In May 2026 the UW-Platteville campus at Baraboo will close its doors. It’s the 13th UW branch campus to close since 2023. On the show today, we’re joined by Wisconsin State Representative Karen DeSanto to talk about how this closure will impact the constituents of her district and by Neil Kraus who discusses the flawed messaging the UW System is sending about enrollment, its budget, and the need for AI and tech in education. 

Rep. DeSanto says that the Baraboo campus closure has been in the works since 2013 when the state cut funding for two-year campuses. In the years since, campus consolidation, tuition freezes, and more have made the closing of two-year schools appear inevitable, but this closure does not reflect the value of public higher education to the state of Wisconsin. Rep. DeSanto stands by the value of schools like Baraboo for rural and first-generation students and says that the students and faculty of Baraboo are devastated by this decision. 

In the second-half of the hour, we’re joined by Neil Kraus who says that the UW System has created a narrative about declining enrollment and budget shortfalls that doesn’t account for the reality that the System has created these conditions by not funding schools and by spending too much money on non-instructional expenses, like expensive technologies and consultant fees. Kraus says that most Wisconsinites are actually aligned on the need for in-person instruction but that the UW System seems bent on compelling rural and low income and working class students to accept online education as the appropriate form of education for them. 

Representative Karen DeSanto is a first-term democrat from Baraboo.

Neil Kraus is a professor of political science at UW-River Falls and Vice President for Higher Education for AFT-Wisconsin. He is also the author of The Fantasy Economy: Neoliberalism, Inequality, and the Education Reform Movement.

Featured image of the UW Platteville-Baraboo Sauk County campus and buildings via Wikimedia Commons (CC0 1.0).

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