Too bad the former UW-Washington County campus wasn’t a satellite of UW-Green Bay instead of UW-Milwaukee.
Under UWM, the West Bend college has been deserted – after six decades of getting local students off to an excellent and very affordable college education. The UWM-Waukesha campus faces a similar closure at the end of the school year.
Meanwhile, two of three satellite campuses of UW-Green Bay – Sheboygan and Manitowoc – are alive and well and UWGB has increased its enrollment over ten years from about 6,600 to more than 10,000. Its Marinette two-year college is mostly closed.
In comparison, UWM enrollment has dropped from 25,035 in 2010 to 22,683 in 2024.
Facing the same enrollment challenges as many regional universities, Green Bay
Chancellor Mike Alexander (pictured right) chose several innovative paths. UWM Chancellor Mone chose to listen to his faculty objections to incorporating West Bend and Waukesha and led indecisively.
He quarantined the West Bend two-year college from the downtown operation, cut its resources and bucked a merger recommendation with nearby Moraine Park Technical College. That could have been a no-brainer consolidation.
MPTC President Bonnie Baerwald and West Bend Dean Peter Rettler undoubtedly high-fived in private at the UW closure here. They expected to pick up a good percentage of the 370 UWM-WC students who were cut adrift. Didn’t happen. MPTC-WB has enrolled 44 in “general studies,” up from 8.
What did Alexander do differently at UWGB?
First off, he embraced the satellite professors as full-fledged faculty of UWGB. He surely had to override some objections from main campus faculty members. Valuable satellite professors were used on the main campus and vice versa. Alexander made the tough call that Mone didn’t make.
Second, he was an early adopter of direct, “open access” UWGB admissions of high school seniors with decent grades. It was a business savvy call to enlarge his market pool of young people. Lots of high school graduates are undecided about their futures. Now, one solid option, enrollment at UWGB, is right there in front of them. They have been accepted to that beautiful campus. Nine other UW universities have also adopted direct admissions.
Third, he capitalized on the strong trend for high school juniors and seniors to take advantage of dual credits. They take UWGB classes that count for high school graduation and for college credits toward a bachelor’s degree. It’s possible for a diligent student to graduate with both a diploma and an associate degree, at no extra cost.
Fourth, he cut out majors and minors that had low enrollments, a controversial but pragmatic decision to keep UWGB alive.
Fifth, unlike UWM in Milwaukee, the establishment in Northeast Wisconsin is fully behind Alexander and UWGB. The board of its foundation acts like a mini, regional board of directors. The coherent leadership therefore aligns with regional industry and jobs. Its collective power won a new UWGB engineering school, once thought impossible to attain.
Back to the virtues of dual credit. The dual enrollees qualify as part of UWGB’s enrollment improvement. One-third of its enrollees are still in high school.
Early returns show that one-third of the dual credit youngsters decide to stick at UWGB as upper-classmen. The win-win recruiting program is called “Rising Phoenix” after the school’s mascot.
Many of the other dual credit students reportedly head to the other 12 UW universities. In effect, Alexander is recruiting for his sister UW universities.
The chancellor also works closely with neighboring technical colleges for students headed more directly into the work world. Tech colleges have transfer arrangements with four-year colleges for those who decide that they want more than a two-year degree.
Tech colleges also have dual credit programs for high school students headed for technical careers. They have adapted to the changed demographics.
Long and short, Chancellor Alexander has responded to the enormous enrollment challenges of today with bold innovative models for higher education. He is a standout leader.
As UWM searches for its next chancellor, his name should be on the short list.
