The Milwaukee Idea: Institutionalizing Engagement

In 1998, with its 50th anniversary in sight and a new Chancellor recruited to campus, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) embarked upon the "Milwaukee Idea," a renewed commitment to university-community engagement. Several factors made the timing right for this: (1) a new Chancellor seeking to strengthen the State of Wisconsin's "urban university," (2) Wisconsin was celebrating its 150th anniversary as well as the Wisconsin Idea-- a progressive agenda that included the proposition that the "boundaries of the university are the boundaries of the state," and (3) the greater Milwaukee community, facing both urban problems and opportunities, was seeking UWM, Milwaukee's largest higher education institution, to be more engaged in studying problems and identifying strategies for their resolution. (author)