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Marketing and University Communication UW-Green Bay, CL 815 2420 Nicolet Drive Green Bay, WI 54311-7001 (920) 465-2626 E-mail: hildebrs@uwgb.edu Last update: 9/27/07 |
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In
the News Archive - Year:
November 18, 2004 Leaders tackle future challenges of education By Terry Anderson A panel of leading area educators Wednesday night offered insight into
their hopes as well as their worries at the 2004 University of Wisconsin-Green
Bay Fall Founders Association Dinner.
Sitting on the panel were UW-Green Bay Chancellor Bruce Shepard, St.
Norbert College President William Hynes, Northeast Wisconsin Technical
College President H. Jeffrey Rafn, Verna Fowler, president of the College
of the Menominee Nation; Jane Muhl, president, Bellin College of Nursing;
and Daniel Nerad, superintendent of the Green Bay School District.
During a 90-minute discussion they touched upon a wide range of topics,
from diversity to technology to economics.
"I'm optimistic about the next 10 years," Shepard said. "In regards
to UWGB, we will be 50 percent bigger (7,500 enrollment). We have to grow.
Only Madison closes its enrollment sooner. And 70 percent of our graduates
stay in this area."
"Diversity is our golden asset," Nerad said. "Look in the Green Bay
public schools and you will see what our community will look like in a
very short time. Our success and the community's success will be based
upon their (students') success."
While innovations in technology offer great opportunities for learning,
Nerad expressed concern about a trend that would allow students to live
in the community but through digital technology be enrolled in another
school district.
"There's a difference between school and schooling," he said.
Noting that illness reaches into every sector of a community, Muhl said
that the health-care work force needs to reflect that same diversity.
A number of educators touched upon the importance of serving the nontraditional
student, such as the adult who is changing careers. Or the student who
doesn't need a full two- or four-year program in a particular subject,
but rather some special knowledge to add to their base of education. Or
the student whose socioeconomic background hasn't traditionally been fertile
grounds for education.
"Part of our mission is to kids who never thought college was a possibility,"
Fowler said, talking about her experience in starting the Keshena-based-college
in 1998. "And I admit to one mistake and only mistake. I underestimated
the desire of people to get an education."
One of the key challenges that his school and all schools face, is helping
to increase "the productivity of learning," Rafn said.
He added that the productivity he was speaking about is students' productivity,
ensuring that they are getting the most value, the most opportunity for
their investment of time and money.
"The truth is none of us know," Hynes said when asked to look at the
future of education a decade from now. But he added that one his main
concerns is that the need to work two and three jobs for economic support
leaves little time for educational exploration.
When the subject of cost was raised, Shepard noted that as the state's
contribution toward higher education lessens, tuition increases are unavoidable.
"We are being privatized by the state," he told the audience. "There
are hydraulics here."
Shepard told Hynes that he looks forward to the time a student will
graduate with a degree conferred jointly by UW-Green Bay and St. Norbert
College.
"I see the day when a person will move really in and out of our system,"
Rafn said. "We have got to make it easier so they can come and go at any
time and any place."
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