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2005
Faculty and Staff CONVOCATION |
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OUR AGENDA: Growth I will now turn to growth. Why growth? You will find the case fully stated and at some length in the printed and Web versions of my remarks but, this morning, I see Cyndie giving me the "speed it up" look and so, as with diversity, I will summarize the case in a sentence or two. There are internal reasons all too obvious to each of us. Wherever I look, it seems our challenges - too few resources allocated directly to frontline student instruction and academic support, no child care center, course scheduling challenges, quality of student life, depth and variety of support services, the need for a richer intellectual life - can be traced back to the consequences of smaller size. But, there is a more important case for growth. Simply put, it is not about our agenda, it is about northeastern Wisconsin's agenda. It begins with access, extends to the critical roles our graduates are filling, and rests squarely on having the capacity to help in the successes of a region in transition. I will briefly develop each of these three points. Access. Students want our approach to connecting learning to life. Formerly, we closed enrollments before every campus but Madison. Last year, we closed before all other of the thirteen campuses, Madison included. I now quip that, if the trend continues, we will be closing admissions before we open them. And, we are building a train wreck. I remind President Reilly, the Regents, and elected officials of this at every opportunity. Through Phuture Phoenix and other pipeline-building programs, we - among the smaller campuses and the one that has to close admissions earliest - are directly touching and motivating over 10,000 future students. That is a train critical to the future of our region; we cannot allow the wreck to happen. And, remember for whom it is that we are seeking to provide access. Perhaps the statistic I am most proud of for UWGB is that, even with more and more restricted admissions, exactly half our entering first-year students come from families where neither mom nor dad have been to college. Only 25 percent come from families where both parents have gone to college. There, to my way of thinking, we find the greatest justification for the "public" in public higher education; there is where we have the greatest impact upon our students, certainly, but also those students' families for generations to follow. And, those students have great impacts upon our region. Everywhere I go - schools, hospitals, businesses, not-for-profits, government offices - I find our graduates excelling. I have corporate CEOs inviting me to breakfasts and lunches so that they can ask how to build bigger pipelines to our graduates. They love the graduates of ours that they have but are frustrated that there are not more for them to employ. A recent statistic really brought home to me the importance of our "alumni footprint." Leadership Green Bay is a program of the Chamber of Commerce. Corporate and other entities nominate their best and brightest to attend this program designed to help groom tomorrow's community leaders. Consider this year's class of 30 future leaders. Over half were either UWGB alums or would, after completing their advanced studies with us, become our alums. Could there be a clearer indication of the direct connection between UWGB and the future wellbeing of our area? Ours is a region with a rich tradition of manufacturing strength, an entrepreneurial culture, and a strong work ethic that combined to build an economic dynamo important to the whole state and that provided for us here secure, family-wage jobs supporting a high quality of life and the elements critical to that high quality of life in the fine arts, recreation, and vital civic and community organizations. It is also a region itself changing imbedded in a world changing even more rapidly. Demographically, we are changing - racially and ethnically, certainly. That I noted earlier. Our population is also aging in a world where modern, knowledge-based economic enterprises are seeking to locate where they find the well-educated young whose innovative approaches are vital to the continuing successes of such enterprises. Universities, and the cultural contributions that they make, are, of course, critical to attracting and retaining the young, creative, and well-educated. |
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changes are more than demographic. Our local economy is changing. Those
secure family-wage jobs available with only high school degrees are becoming
more and more scarce. The service sector and service-related enterprises
are expanding. And, while our industrial parks are booming, these manufacturing
enterprises are quite different from the days of the Fort Howards. I have
walked the floors of many of these newer firms. They are prospering. They
are also smaller with many more computers than employees on the production
floor and with the real corporate assets to be found in the educated brain
power of those whose contributions involve designing, leading, visioning,
capitalizing, marketing, foreseeing, motivating, educating, and relentlessly
innovating. No wonder, then, that regions successful in making such a transition have, at their core, strong public universities. It is not just about growing to meet the demand from students who want to connect learning to life. You know how thinly we are stretched today. It is about having the size, the platform necessary to be able to bring our expertise to the region in its schools, hospitals, business enterprises, and governmental boards and offices. There is the case. So, how will we grow? Not, of course, without the resources to do so. Access alone means nothing unless it is access to quality. We have held to that principle and will continue to do so. Consequently, that has meant that, in the current fiscal environment, our growth has been in areas where revenues generated cover the costs. Examples include our Masters of Management and Masters of Social Work programs, summer school, special institutes and certificate programs, the downtown learning center, and the reinvigorated extended degree program. Such more entrepreneurial endeavors will and should continue. "Should" because they serve ever more important lifelong learning needs and audiences important in our region but traditionally not well served by American higher education. But, remember my opening comment about needing to fuel the growth engine. We need more fuel if we are to really be this region's University of Wisconsin. Within the UW System, and, I fully expect, with the support of President Reilly, we will advance a growth proposal as a part of the budget for the 2007-09 biennium, likely collaborating with other institutions in our area in making it a regional initiative. This morning, I am announcing the intention to appoint a group to prepare, for the Regents', Governor's, and legislature's consideration, a budget initiative to support the growth agenda. Before taking the budget to Madison, it will be considered and perfected as a part of our standard, widely participatory strategic budgeting process. Propitiously, this coming April, the Regents will be meeting on our campus. They do so about once every five years. With your help, we will use that meeting to publicly and pointedly unveil the growth agenda. We will not go it alone, either. Partnerships have been and will continue to be central in our growth strategy: partnerships with UW-Oshkosh, with the UW Colleges, with NWTC, with St. Norbert College, with the College of Menominee Nation, and with Bellin College of Nursing. One of the major initiatives you'll be hearing more about this year springs from our NEW ERA partnership - it's a national push, really, and a significant local priority - to help those with technical school training maximize their learning opportunities at the baccalaureate level. The academic units, the deans, Adult Degree Programs and faculty governance will all address this issue. As I have said, this is about the region's agenda and not ours per se. The most effective means to succeed will come through the community demanding that the community's needs be met. I envisage the sort of organization and pressure that got the UWGB campus here in the first place, community leaders going down to the legislature - not just once but relentlessly - and demanding that this region have its due. Back to my mantra for Green Bay's University of Wisconsin: Communities support universities that support communities. Well, because of your good work in connecting campus and community, every community leader I have approached about helping with this effort has had the same response: "Where do I sign up?" |
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OF PAGE Office of the Chancellor, David A Cofrin Library, Suite 810, University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, 2420 Nicolet Drive, Green Bay, WI 54311-7001 Phone: 920-465-2207 E-mail: shepardb@uwgb.edu Comments to: Chancellor's Web Manager Revised: 03/02/2006 |