Time for Action: Say No to UW-Tosa... And Yes to UW-Milwaukee!

Milwaukee is facing a critical moment. A moment in time that requires action of its citizens.

Currently the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee is in negotiations with Milwaukee County to acquire land at the County Research Park with the intention of building a new engineering school. Although UWM's ambitious plan to grow the university has value and promise its choice of location in Wauwatosa will have long term negative impacts on the city, the students, and the region. By locating the new school in Wauwatosa it will add congestion, promote costly freeway expansion, make higher education less affordable, put additional burdens on students, increase pollution, and encourage sprawl.

Locating UWM's new engineering campus within the city has numerous benefits for the students and the city. By locating within the city, students will have better access to mass transit and shorter distances to travel. By locating within the city, students who have gone to undergraduate school at UWM and wish to go on to graduated school won't need to move out of their homes to be close to campus. By locating within the city, students will have better access to internship opportunities at Fortune 500 companies such as JCI and Rockwell. By locating within the city, Milwaukee keeps 300 college graduates who will spur development, support local business, add eyes on the street, innovate, live and work. Keeping UWM within Milwaukee helps the students to help the city.

If UWM expands in Wauwatosa the students and Milwaukee will receive all of the negatives and none of the positives. Now some may say our moment has passed and our opportunity lost, but as citizens and taxpayers we can have a voice. So I encourage you to ask your elected officials to work with the city, to find a location downtown, in the Park East, or on the Eastside. I encourage you to ask them to "Say No to UW-Tosa... And Say Yes to UW-Milwaukee!"

It is time for action...

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Chancellor Carlos E Santiago - ces95@uwm.edu

City of Milwaukee Elected Officials

Mayor Tom Barrett - mayor@milwaukee.gov
Common Council President Willie L. Hines, Jr. - 15th District Alderman - whines@milwaukee.gov
Alderman Ashanti Hamilton - 1st District Alderman - ahamil@milwaukee.gov
Alderman Joe Davis - 2nd District Alderman - jldavis@milwaukee.gov
Alderman Michael S. D'Amato - 3rd District Alderman - mdamat@milwaukee.gov
Alderman Robert J. Bauman - 4th District Alderman - rjbauma@milwaukee.gov
Alderman James A. Bohl, Jr. - 5th District Alderman - jbohl@milwaukee.gov
Alderman Michael McGee, Jr. - 6th District Alderman - mmcgee@milwaukee.gov
Alderman Willie C. Wade - 7th District Alderman - wwade@milwaukee.gov
Alderman Robert G. Donovan - 8th District Alderman - rdonov@milwaukee.gov
Alderman Robert W. Puente - 9th District Alderman - rpuent@milwaukee.gov
Alderman Michael J. Murphy - 10th District Alderman - mmurph@milwaukee.gov
Alderman Joe Dudzik -11th District Alderman - jdudzi@milwaukee.gov
Alderman James N. Witkowiak - 12th District Alderman - jwitko@milwaukee.gov
Alderman Terry L. Witkowski - 13th District Alderman - twitko@milwaukee.gov
Alderman Tony Zielinski -14th District Alderman - tzieli@milwaukee.gov

Milwaukee County Elected Officials

County Executive Scott Walker - countyexec@milwcnty.com

Supervisor James White, 1st District - James.White@milwcnty.com

Supervisor Toni Clark, 2nd District - tclark@milwcnty.com

Supervisor Gerry Broderick, 3rd District - gbroderick@milwcnty.com

Supervisor Marina Dimitrijevic, 4th District - mdimitrijevic@milwcnty.com
Chairman Lee Holloway, 5th District - lholloway@milwcnty.com

Supervisor Joseph Rice, 6th District - jrice@milwcnty.com

Supervisor Michael Mayo, Sr., 7th District - mmayo@milwcnty.com

Supervisor Patricia Jursik, 8th District - patricia.jursik@milwcnty.com

Supervisor Paul Cesarz, 9th District - pcesarz@milwcnty.com

Supervisor Elizabeth Coggs-Jones, 10th District - ecoggs-jones@milwcnty.com
Supervisor Mark Borkowski, 11th District - mborkowski@milwcnty.com

Supervisor Peggy West, 12th District - pwest@milwcnty.com

Supervisor Willie Johnson, Jr., 13th District - wjohnson@milwcnty.com

Supervisor Richard Nyklewicz, Jr., 14th District - rnyklewicz@milwcnty.com
Supervisor Lynne De Bruin, 15th District - ldebruin@milwcnty.com

Supervisor John Weishan, Jr., 16th District - jweishan@milwcnty.com
Supervisor Dan Devine, 17th District - ddevine@milwcnty.com
Supervisor Roger Quindel, 18th District - rquindel@milwcnty.com
Supervisor Jim Luigi Schmitt, 19th District - jschmitt@milwcnty.com

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee as "Talent Magnet"

Universities are amazingly effective talent attractors, and their effect is truly magnetic. - Richard Florida, "The Rise of the Creative Class"

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) has the ability to attract students, professors and researchers from around the world and these people represent a potential pool of talent to be grown within Milwaukee. A recent article titled Closing the income gap with education points out a severe lack of talent in Milwaukee County by showing that approximately only 1 in 5 residents have college degrees and further points out that the number of degrees per capita is correlated to per capita income level. Now the number of degrees per capita is just one measurement of talent but many studies have verified this correlation and so it appears attracting new students to Milwaukee is a priority. Additionally the report Attracting the Young, College-Educated to Cities put out by CEOs for Cities, points out that "college-educated young people are most likely to consider living in places similar to where they are now" so these students are more likely to stay within Milwaukee post graduation and increase the overall talent level. This ability to attract and retain talent is a significant opportunity the City of Milwaukee needs to capitalize upon.

To capitalize on this opportunity to the fullest indicates that a larger student enrollment for UWM should be another piece of the economic plan for Milwaukee because more students equal more talent. To achieve this goal many hurdles need to be overcome such as, how that many residents on the Eastside see UWM as a nuisance, the reality that the school is located in a dense neighborhood, and that it still has the stigma of being a commuter college. Some positive events are already occurring along these lines such as Joseph Zilber's $10 million donation to UWM to fund a new school of public health within the city. But to overcome these hurdles, significantly increase enrollment, as well as encourage students to stay in Milwaukee post graduation a number of steps need to be taken.

The Plan:

1. Change Perception - While UWM is no longer a "commuter college" it is still refereed to as such in the media and residents therefore an effort needs to be made to change this perception within the Milwaukee community. One way to change this perception is to change the schools name to the University of Milwaukee or Wisconsin State University to separate itself from the other UW-X schools and give it a new identity.

2. Increase Exposure - An expanded athletic program in either football or hockey could lead to more national recognition as well as increased alumni donations. Football would overtime allow for UWM to reach a much larger audience whereas hockey would further establish it within the Midwest. Both of these would help introduce the school to new potential students and in the long run help raise enrollment.

3. Housing - UWM currently has 2,700 beds on campus and receives 12,000 requests for housing each year which forces many students to live off campus or worse yet many students end up turning down UWM and going elsewhere. Local politicians should be encouraged to allow UWM to purchase and convert the former Columbia St. Mary's Hospital and convert the building into new student dormitories. Additionally the city should support new dormitories to be developed within the Eastside and Riverwest as space within the campus is already tight but the demand for housing will only grow as the school grows.

4. International Recruiting - One method that could be used to increase enrollment is to increase the reach for talent by recruiting students worldwide potentially using a plan similiar to what I laid out in the Athens of the Midwest article.

5. Expanding Campus - Encourage UWM to add its proposed additional two campuses within the
city be it in the Park East land or potentially land on the Eastside because spreading the campus throughout the suburbs introduces new hurdles for the school to overcome. For example expanding into the suburbs will make attending UWM more difficult and it will erode its identity. Expansion within the City of Milwaukee will only strengthen it ties to the community and allow more students to attend UWM.

6. Retention. - Programs such as Philadelphia's One Big Campus should be implemented in Milwaukee to increase the retention rate of students after graduation. The importance of retaining the students after graduation is to turn around the "brain drain", increase the overall population of the city, and increase the supply of highly educated citizens.