Plummeting enrollment and competing options make them increasingly obsolete
But however cautious and deliberative the committee is, it will be difficult to avoid the evidence that has been piling up like a jackknifed train for the last two years. With all of the alternatives available — the expansion of liberal arts programs at technical colleges and more access to four-year colleges — it’s fair to ask why we need the two-year schools at all.
Students and their parents are answering that question. The number of two-year campuses has shrunk by six — there are now seven of them — in half a year, and two more could be closed if enrollments don’t immediately improve.
Overall enrollment in the schools is down by more than 64%, from 9,959 in 2010 to 3,556 in 2023, according to a UW-Milwaukee report.Enrollment dropped by more than half since 2018 alone, when the two-year schools came under the authority of four-year schools, according to Rothman’s branch campus briefing in October 2023.
