UW-Platteville (UW Platteville)

The Universities of Wisconsin branch campus in West Baraboo will close at the end of the school year, officials announced Friday. 

The UW-Platteville Baraboo Sauk County is set to close after a steep decline in enrollment. The two-year campus hit an enrollment peak in 2000 with 758 students. Enrollment on the campus hit an all time low this semester with 116 students. 

Baraboo Sauk County is the eighth branch campus to be closed or dramatically downsized since 2023. It is also the second branch campus under the management of UW-Platteville to be shut down after the campus in Richland County was shuttered in July 2023. 

“This decision was not made lightly,” UW-Platteville Chancellor Tammy Evetovich said in the announcement Friday. “Enrollment continues to decline on that campus, and we are committed to being good partners with the city and county by ensuring the campus can be used in ways that best serve the region.”

Enrollment on UW’s branch campuses has steadily declined in recent years, however campus faculty and staff, as well as residents of affected communities, have blamed UW administration officials for decades of decision making that deprioritized maintaining the two-year campuses. 

State Sen. Kelda Roys (D-Madison) blamed the closures on Republican budget decisions.

“Campus closures and the march towards consolidation is a result of Republican politicians viewing higher education as a luxury good that only those who can afford it deserve,” she said in a statement. “In their view, UW is just another cost preventing them from giving more public money to their billionaire campaign backers. The ‘budget shortfalls’ that led to this closure were manufactured over the last 15 years by right-wing politicians who systematically divested from public higher education while strangling UW’s ability to manage its own financial affairs.”