{"id":6517,"date":"2023-10-19T05:03:03","date_gmt":"2023-10-19T05:03:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=6517"},"modified":"2023-10-19T14:29:21","modified_gmt":"2023-10-19T14:29:21","slug":"lawmakers-call-university-of-wisconsin-regional-campus-decisions-unfortunate-unsurprising","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=6517","title":{"rendered":"Lawmakers Call University of Wisconsin Regional Campus Decisions Unfortunate, Unsurprising"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/wisconsindailystar.com\/news\/lawmakers-call-university-of-wisconsin-regional-campus-decisions-unfortunate-unsurprising\/tcsquare\/2023\/10\/19\/<\/a><\/p>\n

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by Benjamin Yount<\/h5>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Few at the Wisconsin capital is happy about the University of Wisconsin\u2019s decision to end in-person classes at two regional campuses, though they are not shocked.<\/p>\n

University president Jay Rothman announced the university will end face-to-face classes at UW-Milwaukee Washington County and UW Oshkosh Fond du Lac.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s time for us to realign our branch campuses to current market realities and prepare for the future. The status quo is not sustainable,\u201d Rothman said in a statement. \u201cThis decision is a response to an evolving student marketplace. Offering students an educational experience they deserve while working with local leaders to ensure it meets their expectations is key to our long-term success.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rothman (pictured above) also announced the UW Platteville Richland campus will close permanently. He announced the end of in-person classes there last spring.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis reassessment is designed to ensure facilities are used in ways that meet community needs and provide long-term stability,\u201d Rothman said.<\/p>\n

Sen. Rob Hutton, R-Brookfield, said the decision to end in-person classes at the Washington County campus is unfortunate, but unsurprising.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe realities of a declining population, remote learning, alternative career paths and severe workforce shortages require rethinking how we deliver higher education and career readiness on a statewide basis,\u201d Hutton said. \u201cI commend UW leadership for taking these difficult, but necessary, first steps in reducing our physical footprint for those two-year campuses facing significant enrollment declines.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are less than 300 students at the Washington County and Fond du Lac campuses and enrollment has been falling for years.<\/p>\n

Sen. Duey Stroebel, R-Cedarburg, said the University of Wisconsin is going to have to figure out how to reverse its falling enrollment numbers to stay competitive.<\/p>\n

\u201cLow and declining enrollment isn\u2019t a new phenomenon. It\u2019s not surprising several two-year UW campuses will be closing their doors this year,\u201d Stroebel said. \u201cDemographic trends and lower student enrollment over the past decade have raised significant doubts about the long-term sustainability of two-year college campuses. Some two-year campuses have seen enrollment fall by nearly 70%.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are currently 13 UW Regional campuses, along with 13 4-year campuses. Rothman said the majority of UW schools will be running a deficit by the end of this school year. He has not yet said just how the university system will deal with those deficits.<\/p>\n

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Benjamin Yount is a contributor to The Center Square.\u00a0<\/a>
\nPhoto \u201cJay Rothman\u201d by Universiy of Wisconsin System<\/a>.Background Photo \u201cUW Oshkosh, Fond du Lac Campus\u201d by UW Oshkosh, Fond du Lac Campus.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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The post Lawmakers Call University of Wisconsin Regional Campus Decisions Unfortunate, Unsurprising<\/a> appeared first on The Wisconsin Daily Star<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/wisconsindailystar.com\/news\/lawmakers-call-university-of-wisconsin-regional-campus-decisions-unfortunate-unsurprising\/tcsquare\/2023\/10\/19\/ by Benjamin Yount \u00a0 Few at the Wisconsin capital…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":3495,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wi-daily-star"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6517"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6517\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6518,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6517\/revisions\/6518"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}