As we approached the end of the fiscal year the risk began to grow that Penn State would not get an appropriation.  The notion of no support was unthinkable but, in fact, this possibility was being openly discussed in Harrisburg.

The budget discussions within Penn State were becoming increasingly tense – how would we manage such a large loss?  Everything was on the table – from having to send notice to 1,100 agricultural employees on May 1 (60 days prior to the end of the fiscal year), to cutbacks in hiring, loss of programs, deferral of many construction projects, cutting travel and other expenditures.  Sadly, we would also not have been able to move forward without a significant tuition increase.  After all, tuition would become our sole source of support outside of philanthropy for academic programs. It may not surprise you that the discussions went deeper than how to manage a loss of many millions of dollars.  There is no such animal as a public or state-related university without state support.  There are no private universities of our size and there are no private universities as accessible as Penn State.  Our very mission was at risk – although we are a global university, we are Pennsylvania’s land-grant university – “we provide unparalleled access and public service to support the citizens of the Commonwealth.”  The list under those quotation marks is long.

The very purpose of our Commonwealth Campuses is to provide access to a world-class education for our citizens.  Our agricultural programs are instrumental in serving one of Pennsylvania’s most important industries.  We educate more Pennsylvania students than any other university.  We do it at a cost per student to the Commonwealth that is lower than any other university.  Our research expenditures have an enormous impact on the economy of Pennsylvania and our investments in programs such as Invent Penn State are designed to promote greater economic growth across the Commonwealth.  Even the visiting accreditation team from Middle States noted that we truly live our land-grant mission.  We are Pennsylvania’s flagship.

The loss of state support would cut far deeper than simple dollars. It would profoundly change the mission of a great public. I, for one, deeply love Penn State’s mission and its sense of service to the Commonwealth and our nation. I am so relieved that we have reached an end to the impasse for this year and I hope for a quicker end to next year’s budget decisions. But, let me end with an apology and some heartfelt thanks. Even though it was outside of our hands, I would like to personally apologize to the many employees who felt a sense of vulnerability during the budget impasse. And, I would like to personally thank all those who came to our aid. The agricultural community was particularly impressive in its outreach. Our students independently lent their voices to the call for passing the budget, and our many friends across the state stepped up to the challenge. Thank you.

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