By Dakota Gunnare, Editor in Chief
Many West Bend High Schools’ students who wanted to live at home and get a college education are now facing the choice to commute longer or attend online classes instead.
The University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee at Washington County announced Oct. 17 it would be closing its doors and moving to online only next school year. This announcement came along with the decision to close UW-Platteville Richland and move UW-Oshkosh Fond Du Lac to online as well. For WBHS students, this means the nearest in-person public college is UW-Milwaukee. This decision will change students’ options and alter the Early College Credit Program at WBHS.
“While I wasn’t surprised, I was sad to see this opportunity go for students,” said Brenda O’Brien, WBHS coordinator for both academic and career planning.
The UW system had offered the unique advantage of credits being easy to transfer between any college in the UW system. Between the close proximity, the ease of credit transfer, and the option to save money, UWM-Washington County was a promising option for WBHS students.
O’Brien elaborated on how this would affect the ECC program. She stated that students will still have the opportunity to attend in-person classes at UW-Milwaukee’s main campus and Waukesha campus, or to attend classes online. However, this does get rid of a good option that is close to home.
“The closing of the Washington County campus limits a lot of the opportunities we have,” said Natalia Averill, a West Bend West High School junior. “A lot of us simply don’t have the time to be driving all the way down to, for example, the Milwaukee campus every week.”
The university was also an often considered option for WBHS students to begin pursuing their degrees after high school.
“It’s a really close-to-home and affordable way to start a four-year college degree, especially for students who are first-generation college students,” O’Brien said.
“While I wasn’t surprised, I was sad to see this opportunity go for students.”
Brenda O’Brien
Amory and Sienna Schrauth, East juniors, had planned to begin their degrees at UWM-Washington County for its convenient location and lower price.
“For students like me who conveniently live near a school in the UW system, the cheaper decision to continue living at home in your first couple years of college is an easy decision to make,” Sienna said. “So this way I could start my studies at UW-Washington County and transfer to another school such as UW-Milwaukee to finish my studies.”
Amory was previously secure in her college plans, but the campus closing has created new questions.
“I’m unsure what my plans are for college, now that a convenient option has been taken away,” she said.
There is no replacement for UWM-Washington County that can match all its benefits for local students.
“I will unfortunately most likely have to make the decision to travel to a school like UW-Milwaukee that is 40 minutes away from my house instead of five minutes,” Sienna said.
O’Brien advises students looking for an affordable, local college to consider an associate degree at Moraine Park Technical College. They offer an associate program in arts or science that O’Brien thinks would be a good option for WBHS students.
UWM-Washington County also provided proximity to collegiate-level resources for local students. East junior Anna Paczesny was interested in doing psychology research through UWM-Washington County with their psychology professors.
“I have to look towards other sources, mainly Milwaukee universities, which are much farther out and less convenient for me if I want to do research,” Paczesny said.
(Top image: The University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee at Washington County on Tuesday. Photo by Dakota Gunnare, Editor in Chief.)
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