The UW Oshkosh Fox Cities campus in Menasha will be closing its doors next year after an announcement from UWO Chancellor Andrew Leavitt June 13.
“We remain ready to support our UWO Fox Cities students, faculty and staff through this transition” Leavitt said. “UWO will remain a responsive provider of a high quality, accessible, affordable education and college experience with robust educational opportunities for stakeholders throughout the populous Fox Valley.”
With the Menasha campus officially closing its doors June 30, 2025, UWO will no longer have any access campuses affiliated with the university after UW Fond du Lac, which administrators announced plans to close last October, will end in-person instruction June 30.
Students at the Fox Cities campus will be able to either transition to the Oshkosh campus in fall 2024, register for online classes or attend UWO Fox Cities next academic year and transition to the Oshkosh campus after the spring 2025 semester if they have not completed their two-year degree.
Those who attend the Fox Cities campus during the 2024-25 academic year and transition to the Oshkosh campus after the spring 2025 semester will continue to attend UWO at the Fox Cities campus tuition rate through 60 credits, attainment of an Associate of Arts and Sciences degree or Jan. 1, 2027, whichever comes first.
Leavitt said that UWO plans on having Fox Cities faculty members continue working at the Oshkosh campus.
“Those transition plans will take shape into the months ahead,” Leavitt said. “Further financial evaluation is necessary as we develop the 2026 budget to determine Fox campus staff members’ opportunities to transition.”
According to Leavitt, Universities of Wisconsin President Jay Rothman directed the university to move forward with plans to close the Menasha campus after a meeting with UWO administrators.
Leavitt said in an email to UWO students that campus administrators spent a year analyzing enrollment, the state’s changing demographics, regional higher-education competition and economic trends in the Fox Valley.
“In the end, we made a difficult but responsible decision,” Leavitt said. “Over the last several months, as we examined the landscape, Provost (Edwin) Martini and I briefed the UWO Fox Cities community and our county partners on the steep climb necessary to achieve fiscal sustainability at the campus. Given the trends and pressures mentioned, even the most optimistic enrollment projections indicate that the UWO Fox Cities campus will not generate tuition revenue to cover its costs going forward.”
According to the university, UWO Fox Cities total enrollment has dropped almost 67% over the past decade and in the last five years, the average decline in enrollment is 19%. UWO projected that there would be fewer than 100 UWO Fox Cities students by 2032 because of a decline in high school graduates in Wisconsin.
The decision to close the Fox Cities campus comes after WLUK Fox 11 reported Nov. 6, 2023, that UWO made it clear during a Board of Trustees meeting that the university supported the two-year campus.
Records show that UWO Provost Edwin Martini began assessing future programming at the Menasha campus Jan. 30, and delivered a final report to the Chancellor April 30, which recommended ceasing operations at UWO Fox Cities.
In the report, Martini said that the decision to close a campus is never an easy one.
“The challenges facing the campus, and indeed facing higher education in general, are not of our own making,” Martini said. “They are a reflection of massive changes in our state, our nation and our world that have increasingly threatened the educational models on which the Fox campus was founded and in which it thrived for many years…”
Outagamie County Executive Tom Nelson said in a statement June 13 that Leavitt and Rothman betrayed the students and families of the Fox Cities campus. Outagamie and Winnebago counties both own the buildings on the Fox Cities campus.
“Had Leavitt and Rothman read ‘All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten,’ they would have understood the importance of playing fair, taking responsibility, saying sorry when mistakes were made and putting things back as they were found,” Nelson said. “Instead, Leavitt and Rothman let down the students and families of UW Fox and betrayed their trust – and now it will be up to the rest of us to clean up their mess. Shame on you.”
Winnebago County Executive Jon Doemel said in a statement June 13 that he was saddened by the announcement to close the Fox Cities campus.
“This was the institution where I attended, was heavily involved in student government and the television and radio program and where I met my wife,” Doemel said. “I have a deep connection with that campus.”
Doemel said that closing the campus was inevitable with the declining enrollment and projected demographics.
“We are still processing what a closure of the campus means for our communities,” Doemel said. “Today, we do not have answers on the future of the Barlow Planetarium, the Weis Earth Science Museum, the Communication Arts Center or the University Children’s Center. The taxpayers have invested millions into these assets.”
Leavitt said that earlier this year, more than 70% of UWO Fond du Lac campus students signaled plans to transition to the Oshkosh campus after the conclusion of teaching and learning there.
“Nearly 90% of those students are continuing the pursuit of their Associate of Arts and Science degree at the Oshkosh campus,” Leavitt said. “We are confident many UWO Fox Cities learners will, likewise, continue their journeys at UWO. We will support whatever path they choose.”
