CHIPPEWA FALLS, Wis. – Some economists would say there’s no such thing as a single “Wisconsin economy” but a set of interlocking regional economies defined by markets and industries within, often meshing with others within the state or across state borders – but sometimes not.
Cooperation and mutual self-interest can make all the difference about how those regional economies click.
That reality was driven home during a recent forum at Chippewa Valley Technical College, where leaders of five higher education colleges met with representatives from a range of businesses and economic development groups to talk about current connections and ways to make them better.
Meeting in Chippewa Valley Tech’s Energy Education Center, chancellors or presidents from UW-Eau Claire, UW-River Falls, UW-Stout, Northwood Technical College and CVTC talked about how they cooperate among themselves to produce students who contribute to western Wisconsin’s economy – often working with business and industry along the way.
“Our top five (academic) competitors aren’t even sitting at this table right now,” said UW-Eau Claire Chancellor Jim Schmidt, noting how often the region’s colleges collaborate, especially when it comes to tailoring programs to enhance economic growth. “We work together constantly.”
Collectively, the five schools have more than 53,000 students and about 1,400 faculty members, which makes them an economic force on their own. It’s the notion of working together to avoid duplication and respond quickly to workforce and industry demands that extend that reach.
“This kind of cooperation came from business and industry asking for it,” said Katherine Frank, chancellor at UW-Stout. “And we can’t do it without our technical college partners. I think that’s the future of higher education.”
“Part of our culture is to collaborate… We want to work with others to produce more students with the skills and education needed to land a good job,” added John Will of Northwood Technical College.
The region served by the five institutions includes 10 counties in western Wisconsin: Barron, Chippewa, Clark, Dunn, Eau Claire, Pepin, Pierce, Polk, Rusk and St. Croix. It’s bound together by one of Wisconsin’s nine regional economic development agencies, Momentum West.
“We set the bar in terms of working together across a region,” said Steve Yahn, executive director for Momentum West. Such groups provide technical assistance and lead talent attraction and development initiatives in ways that local chambers sometimes cannot.
While the five colleges and tech colleges don’t offer doctoral research programs along the lines of larger institutions in Wisconsin, they’re nonetheless steeped in meeting industry needs for directed research.
Sumen Beaton-Garcia of Chippewa Valley Tech described programs in energy, food and agricultural science, nursing, software, marketing and more. Northwood’s Will cited a similar footprint. John Chenoweth, interim chancellor at UW-River Falls, said applied and industry-inspired research can be found in all college programs and disciplines. UW-Stout’s Frank said her campus – which is called Wisconsin’s Polytechnic University – has about 70 applied research programs with 60 capstone projects in engineering alone.
“Research is in our DNA,” said UW-Eau Claire’s Schmidt, noting the campus has been conducting research since the mid-1960s. This year, it was ranked by U.S. News and World Report as 35th among all U.S. universities for undergraduate research.
How is it paying off for the region? In part, those five colleges attract students from other states as well as Wisconsin. At UW-Eau Claire, for example, a recent survey showed that a disproportionate number of graduates who came from outside the Chippewa Valley stayed there to live and work.
Per capita incomes in the 10 counties run a wide range among Wisconsin’s 72 counties, but six of the 10 counties rank in the top half.
In a world that seems increasingly competitive and not collaborative, regions that stress cooperation to attract and retain talent and industry may have an advantage. Time will tell if that formula continues to work in western Wisconsin.
