Notes on higher educational facilities amidst declining enrollment
UW-Stevens Point leadership is warning that its two branch campuses in Marshfield and Wausau can’t survive unless enrollment increases.
The campuses’ enrollment has dropped nearly 70% in the last 13 years. UW-Stevens Point Chancellor Thomas Gibson said in a viability report to Universities of Wisconsin President Jay Rothman this spring that other revenue strategies, such as renting space to community groups and other UW system organizations, won’t stop both of the campuses from collectively hemorrhaging hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.
The Marshfield and Wausau campuses were projected to have $1.59 million in debt at the end of 2024. Marshfield is expected to fall an additional $190,000 short in 2025, and Wausau alone will fall nearly $1 million short.
UW-Stevens Point uses a quarter of the space available at the branch campuses, according to the report, only a handful of classrooms are used more than half of the day and most are empty two-thirds or more of the day.
At a Thursday hearing in the state Capitol, members of a legislative study committeepeppered Rothman with questions about the finances of Wisconsin’s 13 state universities as part of their work to develop a list of policy recommendations for lawmakers next year.
James Langdon, one committee member who previously served as vice president for administration of the UW system, asked Rothman how he would spend an $800 million increase in state aid as proposed this summerby the governor.
“Are you going to reduce tuition substantially to use those funds or have you got some other plan for them?” Langdon asked.
Without specific dollar amounts, Rothman launched into a variety of budget goals. He said he would prioritize more funding for academic advising, career-readiness programs and expanding the Wisconsin Tuition Promiseprogram, which aims to help lower-income students pay to attend state universities.
Rothman also said the money would allow the UW system to pay employees higher salaries, evaluate where it could “invest in innovation,” such as artificial intelligence, and better address the mental health needs of students.
“We know we have a serious mental health challenge in our state,” Rothman said.
