The drastic decline in enrollment at the University of Wisconsin Whitewater isn’t being felt across the board according to Blackhawk Technical College President Tracy Pierner.
Peirner says BTC’s enrollment is directly proportional to the unemployment rate.
Pierner says when GM shut down enrollment was double what it is now at BTC. In the years that followed enrollment steadily declined, until the last few years where it has held fairly steady.
For the third year in a row, enrollment at UW-Whitewater went down, dropping 4.1%. Enrollment at the university’s Rock County campus in Janesville is down 11.6%.
UW-Whitewater is planning to cut it’s budget by $12 million over the next two years and lay off employees to compensate for three years of steady declines in enrollment.
