UW-Platteville has projected a $390,000 deficit for the Baraboo campus for the 2024-2025 school year. To remedy this, the Sauk County Board approved a funding boost of $390,000 each year in the next two academic years.
All of this is being done to keep the branch campus open amid the closure of UW-Milwaukee in Washington County, UW-Oshkosh at Fond du Lac, UW-Green Bay in Marinette County, UW-Milwaukee at Waukesha and UW-Platteville at Richland.
The funding for Baraboo County comes a year after Universities of Wisconsin System President Jay Rothman told university chancellors to devise a plan for keeping two-year universities open amid declining campus enrollments.
“This gives us a year, year and a half, to work out a plan (for the campus),” County Board Chair Tim McCumber said.
McCumber said the funding will largely be for maintenance expenses at the campus, adding that maintenance at the facilities has “not been very good.” The county is looking to take over basic maintenance at the campus with the extra funding, including cleaning, landscaping and minor repairs from the UW System.
The City of Baraboo has equally shared ownership of the Baraboo-Sauk County campus facilities with the county since the campus opened in 1968. Maintenance costs may not reach $390,000 during the 2025 and 2026 academic year, but McCumber said the leftover funding would be used to help the campus become “budget neutral.”
Baraboo-Sauk County is now trying to improve their enrollment by incentivizing new students with scholarships. The Friends of the Campus Foundation is offering the “BaraBOOST” scholarship, which would make first year Baraboo-Sauk County students eligible for up to $2,000 in the 2024-2025 school year.
The first $1,000 will be automatically applied to the first semester’s tuition. An additional $1,000 will be available to students depending on their academic performance.
