Welcome and Good afternoon. My name is Dennis Shaw and I have the honor of serving as Chair of the Senate of Academic Staff here at UW-Stout.
Twenty-three months ago today the Senate of Academic Staff was proud to be the first of our three governance groups to vote to support the polytechnic branding of UW-Stout. The resolution passed, among other things, noted our pleasure that Chancellor Sorensen and the administration had put a planning process in place that solicited valuable public input on the idea of branding the campus as the "polytechnic" institution of the Wisconsin, that it is very important to clearly differentiate this campus from the other UW System campuses when marketing UW-Stout to potential students and business partners, and that our program array does match up favorably with other universities calling themselves a "polytechnic."
I was proud to be a part of the UW-Stout delegation that attended the March 9, 2007 meeting of the Board of Regents where they passed a resolution worded as follows:
That, upon recommendation of the Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Stout and the President of the University of Wisconsin System, the Board of Regents supports the designation of UW-Stout as Wisconsin’s Polytechnic University.
With that simple statement one year ago, we have begun a new and important journey. We have spent much time talking about the branding advantages of the polytechnic designation, and I promised that I would keep my remarks short, so I won’t dwell on those at this time.
I do however want to say just a couple things about the fact that this designation has put us into a new group of peers. Every organization has to have aspirational goals in order to improve and grow. We did not aspire to be like UW-Eau Claire, or River Falls, or La Crosse. They are all fine institutions but Stout is very different from the other UW comprehensive campuses. We will however be more true to our roots, and grow and excel, by being in the same peer group with the other great polytechnic universities such as MIT, Cal Poly, and Virginia Tech.
I told the Chancellor that I’m can’t wait to see a catchy slogan on a bumper sticker or t-shirt that says “Can’t afford MIT, it’s UW-Stout’s in-state tuition for me!” or “Too far from home is Cal Poly, so I’m going to Stout by golly!” Please forgive the bad rhymes, but I hope you share my enthusiasm for the opportunities this polytechnic designation and the peer group we now find ourselves in has opened for the UW-Stout campus.
With that thought, I’ll have the pleasure to introduce our next speaker. First of all, Mike Lubke, SSA President, wanted everyone to know that he wishes he could have joined us, but he told us he has a class at this time and they are reviewing for a test, so he felt it would be a good idea to attend his class. Hopefully he’ll be able to join us later.
Therefore, please welcome our next speaker, Dr. Jerry Kapus who serves as Chair of the Faculty Senate this year.
