UNIVERSITY PARK – To cover state revenue shortfalls approaching $500 million, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett (Jan. 4) announced a statewide budget freeze, including a five percent holdback in Penn State’s academic funding.
As part of the announced statewide budget freeze, Penn State will receive $11.4 million less than its initial appropriation for this academic year.
Agricultural Research and Cooperative Extension funding, which this year were removed from Penn State’s direct appropriation bill, are not affected by the cut. Those funds now are appropriated through the Agricultural College Land Scrip Fund.
The holdback includes a freeze of $679,000 for Penn College.
“The economy continues to struggle and we understand the magnitude of the financial challenge the state is facing,” said Penn State President Rodney Erickson. “We already are operating with a lean budget, and had to make some difficult cuts going into this fiscal year. While we anticipated the potential for this and have conserved spending to help prepare for its likelihood, this loss of funding presents us with additional challenges. Still, we are committed to absorbing this loss without negatively affecting our students. We do not plan to increase tuition this semester to cover the loss in funding. We are grateful that our Agricultural Research and Cooperative Extension lines, which already were seriously impacted, were spared additional cuts.”
For more information about Penn State’s cost-cutting initiatives, visit http://strategicplan.psu.edu/index and http://www.psu.edu/president/pia/strategic_planning/corecouncil/ online. For information about Penn State’s budget, visit http://budget.psu.edu/ online.
Annemarie Mountz, Penn State University