A former University of Wisconsin administrator returned to UW after nearly 20 years on Friday, expressing the need to modernize the standards of the Wisconsin Idea.
Eugene Trani, former vice president for academic affairs, elaborated on the importance of maintaining a symbiotic relationship between the university and the Madison community, and how students should not only acquire an education in Madison, but use that education after they graduate to benefit the city.
“You need to look at everything about Madison, not just [the university], that is going to make this a destination place for young people to come as undergraduates or graduate students and build a life here,” Trani said.
Large land grant universities have lost their distinctiveness over the years because they did not communicate with the cities they resided in, Trani said. These institutions now need to learn how to forge relationships with their cities and get involved.
Former UW System President Katharine Lyall, who attended the lecture, said it seems in Wisconsin, it is the reverse problem — the state relies on the university to solve economic development plans.
“We’ve got to do something to … recreate community partners, because this is a great university, but we can’t do it all by ourselves,” Lyall said.
However, there are other separate problems that factor into the relationship between the university and the state.
“It’s hard to figure out who you go to in the city,” said Arthur Hove, a UW alumnus who attended the lecture. “How do you make this connection beyond the Chamber (of Commerce)? The chamber is there but it has a limited horizon.”
Trani also emphasized the importance of foreign influence in Madison and that the influx of international students remaining in the city post-graduation would also benefit economic development.
“Every undergraduate student should feel that international experience,” Trani said.
The educational growth of other countries is another issue the university should pay attention to, Trani said. Israel, Qatar and China are all improving higher education through networking and creating research facilities.
Qatar enlists the assistance certain United States universities to set up establishments to assist in different arenas of education, according to Trani.
Trani said UW has become involved in the benefitting of Qatar’s quest for better education. Qatar selected UW’s art program to help women find ways to work outside of the business world and out of their homes.
Trani also brought up the concept of employment and the establishment of training programs over the summer to encourage students to start living and working in Madison.
“You have been able to refocus UW-Madison because there’s a system and growing enrollments, and campuses other than University of Wisconsin-Madison … and it’s greater development and your land grant mission is evolving,” Trani said.
Getting associate professors engaged in Madison by being more vocal and open with the community and helping the citizens of the city understand that the UW is a development program, is vital to making the Wisconsin Idea persevere in modern times, Trani said.
