UW-Platteville is among the top 15 public universities in the Midwest, according to new rankings U.S. News and World Report released Tuesday. The rankings were based on a number of metrics, including graduation rates, first-year retention rates, earnings by major, faculty salaries and student-to-faculty ratios. UW-Platteville and Minnesota State University-Mankato tied for 12th. UW-La Crosse and Grand Valley State University tied for second. UW-Eau Claire ranked sixth and UW-Whitewater ranked eighth. The University of Northern Iowa was first.

Participation in UW-Platteville's construction management program is surging. In the seven years since the major was created, the number of participants has jumped from 60 in fall 2020 to 400 this semester, an increase of 566 percent. Bolstering the increase this year is 140 freshman and transfer students, said program coordinator Gretchen Bockenhauer. She attributed the surge to alumni support, word-of-mouth and top finishes in national construction competition. UW-Platteville's construction lab and the program's 100 percent job placement rate for graduates also have been draws, Bockenhauer said.

UW-Platteville is offering a new certificate program designed to help students find a career path and sharpen workplace skills. Jane Laufenberg, a career development coordinator in UW-Platteville's Career and Professional Development Office, launched the online course last summer after a National Association of Colleges and Employers survey found graduates across the country lacked skills in a number of areas, including communication, leadership, critical thinking and self-development. The new UW-Platteville program, entitled Pioneer's Edge: A Career Readiness Adventure, puts students through exercises designed to identify careers that best fit with their personalities as well as help students learn to set goals, improve communication skills and develop strategies for the first 90 days on a job. The course is free.

UW-Platteville's new football strength coach is already making himself at home. Paul Goodman took the job on Aug. 24, and after just a handful of workouts with the team, he's established himself as key figure in what the No. 4-ranked Pioneers hope will be a championship season. Goodman brings an impressive resume, spending 17 years as a strength coach with the Chicago Blackhawks professional hockey team and stints at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Vermont. He even spent a summer training and touring with Phish lead singer Trey Anastasio.

UW-Platteville's Harry and Laura Nohr Galley is hosting an exhibit featuring handwoven rugs and artwork by almuna Donna Van Bogaert through mid-October. Van Boegert wove the rugs using reclaimed and repurposed materials and created her artwork using a variety of media including oil, pastel, watercolor, mosaic and graphite. Van Bogaert graduated from UW-Platteville in 1974 with a degree in art education. She went on to become an assistant program director at Northwestern University's Norris Center, where she managed the art gallery, and later opened the Villa Lucci Studios for painting, mosaics, fabric arts and eco-sculpture in Mazomanie, Wisconsin. A reception for Van Bogaert is set for Thursday, Sept. 17 at the Harry and Laura Nohr Gallery. Her work will be on display through mid-October.

A group of UW-Platteville instructors exchanged ideas with other Universities of Wisconsin faculty during the system's annual Faculty College retreat this past spring. The 46th annual retreat, held at the Osthoff Resort in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, in May, brought together faculty and academic staff from the state's 13 public universities to reflect on teaching, trade ideas and explore innovative approaches to supporting student success.

UW-Platteville and the Wisconsin Veterans Chamber of Commerce are launching a new business certificate program for veterans this fall. The Veterans Entrepreneurship Certificate guides participants through the phases of launching a viable business with expert faculty support. The program is broken up into three five-week courses delivered by an instructor through an online, asynchronous format. The first cohort begins Oct. 5.

UW-Platteville ranks among the top 50 rural colleges in the nation, according to new review by Washington Monthly magazine. Washington Monthly released the rankings on Aug. 30. The magazine worked off a list of more than 1,000 rurally located schools identified by the Alliance for Research on Regional Colleges' Rural-Serving Post-Secondary Institutions project. The magazine focused exclusively on four-year nonprofit colleges and universities, excluding schools with acceptance rates below 75 percent and ranking the remaining 225 on metrics that included the percentage of students receiving Pell grants, the annual net price students from median-income and below families pay, median student loan debt and almuni earnings. UW-Platteville ranked 48th among the top 100 schools. The University of West Alabama was first. UW-Stevens Point ranked 47th.

Thousands of students began fall classes at UW-Platteville on Wednesday, continuing a proud 160-year tradition of educating engineers, teachers, agricultural leaders and other professionals. Courses launched Wednesday, but the year really began Saturday when freshmen moved into their dorms. They spent the last four days getting acclimated to their home, walking their schedules, attending seminars on how to study, petting therapy dogs and enjoying an outdoor move outside the Markee Pioneer Student Center. Chancellor Tammy Evetovich says there's always something special about the start of a new academic year. UW-Platteville was founded in 1866 as the Platteville Normal School and eventually was renamed "Wisconsin State University-Platteville when it was granted university status in 1966. The university became known as the University of Wisconsin-Plattevlle in 1971 after the Wisconsin State University system merged with the University of Wisconsin.

UW-Platteville's communications director has been selected to serve on the Wisconsin Women in Government's leadership board. The group announced Thursday that Melanie Platt-Gibson has been named to its eight-member board for the 2026-27 term. Platt-Gibson has served as UW-Platteville's external relations and communications director since this past spring. WWIG is a statewide, bipartisan nonprofit organization that brings together women working across government, public service and related fields.

A UW-Platteville team has captured top honors in horticulture at a premier national agriculture competition for the first time. Seven students studying horticulture, landscaping and crop science traveled to Heartland Community College in April to compete in the North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture Annual Judging Contest. The UW-Platteville team of Luis Avila Vette, Cora Brooks, Lauren Carlson and Amy Luginbuhl won the competition, taking first in the general knowledge exam, first in plant and tool identification and first in plant quality evaluation. They compiled the highest team score in horticulture by a margin of 63 points.

A top national officer within the SkillsUSA workforce development organization has chosen to transfer to UW-Platteville to complete a mechanical engineering degree, underscoring how the university's distance engineering program continues to attract top talent. Emma Schwantes of Watertown, Wisconsin, was selected as SkillsUSA's national college/postsecondary treasurer and joint executive council vice chair this summer. She graduated from Madison College in 2025 with an associate degree in mechanical design technology. But she wants a four-year degree in mechanical engineering from UW-Platteville. She was able to transfer over her general education credits through the UW-Platteville Engineering Partnerships (PEP) and is enrolled for the fall semester. The PEP program is designed for working adults and students who can't move to Platteville. It allows students to take online courses with only a few visits to campus for hands-on lab experience.

UW-Platteville senior Leah Coenen has earned a leadership scholarship from one of the Midwest's top engineering and agricultural consulting firms. MSA Professional Services Inc. announced Thursday that Coenen is among four interns awarded the 2026 Hantzsch School of Leadership scholarship. Each student will receive $2,500. The scholarship is in its first year and is designed to honor the firm's CEO Emeritus, Gil Hantszch, who served 32 years with the company, including 11 as president and CEO. The scholarship recognized students with excellent leadership qualities, accomplishments and philosophies.

UW-Platteville facilities staff have developed a new interactive map to help students and faculty navigate campus construction projects. Facilities Planner Ciara Miller launched the map this spring. It offers a real-time look at where construction is taking place with pop-up updates on each project's status. The map has gotten more than 600 hits since it went live in March.

TRICOR Insurance CEO Dave Fritz has given UW-Platteville a $3 million gift, the second-largest donation in the university's history. Fritz graduated from UW-Platteville with an accounting degree in 1981 and took over his father's insurance company with his brother, Bruce. He became CEO in 2019 after his brother retired and has overseen an expansion into multiple states. Fritz also was instrumental in reopening the Potosi Brewery in 2008. His gift to UW-Platteville will fund scholarships and building projects over the next five years.

UW-Platteville officials have installed six more Nalox-ZONE boxes on campus, expanding access to medication that can reverse the effects of opioid overdoses. Wisconsin Voices for Recovery donated the new boxes, which are located in academic buildings and other high-traffic areas. Each box contains naxolone, an opioid overdose-reversal medication also known by the brand name Narcan, as well as instructions on how to administer it and a CPR face mask. The Dean of Students office installed 15 Nalox-ZONE boxes across all residence halls in 2023.

UW-Platteville has been selected as one of four Universities of Wisconsin campuses to host the 2027 Wisconsin Civics Games regional playoff competition next spring. The games, presented by the Universities of Wisconsin in partnership with the Wisconsin Newspaper Association Foundation and other organizations, are designed to strengthen high school students' civic literacy. Last year 52 teams from 33 schools competed in matchups covering topics such as the role of government, the U.S. Constitution, Wisconsin and U.S. history, elections, public policy and current events. Organizers notified officials from UW-Platteville, UW-Oshkosh, UW-River Falls and UW-Milwaukee on Wednesday that their campuses were picked to host the regional playoffs in April.

UW-Platteville's associate athletic director has been named the 2026 Dr. Carol Sue Butts Award winner after leading her department through a leadership transition this spring. Kara McCarville will receive the honor at the 2026 Convocation Award Reception on Aug. 25. McCarville took over as interim athletic director after former AD Michael Knipe was terminated in December 2025. She led the athletic department until Sam Koenig was hired as the permanent AD in May.

Revamped cybersecurity courses. New cultural training. Hands-on special education experience. Instructors across the UW-Platteville campus have used grants from the Provost and Academic Affairs Office to redesign curriculum in multiple disciplines over the last year, including cybersecurity training, launching a new cultural competence program and new approaches in special education. The grants are intended to enhance student learning in existing courses and enable instructors to teach or redesign courses outside of their regular duties.

UW-Platteville's exercise science program has earned a key national accreditation that guarantees students a chance to earn a key strength coaching credential. The Council on Accreditation of Strength and Continuing Education (CASCE) recently announced that UW-Platteville's Exercise Science-Strength and Conditioning program is among 23 programs across 20 institutions that earned accreditation in 2026. The accreditation is significant because students looking to take the Certified Strength and Conditional Specialist exam must hold a bachelor's degree from a CASCE-accredited institution starting in 2030. The CSCS certification is one of the top credentials for coaches looking to work with college and professional athletes.

The Platteville Summer Arts Festival's production of "Come From Away" set a new attendance record. Six performances over the last two weeks of July drew 1,478 people, said Ann Farrelly, the UW-Platteville theatre professor who directed the production. That breaks the old summer attendance record of 921 people who saw the 2024 production of "Into the Woods."

For Sophia Daugherty, Saturday will be bittersweet. The UW-Platteville senior agricultural education major will make her final turns around the show ring at the Wisconsin State Fair, showing off eight more swine and hoping for a medal before she takes her final bows in West Allis. She'll be on the road again next week to make her swine song (pardon the pun) at the Iowa State Fair and again in September at the National Barrow Show in Austin, Minnesota. Eight years of showing off UW-Platteville's prize pigs on some of the Midwest's biggest stages will be just a memory as she speeds toward graduation in December.

From innovation hubs and factory floors to historic landmarks and rural villages, University of Wisconsin-Platteville business students experienced China’s economy, culture and business practices firsthand this summer through a new two-week, noncredit study abroad program.

A Wisconsin teacher has bequeathed $1 million from her estate to UW-Platteville to fund scholarships for education majors. Delores L. Brown passed away in March 2026 after devoting 35 years to elementary education. She was a graduate of the Platteville State Teachers College, which merged with the Wisconsin Institute of Technology in 1959 to become the institution that would later be known as UW-Platteville. Brown initially taught in West Allis but spent most of her career at Madison elementary schools.

UW-Platteville junior Jakob Scheckel earned second-place honors in a soil judging contest in China earlier this summer. Scheckel, a soil and crop science major from Dodgeville, Wisconsin, earned a spot on the U.S. team that competed in the 5th International Soil Judging Contest held near the cities of Nanjing and Zhenjiang in China's eastern Jiangsu province in early June. The contest calls on contests to describe soils both individually and in four-person teams using techniques developed by field soil scientists. Scheckel placed second in the individual competition behind Virginia Tech's Holden Mrizek.

Government and business leaders in Dubuque, Iowa, are honoring UW-Platteville as part of their annual Community of Colleges week. The City Council and the Greater Dubuque Development Corp. issued a proclamation during a meeting on July 20 declaring Aug. 3-7 as Community Colleges Week. The proclamation expressed appreciation for 10 institutions in southwestern Wisconsin and northeastern Iowa, including UW-Platteville and Southwest Wisconsin Technical College.

Dr. Hannah Korell, an assistant professor of English at UW-Platteville, has co-edited a new anthology entitled "Horror on the Early Modern Stage: Nightmare on Thames Street." The work is a collection of essays tracing the origins of the horror genre to 16th and 17th century English theater. The book is set to hit the stands Thursday. St. Louis University Assistant Professor English Sheila Coursey co-edited the collection with Korell.

Civil War veterans. Sports betting. Bovine fertility. UW-Platteville's 2026 Summer Undergraduate Scholars took on an incredibly diverse range of research topics this year, getting a head start on building the skills they'll need to be successful in graduate school and beyond. Each year, faculty select 10 students to receive $5,000 stipends to spend their summer on campus researching topics connected to their majors. This year's projects included deep dives on a Wisconsin woman who posed as a man so she could enlist in the Union Army; how sports gamblers think; how the protein in a cow's system can predict how soon she'll ovulate after giving birth.

UW-Platteville has overhauled the transfer process for two-year engineering students in Illinois, easing the path to a bachelor's degree. Until now, UW-Platteville's College of Engineering, Mathematics and Science has had to review transfer students' applications one by one to determine what, if any, credits they've already earned might count toward a bachelor's degree here. Starting this fall, EMS will adopt a new policy for students who have earned an associate's degree in engineering from an Illinois Community College institution and are looking to finish a bachelor's degree at UW-Platteville. Any courses they took that would transfer within the Illinois Community College system will automatically count for credit within EMS.

UW-Platteville is teaming up with the Platteville Summar Arts Festival to bring the hit Broadway musical "Come From Away" to campus. The production is based on the true story of how a Newfoundland town welcomed almost 7,000 stranded air travel passengers who were diverted from their destinations on the day of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The premiere is set for Friday evening in the Richard and Helen Brodbeck Concert Hall in the Center for the Arts on the UW-Platteville campus. The production will run through Aug. 2.

UW-Platteville Head Football Coach Ryan Munz delved into how he and his staff have transformed Pioneer football into a national contender during a Sauk County Institute of Leadership luncheon Thursday, July 16, in Lake Delton. Munz said he approached the team like a venture start-up when he took over as head coach in 2022, determined how he identified team leaders, established clear values and standards and then challenged a core group of players to lead the team from within. By his third year at the helm, Munz said, the leadership group had grown to about 50 players. "I don't want it to be my show," Munz said. "It's all for the brand. It's UW-Platteville, which is one of the coolest things."

UW-Platteville is proud to announce a generous gift from alumni Arlen Ewers ’62 and Jelayne Ewers ‘62, who have established the Arlen and Jelayne Ewers Scholarship to support students pursuing degrees in education. The endowed scholarship will provide financial assistance to undergraduate students majoring in education, helping to prepare the next generation of teachers and educational leaders. The gift reflects the couple’s deep commitment to empowering future educators and strengthening communities through access to quality education.

The UW–Platteville Pioneer Racing Formula SAE team recently hosted students from the Sao Carlos School of Engineering at the University of São Paulo (EESC-USP), one of the top-performing Formula SAE teams in the world, in a unique international collaboration leading up to the 2026 Formula SAE Michigan competition. The teams worked on their cars together on campus before heading to Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, Michigan, in May. UW-Platteville finished 16th out of 120 teams, the team's best finish ever in the competition. The Brazilian team finished ninth.

The University of Wisconsin-Platteville Foundation and Alumni Association raised $10.67 million in philanthropic support over fiscal year 2026. The contributions support student scholarships, program funds for academic majors, athletic programs, faculty and staff and building projects, among other priorities.

The University of Wisconsin-Platteville's metal casting club is set to star in a new YouTube series documenting the "Cast In Steel" competition, which pits 38 universities across North America in a battle to forge the perfect tool. The Pour'n Pioneers have established themselves as a perennial contender in the eight years since the competition began, winning it all in 2022, taking second in 2023 and third last year before advancing to the finals this past spring. The YouTube series premieres Thursday, July 9. The third episode focuses on the Pour'n Pioneers as they design and build a replica of one of George Washington's swords in last year's competition.

Seventeen University of Wisconsin-Platteville civil and environmental engineering students traveled more than 1,000 miles across three states in late May as part of a five-day field trip focused on regional infrastructure and the social, environmental and economic impacts of infrastructure projects.

Students in the National Agri-Marketing Association Club at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville’s School of Agriculture recently competed in the National Agri-Marketing Association (NAMA) Student Marketing Competition in St. Louis, presenting a marketing plan for HerdWave, a proposed ultrasonic device designed to attach to cattle collars and repel flies and other pests.

The University of Wisconsin-Platteville’s College of Engineering, Mathematics and Science proudly announces that Dr. Xiaoguang Ma, associate professor, of electrical and computer engineering, has been selected as the 2025–2026 recipient of the EMS Excellence in Teaching Award.

The University of Wisconsin-Platteville College of Engineering, Mathematics and Science proudly announces that Dr. Joseph Wu, professor, chemistry, has been selected as the 2025-2026 recipient of the EMS Excellence in Research and Scholarly Activity Award.

The University of Wisconsin-Platteville’s College of Engineering, Mathematics and Science proudly announces that Dr. Christina Curras, professor, civil and environmental engineering, has been selected as the 2025–2026 recipient of the EMS Excellence in Advising Award.

The University of Wisconsin-Platteville College of Engineering, Mathematics and Science proudly announces that Dr Mohammad Rabbani, professor of chemistry, has been selected as the inaugural recipient of the 2025–2026 EMS Excellence in Service Award.

The University of Wisconsin-Platteville announced that its Department of Criminal Justice and Forensic Investigation has earned accreditation from the Forensic Science Education Programs Accreditation Commission (FEPAC), a body of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences (AAFS). The accreditation covers all three emphases of the Forensic Investigation major: Crime Scene Investigation, Medicolegal Death Investigation and Laboratory. UW-Platteville is among a very small number of forensic science programs nationwide to hold this accreditation.