UW-Milwaukee Comments to the UW System Board of Regents

UWM Interim Chancellor Bob Greenstreet
UWM Incoming Chancellor Carlos E. Santiago
Wisconsin Room, UWM Union
June 11, 2004

Interim Chancellor Bob Greenstreet

Good morning, everyone, and, again, welcome.

I was flipping through "The Complete Works of Shakespeare" the other night-well, "American Idol" hadn't started yet-and I came across a segment from "Julius Caesar" that I think sets the scene as we reflect on our year of transition here at UWM.

In the second act, Caesar and Calphurnia are discussing the nature of leadership and its demise when the latter declares:

"When beggars die there are no comets seen;
The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes."

She also recounts the very strange occurrences that follow such a phenomenon as the abrupt departure of a great leader:

"A lioness hath whelped in the streets;
And graves have yawn'd and yielded up their dead;
Fierce fiery warriors fought upon the clouds,
In ranks and squadrons and right form of war,
Which drizzled blood upon the Capitol;
The noise of battle hurtled in the air,
Horses did neigh, and dying men did groan,
And Badgers will mourn when Devin Harris forsaketh the senior year."

Man, it's good stuff this Shakespeare, isn't it?

OK, jump forward to summer 2003. Our high-profile chancellor accepts the top job at the University of Cincinnati.

I'm sure you have been hearing about the Cincinnati Idea.

At the time, it was easy to think that UWM was in trouble. That those left behind weren't up to the task.

Comments in the press weren't exactly encouraging. No drizzling blood down the side of the Union, admittedly, but sobering nonetheless:

"This'll be a traumatic loss to the community," said one.

"There's a big unfinished agenda here," was another.

And also, "These are very big shoes to fill."

Well, I hope anyone who made similar predictions back then has been dutifully surprised.

Not only have we not devolved into warring factions, we've not fallen off the face of the Earth. In fact, we've made a lot of progress.

And to anyone who doubted, my colleagues have demonstrated convincingly that UWM is much bigger than any one person.

I hope you'll agree when this presentation is over, and you've also heard from our Incoming Chancellor, Carlos Santiago, that UWM is indeed maintaining and will continue to maintain the momentum of the past few years. Thanks to a dynamic transition team including Provost John Wanat, deans, vice chancellors and all our colleagues on the campus, we didn't miss a beat.

The campus is in good health.

Now that's easy for me to say, but how do you assess the health of a campus? Well, there are vital signs, indicators of a successful campus-here are just a few to reflect on.

Let's start with our lifeblood: the students.

Our enrollment was up 3% for Fall 2003 and Spring 2004, with the best increases in high-need areas for our state. Nursing enrollment was up 16% and Health Sciences improved 14%.

And for Fall 2004, freshman applications are up 9% overall. As of June 1, we've received 500 more applications than last year's record final total.

Conclusion? Analyzing the demographics, we're a hot campus. Students want to come here. That's a good sign. What is especially gratifying is that for Fall 2004, freshman applications from students of color are up 12%.

These numbers continue to support our efforts toward the Milwaukee Commitment and UW System's Plan 2008. We have not met the challenge yet. There's a huge amount of work still to do. But, believe me, we are up to the task.

With these escalating enrollment numbers come increasing challenges, some of which we discussed at yesterday's committee meetings:

Where do we house these students-many of whom seek the traditional college experience?

We're moving ahead with promising developments at Kenilworth and Columbia, but these take time.

As you know, the watchword of the State Building Commission is "Rome wasn't built in a day"-which probably explains why it was built in Italy rather than Central Wisconsin.

Size is good, but, ultimately, how big do we want to be? What's the optimal overall enrollment, given limited resources and projected demographics-balanced against our mission of access.

These are some big questions ahead for us. But there are other vital signs that are very positive for our university.

For example, research dollars coming to our university from federal and other sources continue to improve-up 48% in past five years.

The trend continues for the 2003-2004 academic year, with cumulative research funding up more than 5% compared to last year.

And there were several big successes for the year, with the following funding coming directly or indirectly to UWM:

The Carnegie Corporation gave a $5 million grant for UWM to continue to work in partnership with Milwaukee Public Schools and other Milwaukee Partnership Academy member organizations to improve teacher education

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation assigned a $17 million award to support a move to smaller high schools in the Milwaukee Public Schools, part of the overall plan to improve student achievement in our city.

And the National Science Foundation allocated $20 million over 5 years to improve the mathematics achievement of students in the Milwaukee Public Schools.

All of these investments in our programs and young people speak well of their preparation. But if costs continue to rise, how will these intelligent young women and men be able to afford college?

That's a primary reason that for the last year, as you heard at lunch yesterday, our fundraising has focused on scholarships.

How have we been doing? Well, again, the signs are encouraging.

We've been working hard.

We've seen a 150% increase in contacts made with potential contributors.

Submitted proposals have increased year to date by 278%

The amount requested has increased by 100%

We're making more requests and asking for more money than ever before.

So far, the responses have been positive.

Oh, sure, they've gasped in disbelief on occasion, but they haven't actually said no.

And this deliberative activity is yielding results.

This year's UWM Gives to UWM campaign exceeded its goal by 5% while the number of donors increased 5%.

For the UWM annual campaign, there has been a 21% increase in dollars pledged and a 10% increase in the number of donors.

And we've raised our first-ever athletic scholarships.

There has been an 18% increase in planned gifts.

And, at the end of the day, the UWM Foundation's assets grew from $33 million in June 2003 to about $39 million today.

It's early days yet, but we are heading in the right direction when it comes to external support for our university, and the pump is primed for the larger-scale future campaign.

Something else that is less easy to quantify yet which is definitely heading in the right direction for our university is pride and spirit.

It was obvious when our basketball team played on national television this year and won the Horizon League for the first time in their history. When you see grown men, stripped to the waist, painted black and gold, screaming for their alma mater, you know that that elusive campus spirit is starting to build.

It's a sight I won't soon forget-at least without medication. And I've instructed our deans of business and engineering to stop that in the future.

You can also see that spirit in many other areas.

Our Student Association, for example, was recognized this year with the United States Student Association's Outstanding Campus Award.

And after delivering an outstanding presentation at last year's Regent meeting, the students of the Black and Gold Committee continued their work on improving the student experience for those who will follow them.

Spirit is about feeling proud, feeling ownership in your campus, and, ultimately, giving back. Here are two examples.

Our young alums have noticeably increased their giving to the university, and the Collegium Society-our own faculty and staff giving back to the campus-increased their giving by 31% during a year with no pay raises.

The university also helped further pride in our Milwaukee community, too. Just this week came the announcement of the Marcus Prize-a $100,000 gift from the Marcus Family every two years to create a prize (the only one of its kind in the world)-to a young architect of exceptional international promise who will come to Milwaukee to apply his or her talents to the urban design challenge here.

UWM is proud to have played a role in the creation of this award.

And our vital signs were most evident just a few weeks ago when 2,792 graduates, including 46 at the doctoral level, were recognized during two ceremonies at the U.S. Cellular Arena.

Note two ceremonies.

We have to host two because only 9,000 family and friends can fit into the arena at one time-and that's nowhere near enough room for all the students, families and friends in the UWM family to gather to celebrate the creation of hundreds of sorely needed degree-trained graduates into the workforce of Wisconsin to help bolster our future economic health.

Pride is about collective spirit but it's embedded in personal emotion, that sense of commitment and ownership for something dear to us. It's an attachment to the past certainly, but more a belief in the future, and as I complete my interim year at UWM, I have never been more confident of UWM's future success as a premier urban research university than today.

We've looked back a year, but let's look forward three more to a landmark date. In 2007, 50% of the world's population will live in cities. That inescapable growth in urbanization will continue until by the year 2050, the population of the world will expand from 6.4 billion today to more than 9 billion.

Imagine the challenges to education, to the economy, to the environment, to the very quality of life that we have to address.

Where else to attack these challenges than in an institution whose very mission is linked to the urban condition?

We are ready to face these challenges. Our vital signs are good, our foundation strong, but we have work to do and we are ready to get on with it.

As we face our future, no one is better to tell you about that than our incoming chancellor. Please welcome him now, the seventh chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Carlos Santiago.

Thank you, Bob, and good morning, everyone.

Even though I've been on campus for less than two weeks and am still a month away from my official starting date, I know that it is a great honor to have the Board of Regents here in Milwaukee. Thank you for joining us again this June.

It is also a great privilege for me to become part of this fine institution and I look forward to the challenges and opportunities ahead. I appreciate your confidence in me.

Throughout the last year, Bob Greenstreet has talked about "maintaining the momentum" at UW-Milwaukee. Considering the whirlwind of activities I've experienced over the past week, Bob has done more than just "maintain the momentum."

He has truly built on past successes and launched important initiatives on this campus for which I am very grateful. Thank you Bob and the entire leadership team here as well as the faculty and staff that do so much for this institution and its students.

We are doing much, and we will soon be doing very much more even despite our budget challenges.

The need was well stated yesterday by UWM Student Association Vice President Tony Rodriguez, when he told Regents, "access without quality is not access."

Thus it should not come as a surprise that much of what we will accomplish will be focused around the theme "Access to Quality." What this seemingly simple phrase suggests is that higher education, particularly public higher education, is fundamentally transformative, both for the individual and the collective community.

I am sure that I share the belief in the transformative power of higher education with all of my colleagues in this room.

I am only a few generations removed from my great grandmother, who despite her illiteracy, raised seven children as a single parent and instilled in them the importance of education. I am sure that the accounts that I could share with you about my background are not all that different from your own, or from that of many UWM students and alumni.

Our individual success is due to gaining access to a superb, high quality education. As Bob has mentioned, UWM's applications continue to reach record levels and we must continue to be an institution that provides access and gives students the tools and the support they need to succeed.

But, access is not sufficient. We cannot have access unless it is to quality.

"Quality" refers first and foremost to national institutional reputation, exceptional degree programs, and excellent research. With this in mind, UWM must provide:

* Access for a diverse student population to exceptional academic programs;
* Access for the community to a rich array of intellectual and cultural programs;
* Access for the business community to research, services, and workforce preparation to further economic development in southeastern Wisconsin; and
* Access for government to quality research and innovation to further state needs.

Within this community, UWM has a special responsibility in providing Access to Quality. As a public research institution in the economic heart of the state, UWM must participate in the transformation of the larger community, particularly in economic terms.

We must continue our work with the Milwaukee Public Schools to ensure that its students are prepared for success and its teachers are fully proficient at teaching in an urban setting.

Ensuring "quality" means working internally with UWM's deans to identify our areas of excellence and further promote those areas.

To reinforce quality, we must place greater emphasis on bringing more research funding to support our programs. Bob mentioned the increase of research funding received over the past five years, and we must continue to improve those numbers.

And strengthening our quality means balancing our improvements in research with enhancements of our teaching excellence.

What that will do is improve what is already a phenomenal resource we have in this community. I can tell you that during my brief visits here, I've learned that UWM has a commitment to this community that is not often evident at other similar institutions.

I will continue the commitment that UWM has made to the Milwaukee community for I believe that the future of this city is inextricably linked with UWM.

I also believe that the success of UWM in accomplishing its mission will depend on the achievements of this city and region.

We live in a knowledge economy. The greatest resource we have
* is not in buildings and capital,
* it is not in products,
* it is not in infrastructure, and
* it is not in tools.

It is in people and
* their ability to think critically and creatively,
* their ability to ask the right questions and to look at problems in new ways and
* their ability to come up with new solutions that have a widespread positive impact.

A recent UWM poll of the Milwaukee community indicated that research was among the lowest priorities that community members felt that UWM should be engaged in. This response is strange to me and speaks to the difficult task I am faced with, since I was hired, in part, to help raise the research profile of UWM.

In the coming months, I will be working toward convincing the community-through our words AND actions-that having a viable, healthy, major public RESEARCH university in the community is the best guarantee for a bright future. All universities disseminate knowledge-we all teach students and this is fundamental to everything that we do.

But, for Milwaukee, UWM must not only disseminate knowledge, we must be at the forefront in its creation.

And it is in the creation of knowledge that the true value of this wonderful institution lies. The future of this city and its wider community lies in the creativity that we can bring to all aspects of what we do.

So, UWM does truly have a daunting task-expectations on the campus and in the community are very, very high. This is how it should be.

Can we deliver on these expectations?

I believe we can.

We will continue to do this work, to build our community, to strengthen our family.

Even though I've been here only a few weeks, I'm learning what many of you all already know.

Milwaukee is a great community and UWM is an important part of it.

I look forward to what we will do together.

Thank you.