UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — After nearly seven years of stagnant state funding, Penn State students from across the commonwealth brought a poignant message to lawmakers in Harrisburg on Capital Day: It’s time to increase state support for Penn State.
Each year, Capital Day brings students from University Park, Commonwealth Campuses, and Penn State World Campus to Harrisburg to advocate for vital state funding that benefits all Penn State students.
Held this year on April 14, students were paired with legislators from their hometowns or lawmakers who represent their respective campuses. In total, students held more than 100 meetings with members of the Pennsylvania General Assembly.
Organized by Penn State’s Office of Government and Community Relations, Advocate Penn State Capital Day and its surrounding digital advocacy campaign aim to show lawmakers in Harrisburg and Gov. Josh Shapiro the impact of Penn State’s appropriation in communities across Pennsylvania.
In addition to student voices in the state Capitol, more than 1,400 Penn Staters acted through Advocate Penn State’s digital advocacy campaign to let state leaders know they support funding for Penn State and its students.
Anyone who has not yet participated can still support the campaign by going to advocate.psu.edu to speak up for Penn State’s funding.
During their meetings, students relayed their Penn State stories to lawmakers to demonstrate the impact of state support and why it is crucial to increase funding to keep tuition lower for all Pennsylvania resident students, while also supporting the University’s mission of accessible, world-class education.
Capital Day concluded with a press conference featuring several student impact stories that demonstrate how crucial state funding is for all Penn State students.
“Despite its impact, Penn State receives the lowest per-student state funding among Pennsylvania’s public universities, forcing a greater share of costs on to students and families,” said Jude York, Lion Caucus acting president. “This underinvestment in our university is especially concerning when we consider the fact that Penn State’s impact extends far beyond the individual students, as it actively affects communities, the workforce and the commonwealth.”
This year, the students focused their advocacy efforts on urging lawmakers to support Shapiro’s proposed $30 million in funding for the commonwealth’s new performance-based funding model, which would link student outcomes with stable, long-term state investment.
State support allows Penn State to offer a significant tuition discount that saves the University’s more than 41,000 Pennsylvania resident students an average of $16,000 annually on tuition compared to their nonresident peers. Currently, Penn State ranks last in state funding, on a per-in-state-student basis, among Pennsylvania’s public universities. Penn State receives $5,796 in general support for each in-state undergraduate, while fellow state-related institutions like the University of Pittsburgh and Temple University receive approximately $3,500 and $5,000 more per in-state student, respectively, than Penn State.
Unadjusted for inflation, Penn State receives less in general support funding today ($242.1 million) than it did in 2000, when the University was appropriated $242.9 million — the result of years of state budget reductions and flat funding. If the University’s general support funding had simply kept pace with inflation over the last 25 years, Penn State’s current appropriation would exceed $450 million.
“Penn State is a land-grant institution, built on the mission of accessibility and opportunity for all. But that mission cannot be fulfilled without meaningful state support,” said Rasha Elwakil, University Park Undergraduate Association president. “Increased state funding helps keep tuition more affordable, reduces financial strain, and allows students to focus on their education, their growth, and their future contributions to this commonwealth.”
Dylan Sarkozy, president of the Council of Commonwealth Student Governments, spoke as a representative of Penn State’s more than 20,000 Commonwealth Campus students, and touched on the impact of state funding on the future of the Commonwealth Campus ecosystem.
“It is of the utmost importance that we continue to push for fair funding for Penn State,” Sarkozy said. “The Commonwealth Campuses have in the past, now, and will continue to provide great value back to the state of Pennsylvania, and an increase in funding will only aid that mission further.”
Lion Caucus students play a leading role in all Capital Day activities, and Wyatt Corbin, a member of the student advocacy organization, took time during the press conference to focus on students’ influence and the importance of advocacy.
“When we walk into a legislator’s office today, we carry more than statistics. We carry our Penn State stories,” said Corbin. “Maybe you are the first in your family to attend college. Maybe you work 20 or 30 hours a week to pay tuition. Maybe you conduct research that improves agriculture, medicine or national security. Your story connects policy to people.”
On April 14, the same day the students were in the Capitol, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives passed Shapiro’s 2026-27 proposed budget, which included funding for the new performance-based funding model. The budget bill now heads to the state Senate for consideration and needs to be passed by the constitutionally mandated June 30 deadline.