There’s dismay and shock on the UW-Waukesha campus after the announcement that the UW-System is ordering the closure of the two-year school by the end of the Spring 2025 semester. In other words, about 14 months from now.
The directive from System, now also called the Universities of Wisconsin after a half-million dollar re-branding last year, comes just a few years after System officials ordered UW-Milwaukee to assume oversight over the smaller UW campuses in Waukesha and Washington County.
The latter campus, located in West Bend, is already slated to close this year.
UW-Waukesha student Andrew Kelly says he’s been preparing to go on to a four year school this fall anyway, but says Waukesha has been a relatively inexpensive way to begin his college career.
“It gives people who don’t have the income to go to places like the main campus, to be able to attain an education that has the same quality as the main campus, as something far more affordable for them," Kelly tells WUWM.
Waukesha student Damion Harbaugh also says the campus has been a place to get a good start. He says next year’s closing is a real shame, "Because I think there’s a lot of value in the community here, and in the students here. It’s small, but I think that is important. I think small things are pretty valuable.”
But UW-Milwaukee officials say there were only 672 students enrolled at UW-Waukesha this spring — a drop of more than 60% from five years ago. Fewer students means less tuition revenue coming in at a time when state funding, by some measurements, has been shrinking.
UWM says it will open a University Center at the Waukesha County Technical College (WCTC) and help incoming students get an associate degree there before moving on to a four year degree.
As for the more than 100 employees at UW-Waukesha, count Christian Torres as one of those shocked by news of the 2025 closing.
“And I checked my email and saw everything mentioned on there, and, I mean, I was completely blindsided. I did not expect this whatsoever. I didn’t know what to think of it. Coming in today, I didn’t even know who knew about it before we got the news," Torres says.
Torres is a campus assistant in the Continuing Education Department at UW-Waukesha. He says he’s waiting to see what happens with that unit.
UWM says there will be layoffs of Waukesha staff and faculty, but that the university hopes to get some hired at WCTC.
We asked the UWM Chancellor’s office why campus and Waukesha County officials held their announcement news conference in Milwaukee, instead of Waukesha, but did not hear back.
