OPINION & EDITORIAL
Kudos! SuperSavers
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Also by Badger Herald Editorial Board:
- A security fee-for-all (December 11, 2007)
- Farewell, Chancellor (December 10, 2007)
- $$FC (December 6, 2007)
- In a bind (December 5, 2007)
- Entitlement Town (December 4, 2007)
Related Stories:
- Stay tuned, Madison (January 18, 2007)
- Discomfort vital to learning (March 5, 2007)
- Students need, deserve better secondary education before college (February 1, 2007)
- Madison police only make things worse (May 3, 2007)
- Irrelavent stories add little to news coverage (November 10, 2005)
by Badger Herald Editorial Board
Tuesday, February 3, 2004
More often than not, it is easier to spot stories in a newspaper today about students being arrested or involved in scandal than doing something for the greater good of the community.
Yet students do many exciting and uplifting things that also deserve recognition. Professor Douglas Marschalek and his Computers and Elementary and Secondary Art Education class is a good example.
Marschalek’s class is continuing a tradition his classes have been doing for years: entering the Madison community to help residents solve neighborhood problems.
The Sentry SuperSaver store on Verona Road in the Allied Drive area has been vacant since early 2000, leaving the 70,000 square-foot building useless to its community. This semester, his class is finishing what his two previous classes started: finding a use for the store that would benefit the area and at the same time give the neighborhood a better sense of cohesion.
Marschalek’s first two classes went into the neighborhood and gathered information about the residents living in the Allied Drive area. They investigated the strong aspects of the area and tried to narrow down weaknesses. Finally, they considered solutions for those weaknesses.
By brainstorming with community organizations such as the Boys and Girls Club, the class suggested using the building for after-school activities, a library, a health clinic or a job training facility, to name just a few of the possibilities.
Because of recent development in the Allied Drive area, money is available in the form of $5.5 million in tax-increment financing revenue. With one catch — if the community decides to use the money for development at the Sentry SuperSaver site, the money must be used to stimulate further economic development.
Regardless of how the community decides to use the funds, Marschalek’s class is working hand-in-hand with residents to present the community with models for the building, to help them visualize different possibilities.
Marschalek explains by being able to visualize changes or to actually see the possibilities, residents can realize options do exist. By presenting the neighborhood with ideas, his class is putting the control in the hands of those most affected by the project.
The students realize this is a huge undertaking, too big for one class to solve in one semester, but Marschalek explains by jump-starting the process they hope to bring city, county and state officials to the bargaining table in hopes of finding a solution.
Marschalek and his students should be a model for the rest of the university. They are finding ways to learn and use real-world skills that will benefit not only themselves, but a community in need as well.
We wish more teachers like Marschalek would strive to provide their students with similar opportunities. Madison and surrounding communities need this sort of creativity and passion. Working together to find solutions to problems is a lesson always worth teaching.
