Foundations

We will place pursuing and completing a Penn State education within reasonable reach for all potential students and their families. Many factors contribute to the ability to earn a Penn State degree and we must address them all if we are to increase access, especially for populations with historical barriers to entry. The importance of a college degree continues to grow, with numerous financial benefits and non-monetary advantages realized over one’s lifetime.

Student debt and the cost of attendance have increased at troubling rates for a variety of reasons, including the substantial decline of funding for public universities in nearly every U.S. state. While gains have been realized in the number of individuals afforded the opportunity to pursue a higher education, gaps among individuals from varying socioeconomic, ethnic, and other demographic factors persist. Generating philanthropic support for scholarships remains a core institutional priority. Understanding and addressing trends in the costs of higher education and effecting sustainable budget management processes will be critical, as will be developing responsive and adaptive programs to ease students’ transition to Penn State.

We must continue striving for efficiencies in our operations in ways that support the quality of a Penn State education. Given the large number of students who need financial aid and the socioeconomic challenges in communities throughout the Commonwealth, Penn State’s ability to educate students for productive careers is crucial. Penn State’s unique structure—one University, with campuses geographically distributed and a best-in-class World Campus—must be configured optimally to help enable access for potential students, both flexibly and at reasonable cost.

As part of the University-wide strategic plan’s commitment to transformative education, Penn State establishes four planning goals related to inclusion, equity, and diversity:

1. Foster a culture of respect and inclusion that values the experiences and perspectives of faculty, staff, and students;
2. Develop and implement curricula and scholarship that interrogate social issues and inspire social responsibility;
3. Evaluate and rectify organizational structures, policies, and practices that cause differential impact and limit access and opportunities for faculty, staff, and students at Penn State; and,
4. Recruit, support, and advance a diverse student body, faculty, and staff.

Inclusion, equity, and diversity are central to Penn State’s obligation and commitment as a public institution of higher education to provide effective teaching for all people in our communities—from our Commonwealth, from across the United States, and increasingly from around the world. Students, faculty, and staff rightfully demand that Penn State demonstrate its commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion across all of its campuses and in all aspects of the University including, and not limited to, research, student learning, co-curricular engagement, workplace environment, and community outreach.

Inclusion refers to the respectful treatment of all people with recognition for the multiplicity of identities and perspectives present in a diverse community. Equity requires attention to disparate impact, differential access and opportunities afforded to various communities, as well as structural and systemic barriers that limit potential and possibilities. Diversity refers to the numerical representation of faculty, staff, and students who hold different social identities, backgrounds, and experiences.

We will incorporate inclusion, equity, and diversity assertively into our research, teaching, learning, outreach, assessment, operations, and decision making at all levels of the University. We will foster and sustain an environment of respect and inclusion for faculty, staff, students, and members of the communities we serve; creatively provide programs and environments that embrace diversity that promote the acceptance and valuing of differences; be steadfast in our efforts to ensure equitable access to our facilities, programs, resources, and services; and advance our workforce by attracting and developing talented faculty, staff, and students from diverse backgrounds.

Penn State’s educational programs, research, and outreach will make measurable and meaningful differences in economic development for our communities, from local to global. By leveraging our size, broad research strengths, research parks, LaunchBox innovation hubs, and economic development assets, Penn State will drive job creation, economic development, and student career success. We will accelerate the transfer of new ideas into useful products and processes in areas such as energy, food and nutrition, environmental protection, health care, manufacturing, educational technologies, medical devices, and pharmaceuticals.

Penn State is a substantial contributor to the Commonwealth’s economy. Its annual $6.8 billion operating budget (as of 2019-2020) is leveraged into statewide economic activity that considerably exceeds this amount, and Penn State has now surpassed $950 million in annual research-related expenditures (2017-2018). The University is positioned to have an even larger, more positive economic impact in the coming years. True to our mission of research for the public good, we will embrace innovation and develop strategies to promote economic development and a culture that encourages and rewards entrepreneurship—not only in fields such as science, technology, engineering, and math, but also in the arts, health and human development, education, and emerging disciplines. Working with legislators, business leaders, communities, and other partners, we are prepared to make short- and long-term investments that will benefit generations of Pennsylvanians.