University of Wisconsin President Announces Major Restructuring of State's Campuses
Thursday, October 12th, 2017 -- 9:04 AM
(WDLB) -University of Wisconsin President Ray Cross has announced a major restructuring of the state's 26 campuses to cut costs and deal with declines in enrollments.It would not close any campus, but, among other things, the two-year campuses like the one in Marshfield would be clustered with four-year schools in the same region, thus letting them share personnel and make it easier for students at the two-year colleges to move to four-year schools to get degrees. The move is fueled by demographics, as 95-percent of Wisconsin's population growth is expected to be seniors 65 and older by 2040, with a miniscule increase in working-aged adults 18 to 64. One reported goal of the new plan is to stabilize enrollments at the two-year schools, which have had 32-percent fewer students since 2010.
UW’s Marathon and Marshfield-Wood County have seen big drops, according to U-W Colleges and Extension Chancellor Cathy Sandeen. As a result, six faculty members there were transferred to other campuses with higher teaching workloads. In one example, the Marshfield campus lost its full-time theater instructor and director, at an institution with a long and rich theater history and tradition. Damian Ernest is being reassigned to another two-year U-W College campus.
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