CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – UW-Marathon County used to be a great, low cost option for continuing education. You could live locally, and earn an associates degree in two years. If you wanted to transfer to a four year UW school, all of your credits transferred automatically. Even compared to the inexpensivee in-state tuition, the community colleges offered students a reasonable possibility of graduating with little or no debt.
In 2017 all of Wisconsin’s community colleges became satellite campuses of the nearest four-year state college. Around the state, that plan has been a colossal failure. Enrollment has gone down at most campuses to the point where some, like UW Milwaukee-Washington County and UW Oshkosh at Fond du Lac will stop all in-person classes after this spring semester. All courses will be online one. UW Platteville’s Richland campus is down to just 60 students. It will close altogether at the end of the school year.
I heard years ago that as UW-Marathon County transitioned to UW-Stevens Point Wausau that there were only eight professors on the Wausau campus. The rest of the classes were already piped in from somewhere else.
We are told by University of Wisconsin system leaders that student trends and preferences have changed. Yes – in ways that the UW’s brightest minds failed to anticipate. Students want an actual professor in front of them, and, for those who are willing to pay for it, they want an authentic college experience. These satellite campuses are nothing more than “college lite,” with the real action and the real fun happening on the big campus.
There are about 400 students at the Wausau campus these days. Enrollment is so low that one of the two dormitories is permanently closed.
I think there is great demand for affordable higher education. Even younger people know that investing in yourself is always a good choice. The disconnect is that UW leadership hasn’t figured out how to get students to consume what they’re offering. The old way – community colleges – appeared to be better.
Chris Conley
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