Right, but even Wisconsin has its flagship, regional (for lack of a better word) campuses, and then branch campuses. I was responding to someone who said they equated “branch campus” with anything non-flagship, and I was saying why that doesn’t work.
(FWIW, Florida has an interesting recent shift from one category to the other: Florida Polytechnic University became independent in 2012, but before that was a branch campus of the University of South Florida, as USF Lakeland.)
That’s not correct. There are UW campuses around that state that issue (and always have) 4 year degrees. In 1970 the UW system incorporaated the Wisconsin state university system into the UW system. Those WSU schools often had specialties like teaching, nursing, engineering, theater and students perfered to go to one of these campuses.
The UW campuses started opening branch campuses in neighboring communities and those are the 2 year degree campuses, and are often quite small, like 500 enrolled students. You can attend classes at UW Stevens Point but the classes are in Wausau (about 40 miles away). For a time, this made sense as it is difficult to get to a campus 40 miles away in the Wisconsin winters. Now, with online classes, it may not be necessary to physically be in class all the time. Some schools also set up branch campuses for a specific purpose like in a rural area to study wildlife or water issues or forestry.
The campuses aren’t small - UW Milwaukee has 23k students, Whitewater has 12k, several others are 8-10k.
Several states have two (or more) systems for higher education. Colorado has U of Colorado with 4 campuses (Boulder, Colorado Spring, Denver, and the Medical campus) but then has the State system with Colorado State (and its branches) and other campuses. They are run completely separately with their own board of regents and presidents, chancellors.
U of Maryland used to be 5 campuses, but in the late 1980s merged with the state college system and now has many schools (20? 30?) with a centralized governance. It also has a community college system.
Wyoming has one university, by state constitution, and then branch campuses. It also has a community college system.
I’m using the three-tier terminologies the University of Wisconsin system itself uses: The UW System comprises two major research universities, eleven other comprehensive universities, and twelve two-year branch campuses. These branch campuses have less than 800 students, hence small. Of which, six have been set to close.
Thanks for pointing that out. I guess my language was unclear, or maybe I was mentally unclear ;). But are USF and UCF considered part of U. of Florida? I would have thought they would have been different systems, but perhaps I am mistaken.
All Florida public universities are part of the State University System of Florida.
Another small college closure in Ohio. Never heard of them but seems small and with limited resources International College of Broadcasting
We had a broadcasting school in our area that trained many people in radio and tv jobs in our area. It was very well respected. In 2021, it was absorbed by a local private college. Running a small school is very costly.
UNC-Asheville is apparently about to phase out several programs including Philosophy and Drama. This is a Liberal Arts-type university by designation! They are also set to reduce Languages and Literature, which is by far the most mainstream of the degrees targeted–but echoes the cuts in languages elsewhere.
Wow. They even hosted a regional undergraduate philosophy conference every year. That’s sad.
Man, this one is a shock. I think of UNC-Asheville as one of the truly excellent regional comprehensive state universities. But that UNC system has been troubled … this is one more sign of this.
Not trying to start a political discussion at all here but this felt like the right thread for this article.
I’m frankly surprised Goddard survived for as long as it did. Goddard College announces closure
I could buy that as a reason if enrollments weren’t down at colleges across the board.
This seriously just sounds to me like Emerson administration looking for someone to point to that distracts from them having any role in any part of it themselves.
To be fair the president directly stated that the protests were but one reason enrollment is down. It’s just a bad title for the article. Here’s what he’s quoted as saying:
“We attribute this reduction to multiple factors, including national enrollment trends away from smaller private institutions, an enrollment deposit delay in response to the new FAFSA rollout, student protests targeting our yield events and campus tours, and negative press and social media generated from the demonstrations and arrests,” Emerson College president Jay Bernhardt and other administrators said in the letter.
100% accurate.
The headline “FAFSA Rollout damaging local colleges” just doesn’t have the same ring as Israel/Gaza/Hamas does.
Oh, I know—but I also know that the administrators knew what was going to get the most attention.
I get it. Separately though many counselors are reporting many students changing their lists/declining acceptances and avoiding schools that had significant and/or prolonged protests this spring.
Schools should be attempting to formally capture the reasons students decline admission. It’s the only way to evaluate yield properly and determine what actions are needed to increase future yield. If Emerson does this, they may well know for a fact that the reasons they cite are actually correct. However, if it’s just opinions based on what administration perceives to be the reasons, they may be just trying to find scapegoats. It’s always easier for administrators to blame someone or something other than themselves for issues.