MONT ALTO – A petition drive challenging the Penn State University Board of Trustees’ decision to shutter the Mont Alto campus has now grown to 3,884 signatures.
In a 25-8 ruling, the board voted to close seven different Commonwealth Campuses that served to broaden the outreach of the University into communities that were farther away from the main Penn State campus.
Started by the Penn State Mont Alto Alumni Society Board of Directors, the petition addresses Penn State President Neeli Benapudi and the Board of Trustees with a list of appeals oabout why Mont Alto should remain in the University’s campus system.
Chief among them were the campus’s access and affordability for those in the local community, a sentiment echoed in many of the comments left by signees. Students and alumni from virtually every walk of life offered their perspectives after leaving their signatures.
An additional point mentioned how the campus helps tie in with Penn State’s land-grant commitment as one of the first land-grant colleges ever established. Mont Alto, initially founded as the Pennsylvania State Forest Academy, fulfills the requirements established in the initial Morrill Land-Grant Act of 1862 through the variety of vocational programs it offers today. To learn more about this petition, readers may visit https://www.change.org/p/support-penn-state-mont-alto.
