UW-Oshkosh chancellor set to resign next year amid declining enrollment, deficit

MADISON, Wis. — University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh Chancellor Andrew Leavitt announced Wednesday that he will step down next summer as the school continues to struggle financially.

Leavitt has served as chancellor since 2014. He said on his blog Wednesday that he always believed spending 10 years as chancellor would be enough and staying longer “deprives the university of fresh vision and inventiveness it deserves.”

He said that he plans to remain at UW-Oshkosh as a chemistry professor following his resignation as chancellor.

“I will cherish memories made and the people I have met in this role over the past ten years,” Leavitt wrote in the blog post. “It has been the honor of my life. I am proud to be a Titan and look forward to contributing in new and different ways.”

Universities of Wisconsin President Jay Rothman and Board of Regents President Amy Bogost issued separate statements praising Leavitt.

“Since his first day as chancellor, Chancellor Leavitt has embraced the challenges that come with leadership," Rothman said.

UW-Oshkosh has been grappling in recent years with financial problems tied to declining enrollment and relatively flat state aid. Total enrollment at the university has dropped nearly 11% over the last nine years, from 14,542 students in the fall of 2014 to 12,963 students in the fall of 2023, according to Universities of Wisconsin data.

UW-Oshkosh officials announced plans in 2023 to lay off scores of employees in the face of a projected $18 million deficit. Ten of the UW's 13 four-year campuses faced deficits heading into the fall 2023 semester, but nearly three-quarters of the UW-Oshkosh faculty that voted in a referendum said they had no confidence in Leavitt after the layoffs.

Heading into the fall 2024 semester, UW-Oshkosh was one of six UW four-year schools projected to face a deficit. UW-Oshkosh's shortfall was the largest at $8.6 million.

Leavitt announced plans in June to close UW-Oshkosh's two-year branch campus in Menasha following the spring 2025 semester. The move came after a UW-Oshkosh analysis found enrollment at the branch campus has declined by 67% over the last decade and fewer than 100 students could attend the school by 2032.

Regents handed out raises for eight of the UW system's 13 chancellors in July. Leavitt was not among them.

System spokesperson Mark Pitsch said at the time that the chancellors who received raises were in line for increases to catch up with their peers.