University of Wisconsin System President Ray Cross and Regent President Andrew S. Petersen, along with Regents Eve Hall and Torrey Tiedeman, joined UW-Milwaukee Chancellor Mark Mone for a series of events at UW-Milwaukee today in the ninth stop of UW System’s All In Wisconsin tour, aimed at demonstrating the value the UW System brings to Wisconsin.
“As a public university, it is our responsibility, our purpose to ’improve the human condition,’” President Cross said. “To succeed in that, we have to listen to our stakeholders, understand their needs, and know how we can best help, now and in the years ahead.”
The tour kicked off with a breakfast with community and business leaders including representatives from corporations and local governments in the region.
At the breakfast, Regent President Petersen spoke about the importance of forming lasting partnerships between business and the UW System.
“Supporting the UW System will help us continue our successes and generate more graduates – especially in high-need areas like nursing, engineering, business, computer science, IT and data science,” Petersen said. “And we are here to work with all of our partners to make our UW System remarkable!”
After breakfast, UWM hosted two student panels: an entrepreneurship panel featuring students and their stories with a focus of “Entrepreneurs in Action,” and a student success panel highlighting the “Panther Foundations for Success” internship development program.
“With more than 26,000 students on three campuses, UW-Milwaukee is the only public, urban, research university in the state. UWM has the largest number of diverse students in Wisconsin – and we play a critical role in the state’s economy,” Chancellor Mone said. “Every one of our students will impact the future of our state. More than 80 percent of our graduates stay in Wisconsin, which employers rely upon to fill their needs for highly skilled talent.”
The day ended with a news conference to announce an important step the UW System is taking to continue its focus on increasing diversity and inclusion across UW campuses: funding for a campus climate survey. The UW System is executing a contract with the Higher Education Research Institute to survey students at the UW System’s 13 universities to provide baseline information about the perceptions of students as they enter the universities and their experiences at the universities.
At the news conference, Presidents Petersen and Cross also spoke about the collective impact of the UW System and how investments and partnerships are key to meeting the state’s needs.
The All In Wisconsin tour is intended to demonstrate how the UW System meets the needs of Wisconsin and to generate additional ideas about how the System can continue to do so.
The next stop on the All In Wisconsin tour is UW-Madison on March 13.