Stephanie Logue 

Staff Writer            

Penn State President-elect Neeli Bendapudi will visit campuses across Pennsylvania this spring to meet with students and learn more about the university’s reach. Bendapudi, who will take over as Penn State’s 19th president in May, will visit with students, workers and community members at all of the university’s campuses. As well as outreach initiatives with Penn State Health. Her visit to the university’s Mont Alto and York campuses kicked off her tour on Friday, March 18. 

“I’ve been welcomed so warmly into this community and am excited to begin to visit and learn from the special Penn State community that extends throughout the state,” Bendapudi said in a release. She continued, “This will be a valuable opportunity to engage in conversations about all we hope to accomplish together to continue to advance excellence across the University.”  

Meetings with campus administrators and opportunities to connect with students will be a part of Bendapudi’s listening tour. Her efforts are part of her onboarding process, which will go for several months. “I look forward to working with Dr. Bendapudi and appreciate her enthusiasm and initiative to meet our community as she prepares to transition into this leadership role,” Barron said in a statement. “I was able to follow a similar process at the start of my tenure, and it was very helpful to me. I’m pleased to similarly support Dr. Bendapudi’s smooth and successful transition as the next president of Penn State.” 

Bendapudi’s transition will be led by Senior Vice President and Chief of Staff Michael Wade Smith. He previously served as her Chief of Staff and Vice President for external relations at the University of Louisville. On December 9, the Penn State Board of Trustees overwhelmingly authorized Bendapudi’s employment. She will be the university’s first female president and the first person of color to assume the position.

Bendapudi’s initial contract is set to expire on June 30, 2027. She’ll earn a $950,000 annual salary, $350,000 in annual supplemental compensation contributions, and a $1.25 million bonus if she stays in office until the conclusion of her current term. Bendapudi will also be eligible for tenure at Penn State’s Smeal College of Business and will earn two $100,000 transition payments. Bendapudi was named president of Louisville in 2018 after serving as Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor at the University of Kansas, where she got her Ph.D. in marketing. She returned to Lawrence in 2011 to serve as the Dean of the university’s School of Business, and she has also taught at Texas A&M and Ohio State. Bendapudi was born in India and studied abroad before enrolling in graduate school at the University of Kansas. 

Eric Barron, the current PSU President, announced his retirement in February. Barron will continue to lead Penn State through the spring commencement ceremonies for the Class of 2022, as well as the accompanying trustees meetings that weekend, under the new transition timetable. Barron, who appeared to be looking forward to retirement, cracked a joke about the upcoming changeover before delivering his penultimate President’s report to the Board of Directors on Friday. “So two presentations left in my career to the Board of Trustees. And I thought, or at least I am entertaining the proposal, that at the May meeting I just pop champagne bottles instead of speaking and we listen to the bubbles on the microphone,” Barron said, as the board broke out in laughter.