Lessons About UW-Milwaukee's Plummeting Enrollment

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee lost $6.5 million in tuition and student-based formula grant revenues as a direct consequence of losing 900 students, as admitted in its autumn-semester enrollment report.

Unfavorable word-of-mouth sentiment -- that UWM just isn't worth going to -- has prevailed over the machinations of UWM's professional marketers and college recruiters.

(Although higher education reformer Joe Ohler, Jr. of Wisconsin has been credited with being the most vocal critic of UW-Milwaukee, it is clear that others have been incorporating his message into their opinions of UWM.)

UWM's latest setback is a symptom of the under-employed college graduate epidemic. Spurred by enrollment loss, college administrators are (reluctantly) conceding an under-acknowledged reality:

Many potential students simply won't enroll at a university, until that institution guarantees them a minimum amount of paid work experience relevant to their intended field of study.

Such acknowledgment of the problem, and of its multi-school scope, is necessary for UW-Milwaukee, UW-Parkside, and other ailing institutions of higher education to (stand any chance whatsoever to) regain ground lost to college skeptics and those who had been undecided but ultimately chose vocational-technical school (such as through the Wisconsin Technical Colleges).

But without acting on this problem, UWM, UWP, and ilk should shutter sooner than later. The onus is upon them, because the legislature will expect such occupational-outcomes accountability measures be enacted in exchange for bail-out funding.