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Photo by Pete Amland
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Joe Czarnezki’s links to UWM are as strong as the ties to his family and the bond he has with his hometown of Milwaukee.
Czarnezki (’77 MA Political Science, ’75 BA Economics), the new president of the UWM Alumni Association Board of Trustees, says he is looking forward to the next two years of alumni activities and is proud that his alma mater is forging its own distinct identity in Wisconsin.
“There’s a lot to do,” says the former state senator and representative. “And the Alumni Association is benefiting from the enthusiasm generated by the Chancellor.”
The director of the city’s Budget and Management Division, Czarnezki, like many UWM students, earned his degree while also working, often full time on second shift.
“If it weren’t for UWM I probably wouldn’t have gotten a degree,” he says. “Going away to study wasn’t an option for me.”
Born into a politically active family, Czarnezki says he was drawn to public service work from an early age.
His father, a longtime Milwaukee County employee, was an active union member who volunteered in Democratic campaigns.
During college, Czarnezki and his future spouse, fellow UWM student Mary Ann Schroeder, immediately started their own political lives.
“We were both in the Young Dems, and I remember Joe fighting to keep an office for the group open in the Student Union,” Mary Ann recalls.
The couple liked to spend Friday nights at the Gasthaus and attend athletic events in Baker Fieldhouse.
After getting married, Czarnezki started studying for a graduate degree, while working on Jimmy Carter’s presidential campaign.
Mary Ann got a glimpse of things to come when, on the way to Florida for their honeymoon, her husband made a pit stop in Atlanta to finish a project for the Carter campaign.
He continued to work on others’ political campaigns, even after he threw his own hat in the ring.
When no candidate appealed to him in the 1980 race for a seat in the Wisconsin Assembly, friends urged him to run. Czarnezki was elected, but made a switch to the State Senate in 1983 when Jim Flynn left to become lieutenant governor.
As a senator, Czarnezki chaired the Education Committee and served as a member of the Joint Committee on Finance, which is responsible for the multi-billion-dollar state budget.
When he left state politics after 12 years, Czarnezki accepted an appointment from Mayor John Norquist to work for the city.
And, like the city and politics, UWM remains a constant presence in the Czarnezki household.
Mary Ann earned her master’s degree in 1982 and then a doctorate in ’95. She was a hospital administrator, but after finishing her Ph.D. in Urban Studies, Mary Ann took a job as a lecturer in UWM’s Sociology Department.
“It’s like we’ve never left the campus,” she says. “But, on the other hand, there have been so many changes that friends who haven’t been here in a
while probably would not recognize it.”
—Laura L. Hunt