Chancellor Nancy L. Zimpher, who will leave UWM this fall to become president of the University of Cincinnati, with Provost and Vice Chancellor John Wanat (left) and Interim Chancellor Bob Greenstreet.

from the chancellor

The Milwaukee Idea:

Now More Than Ever

All lives have defining moments. Five years ago, as the new chancellor of UWM, I was sitting across the breakfast table from UW System President Katharine Lyall. Our conversation, as I quickly learned, was actually her vision for the future of UWM. Her directions:

1. Help make UWM a presence in the community.
2. Enable better linkages with elementary and secondary education.
3. Provide for an enhanced development function.
4. Generate more support for graduate education.
5. Build strategic alliances with other higher-education institutions.
6. Ensure more high-quality programs.

That conversation was a defining moment not only for me, but also for our university. It spoke to our future – a future that we are living today. On the following pages of our annual report issue of UWM Today, you will find activities and results that address all of these ideals. Read the pages closely and you’ll find a commonality among all our initiatives. That unifying element which strengthens our teaching, research and service has been – and will continue to be – The Milwaukee Idea.

That’s because we need it now more than ever.

The Milwaukee Idea continues to be the wings on which we soar to greater heights. Or, to adapt the words of Michael Cudahy, the co-founder of Marquette Electronics, who was a May 2003 Commencement speaker for our university, The Milwaukee Idea has become our passion. “You must have a passion to really succeed in this world,” Mr. Cudahy told the 11,000 people gathered for the event. “If you don’t have a passion for something, you better find one!”

UWM will succeed because of our collective passion for bringing the resources of our university to our students and the people of Milwaukee and Wisconsin.

We will continue to cultivate our presence in the community as we have through our many breakthrough initiatives, among them:

• The College of Nursing’s community nursing centers
• The Helen Bader Institute for Nonprofit Management
• The Center on Age and Community
• The Consortium for Economic Development
• The Center for Addiction and Behavioral Health Research

Our work in these areas takes us into places where our university absolutely should be.

We will continue to enable better linkages with elementary and secondary education by maintaining our myriad partnerships with the Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS). These will include major projects, such as the dynamic Milwaukee Partnership Academy and the MPS small high school initiative supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and small yet significant projects like the virtual museum project at Riverside University High School and quick responses to school planning needs through Campus Design Solutions.

We will continue to provide for an enhanced development function through the leadership of UWM Foundation Board Chair Jill Pelisek and UWM Development Vice Chancellor Lucia Petrie. Their guidance becomes even more important in the face of large cuts in our budget from the state and our resulting need to locate alternative resources.

We will continue to generate more support for graduate education and academic research, as we have done in recent years. We’ll do this by drawing on the relevant experiences of our Milwaukee Industrial Innovation Center, with its many connections to corporations, and building on our existing National Science Foundation research grants. I’m very proud to report that we are now growing our federal grants and contracts resource base by 25 percent a year.

We will continue to build strategic alliances with other higher education institutions, as we have in recent years with our involvement with Great Cities Universities, our co-leadership (with the University of Michigan) of the Center for Intelligent Maintenance Systems, and our ever-increasing number of exchange agreements (now at 65) with universities from around the world.

And we will continue to ensure more high-quality programs by attracting the top-notch educators who are looking for the excitement of an urban university experience. We also will continue to expand our program array where it is most appropriate, as shown by new doctoral programs in health sciences and history, and the innovative new online nursing Ph.D. program.

Another defining moment occurred just recently, when I accepted the presidency of the University of Cincinnati. This defining moment will have far less influence on the university than the preceding one because of the strong leadership UWM has in place.

Interim Chancellor Bob Greenstreet has demonstrated his commitment to our university and community over the past 22 years through his guidance of the School of Architecture and Urban Planning. Provost and Vice Chancellor John Wanat has expertly coordinated the academic strengths of our university during his tenure here.

These leaders will ensure that UWM continues to lead the way in what is a national conversation about:

• The role of higher education in our society.
• The contributions that urban universities can make.
• The ways in which faculty, staff and students can become more involved in the lives of their communities.

I greatly appreciate the opportunity I was given to be a part of UWM and am confident its future progress is secure because of the collective strength of The Milwaukee Idea.

Sincerely,

— Nancy L. Zimpher, Chancellor