Since the Universities of Wisconsin started shuttering two-year branch campuses in 2023 amid steep enrollment declines, counties that own the buildings and land have been left to regroup and decide what’s next for the properties.
Meanwhile, they’re on the hook for maintaining what they still own. At a cost of thousands of dollars each month, that adds an urgency to counties’ efforts to redevelop the former campuses.
“We do not have the funds to sustain this on an ongoing basis,” Richland County Board Chair David Turk said of the former UW-Platteville Richland campus.
Each county that had a UW branch campus that has since closed is eligible for a grant of up to $2 million to redevelop the property under a state law.