FOND DU LAC – Almost two years after the county lost a longstanding institution, the property still sees plenty of activity.
The Fond du Lac County Campus gave the public a peek at how the county used the former UW-Fond du Lac campus May 8, including county offices and spaces that can rent out to local and visiting groups.
The University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh Fond du Lac campus closed for instruction in 2024, and work started soon after to fulfill a utilization plan as the property went back into the county’s hands.
County Executive Sam Kaufman said at the open house that out of all the counties that lost a UW school, Fond du Lac is still the only county that has done something with its campus.
“That is a big achievement for us. We’ve turned a negative to a positive,” he said.
Many minds built the utilization plan for the campus
When the university system notified the county that the campus would close, Kaufman started planning next steps alongside Fond du Lac County Director of Administration Erin Gerred. He said they went building-by-building to come up with how they could honor the community and what the biggest needs were.
Forming the plan involved County Board leadership, Fond du Lac City Manager Joe Moore, State Sen. Dan Feyen and State Rep. Jerry O’Connor, with additional support from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation.
The team’s early priorities centered on benefiting the community, but County Board Chairman Steve Abel added that they didn’t want maintenance costs to fall on taxpayers.
From the beginning, funding was planned around rent from the leased spaces, the sale of unused land, and a $1 million allocation from American Rescue Plan Act funds. The county’s share of a state grant for communities that lost a UW System branch went toward the renovation of the classroom buildings.
The campus now holds event space, offices and more
The Prairie Theater & Event Center was one of the first legs of the plan to come to fruition, keeping the original theater’s name and turning the commons and the library into spaces available to rent for weddings, meetings and other events.
The arts building has converted into the Fond du Lac County Public Safety Training Center, which has several areas for public safety professionals in Wisconsin to rent for physical, tactical and scenario training, as well classroom instruction.
The campus gymnasium, featuring the college-sized basketball court, has stayed in tact for the FCC Sports Complex, which local teams and clubs can rent for practice, training and public games.
The county’s Land and Water Conservation Department moved onto the campus, and several of the divisions of the Human Services Department — the Aging and Disability Resource Center (ADRC), Child Welfare, Community Services, and Income Maintenance — are now under one roof in the classroom buildings.
Kaufman said the county social workers had long been working in a basement with no windows, and “every time I would walk through that section, it didn’t seem right.”
Now, the offices are not only well-lit, but designed with safety and privacy in mind.
The history of the school is still showcased in the buildings
Kaufman and Abel both spoke about honoring the impact UW-Fond du Lac had on its students and the community. Abel was himself an alumnus of the school, but his father was also in the first class that came to this campus back in 1967, and his son was one of the final classes.
“A lot of good people have come through this campus, and a lot of people couldn’t have afforded education if they didn’t come here,” Abel said.
The campus’s history is incorporated throughout the property, but the Francis R. & Ruth E. Oberreich Foundation also sponsored the UW Fond du Lac Campus History Room inside the Prairie Theater & Event Center.
Housing and more are next for the campus property
Kaufman said there’s more to come for the unused portions of the campus.
Work has started on a senior housing project with about 90 units close to the ADRC, which Kaufman anticipates being done by the end of the year or early next year.
On the other side of campus, more land sold to developers for another housing project, and the rugby field is in the in the process of being subdivided for commercial development.
Daphne Lemke is the Streetwise reporter for the Fond du Lac Reporter. Contact her at dlemke@usatodayco.com.
This article originally appeared on Fond du Lac Reporter: Former UW-Fond du Lac campus now hosts offices, events and sports
Reporting by Daphne Lemke, Fond du Lac Reporter / Fond du Lac Reporter
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