April 28, 2015
Gene J. Puskar/AP
The Penn State logo on the side of a Penn State merchandise trailer outside Beaver Stadium on Friday, Sept. 5, 2014, in State College, Pa.
Brandywine and Abington, two of Penn State University’s nearby campuses, are looking to build residence halls to attract more students, Philadelphia Business Journal reports.
Of the university's 20 undergraduate campuses across Pennsylvania, only half offer housing, which can deter some students from attending.
“Currently, if a student wants to complete a degree and have an on-campus experience, they can’t do that," Bill Tyson, spokesman for Penn State-Brandywine in Media, Delaware County, told Philadelphia Business Journal. “There is demand for it. There are students in southeastern Pennsylvania or outside the region who express an interest in housing and we’re a four-year college that doesn’t have on-campus housing.”
Penn State-Brandywine is proposing a more than $40 million project that would involve a four-story dorm that has 248 beds. It is also looking to construct a two-story student affairs center that would have a dining facility, health center, recreational facilities as well as other operations needed to support on-campus living. Penn State has 1,500 students attending the Brandywine campus.
The plan for the Abington, Montgomery County campus is not finalized.
The two campuses, which both offer four-year degrees, hope to have the dorms built over the next couple years.
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