>> Yeah. Tyler Wenzlaff, thanks >> Yeah. Thank you.
>> UW schools separate from the flagship in Madison, mostly see
falling enrollment and budget woes. As a result, some branch
campuses have been closed altogether, resulting in
layoffs. Some majors have been eliminated, and there has been
belt tightening all around. The UW administration is asking the
legislature for $855 million in the next two year budget to
shore up the system. That's expected to be a fight with
Republican legislators. Amidst all of this, though, a bright
spot, UW green Bay this fall saw record high enrollment of 7000
full time students and eliminated its deficit last
year. How did they do it? We turn to UW green Bay Chancellor
Michael Alexander. Ahead of that, we should note PBS
Wisconsin is part of UW-Madison. And Chancellor, thanks very much
for being here. >> Thanks very much for having
me. >> So that big question is how
did you boost enrollment to these levels?
>> Well, I think we're really trying to redefine how we view
who a student could be. So we really view a student as anyone
who wants to learn. And we feel that as a regional
comprehensive, we should be of value to every citizen in
northeast Wisconsin, whether they be, you know, all the way
from pre-K, all the way through retirement, right, that there
should be some way that the this regional comprehensive we are
serving people who want to continue their education. So we
work everything from a lot of college credit in high school.
Our dual enrollment with students, obviously, we have
traditional students who come live on campus. We have a ton of
commuters. We have a ton of people who are in the workforce
who come with us, and we teach over 85,000 people a year in
Noncredit work to help them advance their careers and their
lives. >> So do you feel as though UW
green Bay has is starting to become known as a place where
people in different stages of their life can go and get that
degree? >> I hope so, I think we are
doing everything we can to make sure that we are viewing
education through the eyes of a student. In other words, what
makes it convenient for a student to advance their life
through education as opposed to just thinking about what may be
convenient for us? So we're adapting the university as fast
as we can to live in that reality. In the modern world,
where people have complicated lives and we need to meet them
where they are to make sure they can have education, be a part of
it. campuses will be using yours as
a model? Example? >> I don't know, but I know that
every campus in the UW system is doing really amazing work, and
all of us have very different circumstances based on location
and all the different things. I think I'm really, really proud
to have amazing colleagues across the system that are doing
an amazing job educating students.
>> At the same time, your Marinette branch campus closed
in-person classes and UW green Bay eliminated some majors,
including theater. What do you say to people who say campuses
are now just trying to kind of turn out industry specific
workers rather than focus on college attainment in the
liberal arts for its own sake? >> Well, I think that's a really
great question. I think that we believe very strongly that the
reason you come to a university is because you're going to learn
more than just a skill for, for a job. You're going to learn
skills that will help you throughout your life and your
career. That has to be skills that you learn through the
liberal arts, like communication, like
understanding how to how to talk to people who have differing
ideas than you do. So important in the modern world, and
learning through things like theater. So we are looking very
carefully about how to make sure we can get more students who
take things like theater. It doesn't mean we have to have a
major in it. We believe, though, that those liberal arts classes
are core to who we are, and Marinette is a great example of
this. Marinette we have a technical college that's right
next door to us in Marinette, and we still have options for
education in Marinette for students who need the university
for an access point to their classes. But we've really
invested in the theater. There, and the theater in Marinette now
is thriving. It's sold out performances. It has really
grown under UW green Bay, and we're really proud of that. It's
I think we have to look at education differently and we
view Marinette broadly as a success, even though we don't
have in-person classes anymore. >> So you had to spend down your
reserves, I understand, to get rid of the deficit. How much
does UW green Bay need an infusion of state dollars to
keep going, even with your enrollment success?
>> I think it's really important that the state look at how it's
investing in education to make sure that we're preparing the
workforce. We need for the future. And if you look at this,
and if you look, there's a Georgetown study that talked
about this, about what good jobs will look like. And by good
jobs, it's not white collar, blue collar. I'm talking about.
It's just jobs that are going to be able to pay well and more and
more of those as we look into the next decade, are going to
require education beyond high school. And it's certainly
possible to have a rewarding career and not have any
experience beyond high school. It's just the odds of having a
high paying job are less right. And so how do we make sure that
we're putting people and allowing people to evolve in the
workforce? As the workforce skills you need change so
quickly in the current age, if you think about even AI and what
kind of skills we will need in the future, this is really
important. >> All right. Chancellor Michael