Penn State President Rodney Erickson says no state support would lead to a drastically different Penn State - Jan Murphy, Patriot-News

Penn State President Rodney Erickson laid his cards on the table for the Senate Appropriations Committee about what the future may hold for the university if the state support goes away. "Simply put, Penn State cannot maintain its two tools to keep Penn State as affordable as it is: the in-state tuition discount and the 19 undergraduate commonwealth campuses [that charge a lower tuition than the University Park campus] without a state appropriation," Erickson told the panel at Wednesdays budget hearing. He said the trustees need to know whether the 30 percent, or $64.2 million, cut that Gov. Tom Corbett proposes for Penn State for next year — on the heels of this years 20 percent cut — is the second installment of planned elimination of its appropriation or the last cut in state support it will see.