(The Center Square) – The Universities of Wisconsin are getting smaller, again.
UW-Oshkosh on Thursday became the latest school to announce it is closing its branch campus. The UW-O campus in the Fox Cities will close at the end of next year’s school year.
“We reach this decision after spending a year analyzing UWO Fox Cities enrollment, the region’s and state’s changing demographics, student participation rates, the regional higher-education landscape, potential for new and unique academic offerings, and economic trends in the competitive Fox Valley marketplace,” Oshkosh Chancellor Andrew Leavitt said in a statement. “In the end, we made a difficult but responsible decision.”
Oshkosh’s Fox Cities campus is the sixth branch campus to be closed over the past two years. And, like the others, it comes after a massive drop in enrollment.
UW numbers show the Oshkosh Fox Cities campus had 1,629 students in 2018, but just 555 last fall.
UW-Oshkosh leaders told university regents recently that enrollment was projected to be under 100 students by 2032.
The closing also comes after the university said last week that Oshkosh had spent all of its cash reserves and is still looking at an $8.6 million deficit for the 2024-2025 school year. That is the largest deficit of any UW campus.
"UW Oshkosh is working to ensure it has a bright future, which requires tough decisions now. Unfortunately, the analysis is that the market and enrollment cannot sustain the Fox Cities Campus moving forward," UW President Jay Rothman said in a statement.
Not everyone, however, sees the decision to close the Fox Cities campus as the right one.
Outagamie County Executive Tom Nelson on Thursday blasted Oshkosh Chancellor Leavitt and UW President Rothman.
“Had Leavitt and Rothman read All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, they would have understood the importance of playing fair, taking responsibility, saying sorry when mistakes were made and putting things back as they were found,” Nelson said. “Instead, Leavitt and Rothman let down the students and families of UW Fox and betrayed their trust – and now it will be up to the rest of us to clean up their mess. Shame on you.”
The Oshkosh Fox Cities campus joins UW-Platteville Richland, UW-Milwaukee at Washington County, UW-Oshkosh Fond du Lac and UW-Green Bay Marinette which all closed this year. UW-Milwaukee’s campus in Waukesha is set to close at the end of the next school year.
The UW will continue to have 13 four-year campuses, and after Oshkosh’s branch campus closes, the university will continue to have seven branch campuses.
