The University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh announced the closing of its Fox Cities campus Thursday citing declining enrollment rates.
The decision, which takes effect in June 2025, makes Fox Cities the sixth two-year UW System campus to announce its closure, including UW-Oshkosh at Fond du Lac.
The Fox Cities campus currently serves 473 students, but enrollment is projected to decline to fewer than 100 students by 2032, according to a recent report by UW-Oshkosh.
"UW-Oshkosh is working to ensure it has a bright future, which requires tough decisions now,” UW System President Jay Rothman said in a statement. “Unfortunately, the analysis is that the market and enrollment cannot sustain the Fox Cities Campus moving forward."
In an October 2023 Board of Regents meeting, Rothman suggested downsizing remaining branch campuses due to decreased enrollment in addition to shifting UW System focus away from two-year degree programs.
UW-Oshkosh faced a nearly $18 million deficit during the 2023-24 school year. Even after layoffs and restructuring, UW-Oshkosh remains in a budget deficit of over $8 million.
UW-Oshkosh Chancellor Andrew Leavitt said the closure of UW-Oshkosh Fox Cities is “driven completely” by the enrollment decline, not the Oshkosh campus’ financial issues.
Despite its small size, the college maintained a close connection with the main UW-Oshkosh campus, with UW-Oshkosh students occasionally taking classes through the Fox Cities campus.
“I know lots of people from my classes that took introductory chemistry and biology courses at the Fox Cities campus,” recent UW-Oshkosh graduate Kailey Freund told The Daily Cardinal. “They enjoyed having smaller class sizes rather than large pit lectures.”
Outagamie County Executive Tom Nelson, serving the county of the Fox Cities campus, criticized the closing of the school in a statement Thursday.
“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,” Nelson said.
The shutdown follows various administrative concerns at UW-Oshkosh. In April, 72% of university faculty voted no confidence in Leavitt’s leadership, citing a failure to increase enrollment.
Nelson also criticized Leavitt’s absence from key meetings and filed an open records request to learn university administrators’ plans for the Fox Cities campus, which he alleges they haven’t provided.
The Fox Cities campus houses a planetarium, Earth Science Museum and performing arts center. It is unclear what will happen to these buildings.
The school is offering resources to students in transferring to the main UW-Oshkosh campus on their website. UW-Oshkosh plans to transition Fox Cities faculty to the Oshkosh campus.
Bryna Goeking is an arts editor for The Daily Cardinal. She also reports on campus news. Follow her on Twitter @BrynaGoeking.
