Despite a call for increased funding, Penn State’s state appropriation for the next fiscal year will largely remain flat, the university said on July 8.

On July 7, Pennsylvania’s General Assembly approved Penn State’s nonpreferred appropriations bill as part of the commonwealth’s 2022-23 budget. The funding will provide more aid for some of the university’s research and innovation initiatives while keeping Penn State’s general support appropriation level for the third straight year.

In a statement, Penn State President Neeli Bendapudi thanked lawmakers for supporting the university but said level funding will pose challenges for her administration moving forward.

“Inflationary pressures, revenue losses from the pandemic, demographic shifts and other factors driving cost, coupled with successive years of flat funding, pose significant challenges for the university and will require us to look deeply at our budget and spending in the coming year,” Bendapudi said in a statement.

For the third straight year, Penn State will receive $242.1 million through its annual general support appropriation. Those funds are entirely applied to the university’s education budget, enabling it to frequently freeze or restrain in-state tuition rates and support academic programs. Despite those efforts, Penn State’s tuition for in-state students remains the highest in the Big Ten among nonprivate institutions.

Penn State requested a $12.1 million increase for its general support funding. That appropriation hasn’t increased since the university received a 2% bump for the 2019-20 fiscal year.

“We are disappointed that the General Assembly chose not to increase Penn State’s general support appropriation, as the university had requested and Gov. Wolf had proposed,” Zack Moore, Penn State’s vice president for government and community relations, said in a statement. “Pennsylvania students and their families are the direct beneficiaries of this funding, saving them thousands of dollars each on the total cost of a degree. After freezes to the university’s funding each of the last two years, and in the midst of nearly unprecedented inflation and state budget surpluses, Penn State and its students - particularly lower- and middle-income students - count on state support to help meet rising costs and to help mitigate impacts on tuition.”

Although lawmakers declined to increase Penn State’s general support appropriation, the school received some funding expansions in other areas. The university received $2.35 million to support its Invent Penn State initiative, which helps people learn to start and grow businesses and manage investments. It’s the first time the program received state funding in its seven-year history.

Additionally, Penn State’s agricultural research and extension programs received a 5% funding increase, rounding out to $2.7 million in funding. The university will use the $57.7 million from the state to support its efforts to grow agricultural education efforts, serve rural communities and “provide research-based solutions to address the challenges facing Pennsylvania’s agriculture industry.”

Pennsylvania College of Technology will receive $26.7 million, while Penn State Health and the College of Medicine will receive level funding, about $15 million, to support the university’s health care system and medical education programs.

With Penn State’s 2022-23 state funding finalized, the university’s board of trustees will meet to determine next year’s operating budget and tuition costs. The board is next slated to convene from July 21 to 22 at Penn State York.

Last summer, trustees elected to raise students’ tuition by at least 2.5% for the 2021-22 academic year.