A Basic Political Economy of Penn State
This article is written by a recent Penn State graduate who still lives in State College and now works a low-paying job. Read the full Fall 2024 SCDS Penn State Dis-Orientation Guide here.
When coming to Penn State for the first time, incoming students are just supposed to go to class, make new friends, and chart out a career. Penn State’s Administrators like to present this university as an idyllic getaway removed from the “real world.” My first semester here, I remember feeling like I went through a wormhole each time I went back home. For working-class students, however, this mirage could not be further from reality. An analysis of Penn State’s political economy — that is, the interrelation between power and money on campus — highlights the difficulties of being a working student at this school.
Trustees vs. Students and Faculty
We should begin with the people who run our school and stand even above the Administration: the Board of Trustees. Included in the Board are politicians like the Governor, as well as a motley crew of landlords, business executives, and even the billionaire owner of the Buffalo Bills (what does he know about education?). (1) Some of the Trustees are elected, whereas others are appointed by the Governor. Together, they direct the functions of the university without any oversight by students, faculty, staff, or workers. The Board works hand-in-glove with local government, the State College Borough Council, in order to turn State College into a tourist destination that prioritizes rich visitors over the workers who live here. (2) To this end, the Board recently approved over $700 million in renovations for Beaver Stadium. (3) One Trustee had his plan for a new $120 million casino approved by his Board buddies. (4) Some beloved small businesses were slated to be razed in place for yet another parking garage, until the people of State College expressed their righteous outrage and pressured the Council to overturn this plan. (5)
The result of this “development plan” is an ever-increasing cost of living in State College. The Board has fueled local inflation as tuition, rent, groceries, and other expenses continue to rise as wages stagnate. This has, of course, placed an outsized burden on students from working-class backgrounds who have to work while they attend Penn State. Working students sometimes make as little as $10 per hour working understaffed positions, barely making enough to afford an education, all as President Bendapudi recently received a $300,000 per year retirement benefit increase. (6) Her austerity regime of unprecedented budget cuts prioritizes the Trustees’ finances over the needs of students, faculty, and staff. (7)
Where Do Penn State’s Interests Lie?
While the majority of workplaces in the US exist for capitalists to extract profit from workers’ labor, universities fulfill a different function. One of Penn State’s objectives is to produce people with the professional qualifications to work in corporations and government. This includes not only the very rich who run corporations and become politicians, but also middle class people who do the work to operate those entities. The average graduate makes somewhat more than non-college-educated workers in retail, food service, or production. Even still, the value of a college degree continues to decline as the overall economy struggles, as is inherent to our imperialist system.
If Penn State doesn’t primarily hire workers to produce a profit, how does it make its money? In 2022–23, Penn State received $242.1 million from the state of Pennsylvania. (8) As an R1 research institution, Penn State is also heavily integrated in military research and corporate investment, taking in $258 million from the US Department of Defense in 2019 (this figure is almost certainly higher today in 2024). (9) The so-called “Applied Research Laboratory” on campus is a main recipient of this funding, and it develops weapons used by the US military in its imperialist wars and occupations all over the world. Penn State also has a large investment portfolio, the contents of which remain largely hidden due to its status as a “state-related university.” Finally, another major cash cow is the football program, which brings in tons of money through media rights, merchandise, and tourism, but which fails to even pay its players who are the source of that wealth.
What does it mean if the majority of a “state-related university’s” income does not come from state funding? It means that Penn State has no choice but to open itself up to corporate and military interests in order to court their investments. Having diversified sources of income may sound more fiscally responsible, but it means that education is not Penn State’s sole objective — and considering the magnitude of money coming from Department of Defense contracts flowing through our campus, education may not even be the Trustees’ main concern. Penn State’s relationship to US imperialism is therefore not just a policy choice, but an inevitable consequence of its structure.
What Can Students Do?
This has been a very broad overview of the political economy of Penn State. I have not gone much here into living as a worker in State College. The main sectors of the local economy are healthcare, education (excluding Penn State, which is by far the largest employer), food service, and retail. More analysis remains to be done on the exact conditions of workers in those industries. But the key aspect of being a worker here involves being in many ways at the mercy of Penn State and its development plan that has raised rents and forced workers out of State College and into the surrounding towns. With this said — what can and should students do to improve their economic condition and fight for a more just university?
The first step is an ideological one. We students must break with the idea that we are going to school to get a high-paying job and get rich. The majority of us will never be rich, and playing their game only further consolidates the power of those at the top. Secondly, working students need to get organized. If you work in the dining halls, commons desks, athletic facilities, research labs, or elsewhere on or around campus, talk to your coworkers. How much are you all getting paid? Are there any wage gaps based on race, gender, or age? How do your managers treat you? What are your working conditions like? Beginning these conversations with those working beside you will help you build a more complete picture of your conditions. Based off your findings, what are some ways work can be improved? Higher pay, more consistent hours, fairer treatment? You should keep in mind that the people dictating labor conditions are the ones at the very top, the same Board of Trustees setting development policy from on high. Far from being an amenable, if misguided, friend, their position as millionaires and billionaires determines that their role is to take advantage of us to enrich themselves and the rest of the capitalist class that they represent — and, inversely, that means our job is to fight against them.
Read the full Fall 2024 SCDS Dis-Orientation Guide here.
Sources
- “Current Trustees” (2024):
https://www.trustees.psu.edu/trustees/ - State College Downtown Master Plan (August 19, 2013):
https://content.civicplus.com/api/assets/500fcf55-04da-424b-bf68-fef74c4a08df?cache=30 - “Penn State Board of Trustees approves $700 million Beaver Stadium renovations” (May 21, 2024):
https://www.psucollegian.com/football/penn-state-board-of-trustees-approves-700-million-beaver-stadium-renovations/article_f0209b86-177e-11ef-89a9-9f7c324db914.html - “$120 million casino to be constructed in Centre County in partnership with Penn State alumnus Ira Lubert” (January 4, 2021):
https://www.psucollegian.com/news/borough/120-million-casino-to-be-constructed-in-centre-county-in-partnership-with-penn-state%20alumnus/article_95cc614e-4eda-11eb-be6f-574194e712d4.html - “The Brewery, Canyon Pizza ‘saved’: State College’s council reverses course on eminent domain” (August 22, 2023):
https://www.centredaily.com/news/local/community/state-college/article278332174.html - “Board Approves Compensation Increase, New Contract Structure for Penn State President Neeli Bendapudi” (February 16, 2024):
https://www.statecollege.com/articles/psu-news/penn-state-trustees-approve-compensation-increase-new-contract-structure-for-president-neeli-bendapudi/ - “Penn State implements hiring freeze through at least next summer. Here’s what we know” (August 1, 2022): https://www.centredaily.com/news/local/education/penn-state/article264038706.html
- “Governor proposes 7.1% increase for Penn State’s 2023–24 general support funding” (March 7, 2023):
https://www.psu.edu/news/administration/story/governor-proposes-71-increase-penn-states-2023-24-general-support-funding/ - Penn State and the War Machine (2020):
https://loadedonloaded.github.io/PSUWM.pdf
