Susan Snyder

The halted payments follow comments from a Trump administration official last week that $175 million in federal funding would be paused because Penn allowed a transgender athlete to compete.

The union said its members will strike Wednesday if an agreement isn't reached. The two sides are in the fact-finding process and have been negotiating for more than 14 months.

The deficit is the result of the school’s acquisition and integration of two other colleges over the last three years: “Those were two financially struggling institutions," the president said.

Penn is one of many area colleges, both private and public, looking at how to protect itself against attacks and funding cuts as the president goes after higher education on multiple fronts.

The college said it is awaiting a response from the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board on its request for fact-finding under which a neutral party would review the offers and recommend a solution.

No strike date has been set and negotiations are continuing. The union is bargaining three separate contracts for faculty, staff, and adjuncts.

The gift from Robert L. Siegfried, Jr. and Kathleen Marie (Horgan) Siegfried will help fund a new building for the College of Business and Economics, a leadership institute and an endowment.

Faculty members have set up a website and are gathering signatures of support to hold a vote for forming a union. Penn State is the only state-related university without a faculty union.

Rowan said in an email to campus it had “reorganized and realigned the departments within the former Division of Inclusive Excellence, Community & Belonging,” which will no longer exist as a division.

Some say they are gratified that the administration communicated swiftly and thoroughly about security and crime incidents, which wasn’t always the case in the past.