UWO Fond du Lac students making most of campus before closure: ‘We’re not just a number, we actually do stuff here.’
FOND DU LAC — Another semester nears its close for college students, and for the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh-Fond du Lac campus, it's almost the last.
As a result of declining enrollment and other factors, the Fond du Lac campus will close for in-person instruction in June 2024, which was first announced in October.
Now approaching the final semester of instruction, here's what we know so far.
Campus closure is announced five years after merging with Oshkosh
The Fond du Lac campus, alongside the Fox Cities campus, merged with UW Oshkosh in 2018 in a move across the UW System that assigned the 13 two-year colleges into access campuses for the nearest other 13 four-year colleges.
According to the UW System at the time, the goal of the restructuring was to expand access for students while addressing declining enrollment at the same time.
Five years after the restructure was announced, UW Oshkosh Chancellor Andrew Leavitt reported on Oct. 17 direction from UW System President Jay Rothman to close the Fond du Lac campus for in-person instruction after the spring 2024 semester.
He cited challenges in demographic trends, declining enrollment and the cost of education. The campus reported an enrollment of 243 students for the 2023-24 school year
UW-Milwaukee at Washington County is also directed to close in-person instruction for the same reasons.
"We all were very deliberate in our efforts to join three campuses into one university five years ago," Leavitt said in the statement. "We were not perfect, but there was an unmistakable oneness in our work. I ask us to remember that spirit and resolve as we support learners and colleagues through this next transition at UWO."
Students, staff don't plan to go quietly
When news of the closure first dropped, the Fond du Lac campus community was left in shock and scrambling to plan for what comes next.
Two UW campuses to close: Students and staff are stunned and scrambling
After several weeks of digesting the news, however, some students, staff, faculty and alumni decided to voice their opposition to the decision, and also take advantage of campus offerings while they still could.
Student Matthew Caine sent a letter to Rothman with peer testimonials on the value of the Fond du Lac campus, and created a change.org petition against the closure, which, as of Dec. 7, has 168 signatures.
"The closure is taking away access to a UW education which people deserve access to," he said.
He chose Fond du Lac after watching the success of several family members at the school, including both his parents, who'd even met on campus.
After starting this semester, he became fond of the school, from the attentive teaching to the beauty of the campus and the vibrancy of the city around it. He joined organizations like student government and helped revive music on campus, including the new jazz band club, for which he is president.
Caine said the news affected morale on campus, but students are still involved in events, with some getting even more involved than usual.
"We're not just a number, we actually do stuff here," he said.
Next semester, he and other students are planning more events to keep the campus alive in its final weeks.
Options include transferring, but transportation could be tricky
Caine said he will likely transfer to UW Oshkosh or another UW school, but it won't quite be the same.
For Fond du Lac students, UW Oshkosh would uphold the Fond du Lac tuition price for the first 60 credits if they decide to transfer, which is the same amount of credits they would have earned in Fond du Lac.
The extra 30-minute commute to Oshkosh is viable for Caine, but he said it may not be for some of the several non-traditional students who use the campus, whether they have children, full-time jobs or other situations.
Closer to home, Moraine Park Technical College has partnerships with the local universities, offering seamless transfer opportunities and guaranteed junior status upon graduation, according to the school's communications manager, Kristina Haensgen. The school was also approved last year to start offering Associate of Arts and Associate of Sciences degrees for students interested in pursuing a liberal arts two-year degree.
The school has been a 'great start' for many students
The school opened in 1968 as a two-year campus that aimed to bring affordable, accessible and quality higher education to area students, according to the UW Oshkosh website.
It became known for that in the years since, and was a popular school option for students of many different demographics, especially those who wanted to start their education in Fond du Lac and transfer later for a four-year degree.
"I saw many students succeed outside of my classroom," English professor Alayne Peterson said. "UW Fond du Lac was a great start for many, and that was the slogan for a long time: 'The Best Start for the Life You Want.'"
She added that she saw families come and go in her classrooms, including parents of former students who had been inspired by their children to pursue higher education.
Budget cuts have been rocking campus operations for years
Several years before this closure, and even long before the campus merged with UW Oshkosh, budget cuts started to affect the school.
According to a Fond du Lac Reporter analysis in 2013, the Fond du Lac campus was the second-lowest among the two-year UW schools in terms of professor salary.
In 2015, the UW System had its biggest cut yet, and Fond du Lac then regionalized with the Fox Valley campus and Manitowoc into the UW Colleges Northeast region, according to archives.
For the last decade or more, the cuts, reorganizations and now the closure has left professors and other staff struggling to keep up, Peterson said.
"We didn't get a chance to get our feet under us," she said.
What will happen with the campus? County executive explains opportunities
With Fond du Lac County in ownership of the campus land, the future of the lot is up to county officials.
The same day Rothman and Leavitt issued statements on the closure, Fond du Lac County Executive Sam Kaufman also shared his thoughts.
He said that while many community members were upset by the news and saw the closure as "abandonment or betrayal" of the agreement with the UW System, he instead saw opportunity. He felt the closing was inevitable and there may have been opportunity long ago to address declining enrollment and develop new programs.
"The county and UWO needed to be proactive in assessing the floor space necessary for the operation of the branch campus and working to create new specialized programs that better serve the needs of our communities," he said in the statement.
During his time as county executive, Kaufman worked with Leavitt and Assistant Chancellor for Access Campuses Martin Rudd in possible repurposing underutilized portions of the campus to serve the community as a whole.
Discussions included a community daycare provider, an entrepreneurship center under Envision Greater Fond du Lac for small businesses and community uses for the gymnasium.
"At this time, I do not see the partnership with UWO ending," Kaufman said in the statement. "Rather, an ongoing discussion of specialized programs at the campus, which includes a possible new beginning that will serve as a model for the remaining branch campuses and within the goals set by President Rothman."
What is the future of UW Oshkosh Fox Cities?
According to Leavitt's statement, the UW Oshkosh Fox Cities campus in Menasha will continue in-person, as directed by Rothman.
Leavitt said, "We will work with Outagamie and Winnebago County leaders to renegotiate our memorandum of understanding and engage in renewed discussion about that campus’s regional educational needs and use."
Daphne Lemke is the Streetwise reporter for the Fond du Lac Reporter. Contact her at [email protected].
This article originally appeared on Fond du Lac Reporter: UW Oshkosh Fond du Lac closes next year. Here's what comes next.
