As we are one day away from spring break, most of our brains are nowhere near Van Hise or the psychology building. Personally, I am taking my final midterm today, leaving campus after my final class and getting out of Madison as soon as possible for a few days. For those of us who have not left already, our plans for spring break include going home, getting some well-deserved relaxation around the Madison area, or traveling somewhere with sun and sand in order to forget our midterms, papers and textbooks for a week. For many of us — myself included — spring break means escaping Wisconsin in order to head south to the Texas Gulf Coast, Florida beaches, Colorado slopes for some late-season skiing, the Outer Banks of North Carolina or the Las Vegas Strip.
And when we graduate, 30 percent of us will leave Wisconsin permanently for these same states.
The Wisconsin "brain drain" has attracted occasional media attention for the past five years. The Badger Herald reported Wednesday that some UW officials attribute the supposed "brain drain" to not attracting enough college graduates to move to Wisconsin, while it is argued Wisconsin has been successful in retaining a high percentage of in-state graduates. So, why is Wisconsin having problems appealing to our peers from California, Kansas and Virginia?
Wisconsin does have some major drawbacks, especially for those who have never been to the Midwest. Braving a winter here is no easy task; television images of the frozen tundra of Lambeau Field in December deter plenty of would-be Wisconsinites from ever stepping foot in our state.
For college students who had to deal with the blowing north wind off of Lake Mendota the past three months, this seems to be a logical conclusion. Winter is not a pleasant experience, and I missed the Arizona desert heat on many bitter cold mornings walking on Charter Street.
Other Midwestern states have similar problems. The Iowa Civic Analysis Network reported in 2006 that Iowa has had the second-highest net migration rate of young, single college graduates from its state and was edged out only by North Dakota. For those of us born and raised in Wisconsin, this may not be a surprise. After all, who would ever want to move to Iowa?
Of course, those raised in California or Florida could say the same about Wisconsin.
It is easy to blame the winter or the image of Wisconsin as being overweight, beer-drinking, brat-eating, cheese-hat-wearing country bumpkins for the lack of twenty-somethings wanting to move here. But that's not entirely accurate. While states such as Wisconsin and Iowa have had difficulties in attracting young professionals, our even more frigid neighbor to the north actually has had a net gain in college graduates.
Minnesota has attracted more college graduates despite being farther north and having the reputation of being portrayed as backward, rural redneck, pseudo-Canadians in Fargo and Drop Dead Gorgeous. Having a reputation for being a snow-bound rural state for four months a year has, in fact, not swayed college graduates from moving there. The fact that Minnesota has made a concerted effort to attract high-tech industries to the Twin Cities and beyond has made it an alluring option to those holding a two-year or four-year degree. In addition, according to the Wisconsin Technology Network, Minnesota has widened the gap between it and Wisconsin in terms of per capita income. Minnesota has overcome some of the negative aspects of its climate and reputation by emphasizing its growing high-tech industry as a low-cost alternative to Seattle or the Bay Area.
While Minnesota has succeeded in attracting would-be job applicants to the Midwest, Wisconsin has not, in part due to the fact that it continues to hold on to its agricultural and manufacturing past — industries that, for better or for worse, have been shrinking and will continue to decline. In order for Wisconsin to be able to compete in attracting more talent to the Dairy State, the state must learn from the types of industry growth in Minnesota and the city of Madison. Madison and Dane County is the fastest growing area in the state, and this is in large part due to the growth of high-tech companies in the area. The rest of the state could benefit from competing with high-growth states by advertising itself as a state that has much more to offer than just beer and cheese.
Brain drain in Wisconsin has been a problem for the past decade. Unless the state makes a more organized effort to attract companies for which college graduates from outside of Wisconsin want to work, graduates willing to move to the Midwest will continue to bypass Wisconsin on the way north to Minnesota.
Jeff Carnes ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in linguistics.
