On Oct. 17, UW-Platteville Chancellor Tammy Evetovich made an announcement that the UW-Platteville Baraboo Sauk County campus would be shut down on May 22. 2026. This follows the closure of the Richland Center campus in July 2023.
This decision was based on financial concerns, primarily connected to low enrollment. The campus was designed to accommodate 350 students, but only 126 were enrolled this fall. This follows a common trend for the campus; in a Fall 2023 review of the UW-Platteville campus by the Universities of Wisconsin, it was reported that the Baraboo Sauk campus had one third the number of students typically reported in the early 2010s. This review also reported that Baraboo Sauk students made up 3% of full-time students at UW-Platteville. In 2023, there was already discussion amongst the Universities of Wisconsin’s financial assessments about “re-imagining facility use” regarding the campus, so the closure announcement is not much of a surprise.
This end to in-person classes on a Wisconsin campus is the seventh since 2022. The UW-Platteville Richland campus fully closed on July 1, 2023, citing declining enrollment. These students were initially going to learn online but ultimately had to transfer to Baraboo or the main campus if they wanted to continue their education through UW-Platteville. Next was UW-Oshkosh’s Fon du Lac campus in June 2024, then its Fox Cities campus scheduled to close at the end of Spring 2025, again with declining enrollment being the reasoning behind the closures. UW-Milwaukee also lost two branch campuses: Washington county in June 2024 and Waukesha in Spring 2025, citing a lack of sustainability and cost effectiveness, respectively. UW-Green Bay’s Marinette campus switched to online-only classes in June 2024, with talk of the building being used for city services. The UW-Platteville Baraboo campus will be used similarly, with the county agreeing to cover maintenance costs.
On the matter, Evetovich stated, “We remain dedicated to supporting our students, faculty and staff through this transition. Student success is at the heart of our mission, and we are providing additional support and resources to ensure students can transition smoothly to our main campus to complete their programs or find the path forward that best meets their needs.”
Graphs of total population of full- time student enrollment between 2000-2024 at the UW-Platteville main, Baraboo Sauk, and Richland campuses. Images courtesy of wisconsin.edu