Milwaukee filmmaker documents UW campus closures

The University of Wisconsin-River Falls held a screening of the documentary “Closure: The Dismantling of Wisconsin’s Colleges” at the University Center on Nov. 1. The 90-minute film, created by author and Associate Professor Ken Brosky, documents the closure of several two-year UW colleges, and the impact this has had on faculty, students, and local Wisconsin communities. After the screening, Brosky held a Q&A session as well.

Brosky decided to create the film after UW-Milwaukee announced on March 11, 2024, that it would close its Waukesha campus in spring 2025 “in response to a directive from the Universities of Wisconsin” system. Waukesha is the most recent in a series of closures, all two-year colleges: UW-Richland, UW-Washington County, UW-Fond Du Lac, and UW-Marinette.

“The idea that you could close [Waukesha], a campus with 600 students enrolled, without considering the long-term effects on communities, students, and faculty was something I felt needed to be explored,” Brosky said on “The Todd Albaugh Show.”

“Closures” covers the history of the UW System and the events that have led to the closures, which include mergers, budget cuts, and declining enrollment. The topic is close at heart for Brosky, who teaches at UW-Whitewater at Rock County, another two-year college. “I’m one of the lucky ones,” he said. “Others haven’t been so lucky.”

On May 18, two months after the announcement from UWM, Brosky took to the crowd-funding platform Kickstarter to raise money for the project, and by May 28, it had reached its $2,700 goal. As of Nov. 17, “Closure” has received over $3,800 from 56 supporters.

Brosky rented a camera and traveled across Wisconsin to document the closures. “I visited multiple two-year campuses to investigate how the closures… were impacting the staff, students, and communities,” he said in an interview with Shepherd Express.

The film’s introduction references the mission statement of the University of Wisconsin System, to “discover and disseminate knowledge… beyond the boundaries of its campuses” and to offer “public service designed to educate people and improve the human condition." These values create the Wisconsin Idea, which defines the UW System and its universities and colleges.

“The Wisconsin Idea holds that the borders of our university are the borders of our state,” Brosky said. He fears that this Idea is under threat. “If we lose these campuses, we lose more than just buildings. We lose access, opportunity, and a part of Wisconsin’s identity.”

“Closures” features interviews with some of the faculty and students who called these two-year campuses home. “Faculty and staff are being laid off,” Brosky said on his Kickstarter page. “Campus buildings are emptying out. No one knows what's going to happen next.”

The UW System lost $360 million in state funding from 2012 to 2017 to budget cuts. As a result, the UW Board of Regents and the UW President at the time, Raymond Cross, decided to merge the UW System’s two-year colleges with its four-year universities in 2017. This decision would be disastrous for many of these two-year colleges, as “Closures” demonstrates.

“What Ken did so brilliantly in the film is show how we get smaller enrollments in these [two-year] schools,” said Neil Kraus, a UWRF Political Science Professor who spoke at the screening, and was also interviewed by Brosky for the documentary. “We don't invest in them.”

This lack of investment, when combined with further budget cuts and a UW System tuition freeze from 2013 to 2023, is a critical reason for the school closures, according to Brosky.

“I believe the UW System failed to address the deeper issues, such as the lack of investment…particularly at these smaller, two-year campuses,” Brosky said.

“Closures” premiered on Sept. 24 at the Time Cinema in Milwaukee.

Brosky admits that, while the film is finished, the issues that face the UW System and its schools are not. “Even as I was finishing the editing process,” he said, “It was announced that UW-Oshkosh was going to close its two-year Fox Cities campus.” Fox Cities is the six two-year school to be closed, and is set to be dismantled by June 30, 2025.