MEDIA

Casting net for higher education

Coalition will seek to bring postsecondary programs from UW campuses to Waukesha County sites

By SCOTT WILLIAMS
swilliams@journalsentinel.com

Posted: March 13, 2008

City of Pewaukee - Facing resistance to a campus merger, an education and business coalition Wednesday revealed a new strategy for upgrading higher education in Waukesha County without disturbing existing infrastructure.

The Waukesha County Higher Education Coalition said it instead would work to entice outside University of Wisconsin System campuses to expand and introduce new academic programs in Waukesha County.

The new strategy comes after an analysis found that Waukesha County students who pursue such popular careers as nursing and retail are served well by UW-Waukesha and other existing facilities.

"Education to meet the demand for these positions appears to be in place," consultants reported Wednesday in a study prepared for the higher education coalition.

The same report finds that students generally want a college campus that is close to home with affordable tuition - the same characteristics that make UW-Waukesha appealing to many.

But representatives of the business community warned the consultants that Waukesha County could suffer a shortage of workers in emerging industries without better job training and more advanced degrees.

As a two-year campus, UW-Waukesha provides very few programs granting bachelor's degrees.

So the higher education coalition's new report includes a plea for improved services in Waukesha County, including more bachelor's degrees, greater cooperation among institutions and fewer obstacles to post-secondary education.

In announcing its plans, the coalition said it would pursue "embedding" new degree programs in the county by persuading UW campuses to expand here starting this year. That expansion might occur at UW-Waukesha, officials said, or it might occur elsewhere.

"No turf," coalition leader Bronson Haase said. "No political posturing. No financial posturing."

The new strategy follows three years of debate about the possibility of merging UW-Waukesha with the larger and more expensive UW-Milwaukee, a four-year institution.

The 54-page report released Wednesday makes no mention of the merger idea.

The process of "embedding" new programs bears some resemblance to a merger alternative concept known as "university center," in which outside institutions would be invited to introduce new services to students at UW-Waukesha.

Patrick Schmitt, dean of the Waukesha campus, said a key difference is that the university center concept was based at UW-Waukesha, while embedding could occur anyplace in the county where facilities are adequate. He mentioned Waukesha County Technical College as one possibility.

"It becomes a much more flexible solution," Schmitt said, adding that the university center model was being shelved for now.

The merger option is not being pursued, either, although Waukesha County Executive Dan Vrakas said it could be resurrected in the future.

The merger debate began in 2005 when Waukesha County officials offered to sell UW-Waukesha to the state for $1 because of concerns that state officials were slowly transforming the campus into a four-year university. Waukesha County taxpayers pay for the building and grounds cost of the two-year campus; as a four-year campus, the state would pay for building operations.

As a two-year campus, UW-Waukesha serves non-traditional students by offering relaxed admission standards and lower tuition than four-year campuses in Madison, Milwaukee and elsewhere.

Merger supporters contend that consolidation would improve education in the region by making more advanced degrees available in the suburbs. Opponents, however, fear that such an alliance would undermine UW-Waukesha's mission and make it more difficult to serve non-traditional students.

UW administrators embraced the university center plan, but they agreed to postpone implementation until a needs assessment was finished in Waukesha County.

Funded partly by the business community, the study was launched last fall to determine whether businesses and students believe Waukesha County's higher-education needs are being met by existing facilities. The coalition includes the Waukesha County Action Network business group as well as UW-Waukesha, Waukesha County Technical College and the county executive's office.

The coalition presented its findings Wednesday to about 50 business and civic representatives at the engineering firm of Ruekert & Mielke Inc.

Consultants hired to conduct the needs assessment interviewed 100 business representatives and nearly 500 current college students.