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To
its credit, the UW System changed its formula. To UW-Green Bay’s credit
— and thanks to the leadership of Provost Sue Hammersmith and academic
deans Fritz Erickson and Fergus Hughes, and the work of faculty and staff
units across campus — we jumped at the chance to try something different. Summer Session 2005 was the pilot. UW-Green Bay would own both rewards and risks, and we were eager to test our assumptions that a more ambitious summer schedule, with just the right mix of offerings, would pay for itself. It did. We met the tuition revenue minimum negotiated with UW System. We took important steps to offering a cohesive and predictable summer program with more choices, including popular distance-education sections. Credit hours were up 35 percent. We gave more faculty an opportunity to teach, and more students an opportunity to learn. We even turned a small profit, generating a little extra to reinvest and replenish S&E accounts that help academic units operate smoothly and provide quality service to students. With even more courses planned for 2006, we are already assured of matching our enrollment from last summer, about 1,200 students, and we will push significantly higher with four full months of registration to go. Postcards to local households will be timed to coincide with spring break. UW-Green Bay will also advertise in student newspapers on our sister campuses in Madison, Milwaukee, Oshkosh and perhaps others. My counterpart at UW-Oshkosh, Chancellor Richard Wells, gets a copy of this newsletter. If you’re still reading, Rick, I know you’re nodding in agreement, which might surprise those who would expect a different reaction to the notion of Green Bay targeting “your” students. The pleasant truth is, through the Northeast Wisconsin Educational Resource Alliance (NEW ERA), we are already full partners in creating a seamless educational system. Working together, Oshkosh and Green Bay launched a badly needed Master’s of Social Work program not otherwise possible; the first M.S.W. degrees, about two dozen in all, were awarded in December. NEW ERA is all about better serving this region, recently re-branded the New North. |
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Our
intent, then, isn’t to “poach” transfers but rather to
complement what others offer. A sizeable number of Northeastern Wisconsin
students attend these sister institutions but return home each summer. If
a reinvigorated summer program in Green Bay helps a UW-Oshkosh student finish
his or her degree program a semester early, we all win. (The risk-takers, of course, win a little more. Our summer-only students contribute tuition revenue while also helping us expand offerings for continuing students. That’s why we encourage all UW-Green Bay alumni and friends to “Think Summer” and encourage others to do the same. Visit the Web at http://www.uwgb.edu/summercourses/ ) Entrepreneurship is an increasingly important part of our future. UW-Green Bay is positioned to play a leadership role in a region undergoing unprecedented economic and social change. Adaptability and flexibility allow us to move forward on an agenda for growth and service. To continue this discussion in the March issue of this newsletter. I have invited Dr. Jan Thornton, associate provost for Outreach and Adult Access, to share the experience of her division. From summer camps to continuing education to returning adult students to small-business counseling and more, Outreach is meeting regional demand with creative new strategies. I’ll close with one final observation about the University of today not being “your father’s Oldsmobile.” It is this: As easily as we recall that catchy 1990s advertising slogan, we must also remember that, ultimately, it failed to resonate. The last Olds rolled off the assembly line a few years later. Other GM brands survive, including Cadillac — which did get “younger” thanks to new styling and the “Rock and Roll” drum intro from Led Zeppelin — but as for Oldsmobile, it’s nobody’s car anymore. Somewhere in there, there’s a moral to the story. Something about the need to constantly re-invent, re-invigorate, re-discover. Something about the danger of resting on past glory. Something about pursuing new paths wherever they might lead. Something exciting. Thank you for your interest in UW-Green Bay. Thank you for helping us “Connect learning to life.”  Bruce Shepard |
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