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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: 10/3/06 |
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Reprinted from: Green Bay Press-Gazette April 9, 2006 Editorial: UWGB key to educating workers
Issue
Our view
Make no mistake about the priorities driving the new Northeastern Wisconsin Growth Agenda for UW-Green Bay.
The area is experiencing significant economic, regional and demographic shifts simultaneously — to a high-tech and new-skills 21st century global economy, to a regional approach in place of parochialism and turf wars, to an aging population and to new population growth dominated by diverse newcomers.
What a huge challenge it is for an area long accustomed to being an economic powerhouse to suddenly have to adjust to an unfamiliar world. And what an awakening it is for people who assumed job security and success in the previous agriculture, papermaking and mass manufacturing environment only to find themselves struggling to adapt to the new Knowledge Age economy.
As UWGB Chancellor Bruce Shepard emphasized in a conversation with the Press-Gazette Editorial Board a few days ago, past economic success in Northeastern Wisconsin was so little dependent on a college degree that just 18.8 percent of local adults in the 18-county New North region have one. "If we were a state," he said, "we would rank 49th in the nation."
"No surprise, the comparatively low college-participation rate is a holdover from the days a comfortable life could be had with a paper-mill job straight out of high school," Shepard wrote in an April newsletter. "Back then, regional wealth could flow from a good location, proximity to rich natural resources and local workers with exemplary work habits and a solid level of basic education."
The Knowledge Age has dramatically changed all that and increased the need for workers with advanced technical skills and baccalaureate degrees. So, business, education and civic leaders put their heads together and came up with the UWGB Growth Agenda, a comprehensive plan to move the region into position to compete in the new economy.
It calls for UWGB enrollment growth to about 7,500 students, state investment that matches the commitment the people of Northeastern Wisconsin have made to the UWGB experience and a focus on educating and helping a diverse, rapidly growing work force to succeed.
Wisconsin cannot afford to have its third-largest metropolitan area stagnate because today's economy requires skills and education that the regional work force doesn't have.
The agenda is clear. The commitment, hard work and perseverance must follow.
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