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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: 1/23/07 |
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In
the News Archive - Year:
January 19, 2007 Editorial: UWGB funds need to stay in Doyle's state budget Issue
Since April, University
of Wisconsin-Green Bay Chancellor Bruce Shepard has kept the growth of
the university at the very top of his "Must Get Accomplished" list. It's
called the Northeastern Wisconsin Growth Agenda and it's aimed at addressing
the educational needs of our fast-growing and fast-changing region.
Now Shepard waits for Gov. Jim Doyle to agree with him. We add our support to UWGB's cause.
Doyle is expected to unveil his 2007-09 biennial budget proposal sometime next month, and his and the state Legislature's decisions about the Growth Agenda will have a lot to do with determining whether the vision for UWGB is dream or reality.
UWGB proposed, and the UW System Board of Regents concurred, that the budget should include $414,900 in 2007-08, and an additional $1.3 million the following year to support the Growth Agenda. The plan is to increase UWGB's enrollment from its current 5,400 students to 7,500, responding to what Shepard says is the institution's responsibility to address educational needs of the region.
He points out that if Northeastern Wisconsin were a state, it would rank near the bottom among the 50 states in the percentage of residents with college degrees. But as our region transitions from a traditional manufacturing based economy to a knowledge-based economy, it is incumbent that more high school graduates seek higher education.
Shepard, who met this week with the Green Bay Press-Gazette Editorial Board, notes also that if UWGB is truly responding to its surrounding community, its current level of 10 percent minority enrollment will have to increase.
Diversity in the community, an economic transition taking place here, and what Shepard calls a strong demand for a UWGB education are the primary factors driving the Growth Agenda. Paul Jadin, president of the Green Bay Area Chamber of Commerce, said the Growth Agenda will help drive regional growth in high-tech, high-knowledge parts of the economy, a priority of New North, the regional strategy for economic development.
As a community, we have changed. Doyle's pen can help to assure that UWGB will change with us.
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