By David Gordon, associate editor
Recruiting more out-of-state students and expanding the cooperative research agreement with Mayo Clinic Health System are key elements in the future of the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, according to Chancellor James C. Schmidt.
The chancellor talked about both topics when he spoke to some 50 people at the UW-EC Emeriti Association luncheon last week at Wild Ridge Country Club. He also discussed current and planned changes in the campus, the importance of internships and study abroad and the need for students to learn to listen to others whose ideas they disagree with.
With in-state tuition remaining frozen by the Legislature, enrolling more out-of-state students is the only way to increase tuition income, Schmidt said. The university has increased its recruiting efforts in Iowa and in the northwest suburbs of Chicago, he said.
“We are a bargain even if they’re paying double” what Wisconsin and Minnesota (through reciprocal tuition) residents are charged, he said.
Schmidt stressed “the importance of that international experience” that study abroad provides and said that he has heard from various students across many majors about the ways it changed their lives. He also reported that close to 70 percent of UW-EC students take some form of for-credit internships.
The chancellor noted that UW-Eau Claire and Arizona State University are the only schools with Universal Research Agreements with the Mayo system, in part because neither one has a medical school or a hospital that competes with Mayo. He said that the quality of undergraduate research that’s being done here is a key factor that will lead to increased support from Mayo.
Schmidt illustrated that last point by relating the story of a UW-EC sophomore whose research presentation led a Mayo executive to mistake her briefly for a Ph.D. student. The immediate result of that was that Mayo has now set aside four slots in its summer research program for UW-EC students, who previously had never been selected to participate.
Schmidt noted that UW-EC currently has some 750 pre-med students enrolled and that Mayo’s goal is that “we become the country’s number one pre-med school.” Mayo is also interested in funding released time for faculty research on topics of interest to the health system, he said.
Among the campus projects the chancellor noted were the new Visitor Center on Roosevelt Avenue, which will be under construction this summer and whose $5.5 million cost is being funded entirely by alumni donations. Groundbreaking for the Sonnentag Event and Recreation Complex is scheduled for 2021 or 2022, he said, and added that it will also be home to Mayo’s sports medicine program.
Schmidt showed a slide of the design for an archway over the Garfield Avenue entrance to the campus, which he said was inspired by a similar entrance to the Purdue University campus. Also planned for the lower campus is a fountain near Schofield Hall that will have the capacity to be lighted in colors appropriate to different events and seasons of the year.
In answer to a question, Schmidt said he tells incoming freshmen that they are “here to be stretched outside your comfort zone” in regard to their outlook on life. He said he urges them to find a student whose ideas they disagree with during their first six weeks on campus and invite that person for a cup of coffee and a discussion, and he added that an idea to advance such opportunities is being developed.
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