20-05-2025
What to know about UW-Platteville in southwestern Wisconsin
What is now the University of Wisconsin-Platteville was founded in 1866 as Platteville Normal School, the first state teacher preparation institution in the state. It has gone through multiple expansions and changes through the years, and is now a four-year comprehensive university in the UW System.
On May 19, a shelter-in-place order and large law enforcement presence rocked the school community. Officials are now saying there was an isolated incident and the shelter-in-place order has been lifted. However, the public has been asked to avoid Wilgus Hall, a dormitory.
More: Shelter-in-place order lifted at UW-Platteville, but students told to avoid residence hall
Here is what to know about the university.
The school reported 6,391 students in fall of 2024, almost all of them undergraduate students. There were 424 graduate students. The enrollment was a small drop from the fall 2023 enrollment of 6,702.
Almost two-thirds of the students are male. The student-to-teacher ration is about 20-1.
Nearly half live in college-owned, -operated or -affiliated housing. A little more than 50% live off campus.
The school has roughly an 88% acceptance rate for applicants. A little more than half of the applicants take the ACT, according to the website College Factual, and for the middle 50% of those students, the ACT Composite scores ranged between 20 and 26.
That means the school is lightly competitive.
Platteville is the largest city in Grant County, which is part of the southern Driftless Region, in the far southwest corner of the state. The city has a population of slightly less than 12,000, according to the 2020 U.S. Census.
The closest big city is Dubuque, Iowa, across the Mississippi River.
The university has over 40 academic programs through three colleges: College of Business, Industry, Life Science and Agriculture (BILSA), College of Engineering, Mathematics and Science (EMS), and College of Liberal Arts and Education (LAE)
The school said it offers programs specializing in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics; criminal justice; education; business; agriculture; and the liberal arts.
Campus life includes numerous student organizations and NCAA Division III athletics. The school's nickname is the Pioneers.
From 1984 to 2001, the university was home to the Chicago Bears training camp. That time period included the Bears only Super Bowl winning team, in 1985. The Bears thought the city and university offered limited distractions.
Due to the Bears' history, and the area's proximity to Illinois, the Platteville area has numerous Bears fans, as opposed to the rival Green Bay Packers.
This story will be updated as more information becomes available.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: What to know about UW-Platteville in southwestern Wisconsin
