UW Merger Plans Made Official

After final approval from the Higher Learning Commission Friday and an official change made on Sunday, UW-Fox Valley and UW-Fond du Lac are now separate campuses of UW-Oshkosh. The merger was part of a system wide restructuring plan to combine two-year and four-year schools. 

Fond du Lac campus dean Martin Rudd says there is still work to do when it comes to making the full transition. He tells us “come October the first, the financial aid year begins for students that will come to our campuses in the fall of [20]19. And so we have to have things in place for them to be able to apply for financial aid within our new university.”

Rudd adds that there is “a $50 application fee usually and the UW System has made a
decision to waive that application fee for any student applying – in this case
– to the UW Fond du Lac campus from now through early September, which is
really when we close our registration for the fall semester.”

Students at the smaller campuses now have access to select baccalaureate and graduate programs provided through UW-Oshkosh. Chancellor Andrew Leavitt says “we’re going to be tying the tuition
to the degree programs, so you’ll pay associate’s tuition for associate’s
degrees, you’ll pay baccalaureate tuition for baccalaureate degrees regardless
of which campus you’re on.”

No major name change has been made for the combined university – but there are still talks about a potential change in the future. For now, the Fond du Lac campus will be called UW-Fond du Lac, a campus of UW-Oshkosh.