Penn State University’s new president, Neeli Bendapudi, is a big fan of her university’s branch campuses like Penn State Brandywine in Media and Great Valley in Malven, writes Bill Schackner for Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

“I am very, very committed to the commonwealth campuses, for several reasons,” Bendapudi said Thursday.

The 58-year-old said places like Penn State Brandywine and Penn State Great Valley are places where “every day you see the land grant mission come to life.”

The branch campuses offer full four-year degrees but serve more than just traditional 18- to 22-year-olds in their home communities.

They also help older adults “already in the workforce right there who need to upskill.”

The campuses also have an economic and cultural importance to their host communities.

Penn State’s challenge is to communicate those benefits to state leaders and the general public, she said.

“How do we just let people know the impact that we have day in and day out? The fact that 96% of the citizens of the commonwealth live within 30 miles of (at least) one location of ours,” she said. “How do we get everybody in Pennsylvania to see the necessary investment in higher education that is at stake? Those are the big things I’m thinking about.”

Read more at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about Penn State’s first woman president.