 Welcome to Sheboygan County government working for you. My name is Adam Payne. I'm the Sheboygan County administrative coordinator and with me today is county board chairman and co-host of this program Bill Gehring and we welcome our guest this month Dean Ray Hernandez who has been the dean now of UW Sheboygan I think for the last three years. Today we're going to discuss some of the real exciting projects and initiatives and activities out here at UW Sheboygan. Many of you may not be aware that the UW Sheboygan campus is actually owned by the county and operated by the state it's a rather unique and it's been a very successful partnership. So why don't we get into it Dean could you please start by sharing with our viewers a little bit about yourself and your roles and responsibilities as dean here. Certainly Adam and hello to you hello chairman. It's a pleasure it's always a pleasure for me to talk about UW Sheboygan as you mentioned there's lots of exciting things going on out here and and you know I just love to see the the kind of excitement and rewards that that I see happening on a daily basis here with our students. I was born and raised in Texas and came actually was in Wisconsin in the late 80s. I attended graduate school at UW Milwaukee so I did have a taste of Wisconsin formerly and spent about three years in Milwaukee so I was a little bit prepared for the change in climate. I met my wife there in UW Milwaukee and I sconded with her back to Texas where she she and I worked for for 20 years and always looking for an opportunity to get back to the to the area of my wife for her this was homecoming you know three years ago and so when this position opened up and I had been working my way from up from the faculty ranks into administrative posts in higher education and then I was appointed in my career where I was ready to make a move into a campus executive officer position and so when this opening came about you know we were very excited about applying and then when we visited Sheboygan and Sheboygan County I was just impressed so much by the what a thriving community it is the the kinds of refurbishment that's happening in the downtown area along the lakefront on the riverfront and all of that all those are positive signs and so it seemed like a like a good place to to live and of course that that's been born out since moving here about three years ago. So when folks hear Dean the title Dean give them a sense of what that means what are some of your roles and responsibilities here really the Dean on this particular in this particular institution functions more like a president of a small private college we you know in in larger institutions a dean is responsible for a certain division and over certain departments and mostly deals with internal kinds of administrative functions and reports to a vice president provost or president like that in this position the Dean the title Dean is not really appropriate in my in my estimation because it really functions more like a college president I just mentioned my role is as much internal external as it is internal I'm responsible for being out in the community fundraising friend-raising being involved in organizations creating awareness for the campus you know developing constituencies promoting the campus to the community at large and and that sort of thing very much like a like a college president would do and so this particular position has the function of the of the administrative and academic leadership of the campus as well as the external relations that that goes along with with the presidency of the college now earlier I mentioned the partnership between the county and the state and we we have quite a history here could you touch on that a little bit well this these partnerships have evolved over time but initially got started in the early 1900s when the the president of the UW system president van heis coined the phrase the wisconsin idea which literally meant that the boundaries of the university would be the boundaries of the state and higher education would be made available to every home around the state and so that meant that centers needed to be created at various locations in the state where local residents could access the university education and so it started out as an extension of the UW and Madison later becoming the center system but in order for that to to work to operationalize the idea the UW system entered into partnerships with local units of government saying you know if you will provide facilities we will provide the programming and instruction for the local citizens so as as early as 1905 this idea was was working and and Sheboygan got into the act very early and so by by the 1930s there was a UW extension operating in Sheboygan out of the old central high school and then I believe around 1962 the Sheboygan County Board of Supervisors established the current location and broke ground on the main building in 1962 and so it's it's been a long-standing tradition in this community and a way of the UW system making higher education accessible at the local level and and the county playing a significant role by providing the facilities and operation to in order to do that so it's unique but it's it's been working quite well yeah it's been working very well in addition to that partnership there's been a lot of interest and activity among students and participating here and you were just showing us prior to starting the enrollment increases what's happened to enrollment here since you became dean three years ago well when I arrived three years ago enrollment was on an increase in fact since beginning about 1995 enrollment has been taking a rather sharp increase here in on this campus in fact since 1995 enrollment has increased something like 68 percent and so when I arrived in 2000 we were in the midst of that kind of enrollment increase and so I had to deal we had to begin to deal with how do we accommodate the enrollment increases both in terms of staffing and facilities and so I immediately became involved in doing some long-range planning because it didn't appear like the trend was going to end anytime soon and in fact as I mentioned earlier even today our applications for next fall are 20 percent ahead of where they were at this time last fall and so if that trend continues then as I mentioned also over the next few years I can see this institution exceeding a thousand headcount which would be about a hundred percent increase since 1995 and enrollment headcounts at this institution so I've been engaged in in planning basically doing a lot of planning and preparation for that anticipated growth and then also in developing new and different kinds of programming as as I scan the community and the needs of the local community and business and industry it became apparent to me that we needed to provide some additional types of programming some programming and curriculum that maybe might have been slightly different from what the role has been for this campus in the past so there's been a slight change in our in our mission and relationship to the community as well and so I've been working very diligently to to strengthen those those relationships and strengthen that communication and listen to the needs and your relationship has also changed in coordination with the four-year campuses exactly so I mentioned scanning or or surveying the local community needs one of the things that that that was emerging when I arrived here was a need to provide educational opportunities for adult students for working adults these are folks who are place bound for all intents and purposes and don't have the luxury to travel to Milwaukee or Green Bay or Oshkosh to continue your education so a real need that was expressed to me was could we provide baccalaureate level types of programs here locally for for the benefit of those students who wanted to pursue or continue their higher education and so we began developing collaborative what we call collaborative degrees our basic core mission is still want to transfer I mean that has not changed we're a freshman sophomore transfer institution and we're still even though it's possible now for students to earn baccalaureate degrees in certain areas on this campus those students are still uh transferring you know but technically they're transferring to those institutions but rather than commuting for an hour hour and a half they're remaining on site in other words the mountain is coming to a mohammed as it were and so we've entered into some unique collaborations primarily with UW-Milwaukee offering four four tracks leading to the bachelors and organizational administration communications information technology we have a collaborative agreement with UW stout which is a very specific need that was articulated by local business and industry it seems that within local businesses especially the manufacturing sector there are folks within those organizations that that they would like to promote from within or that but are needing some additional credentialing to to move up to corporate ladder as it were and so they were wanting something that would be specific to manufacturing constituencies and so UW stout offers a degree in industrial management and so I worked very diligently with UW stout to have them deliver the Bachelor of Science in industrial management and that sort of bit was a the jumping off point for our participating a little bit more with the with LTC the tech college because that particular degree requires that students entering that program hold a technical degree and so our role then is to to fulfill maybe some deficits in the general education area but they must have already be holding that's that technical degree before they can go into that degree so sort of a three-way partnership so these are some ways in which the campus is evolving in some of the offerings that we have for the local and another thing that I think no one would have dreamt possible you know three or four years ago was that the fact that we're even offering a graduate degree and this is a master of sciences degree in education again in response to a need by local school teachers who say look you know it's it's in our best interest to earn master's degrees and we're being encouraged to seek additional education for our our credentialing and for salary increases and so forth but we don't have the luxury to travel to Oshkosh or Milwaukee so again servicing that need and we currently have 35 local school teachers involved in that program and this fall this past commencement we graduated six students in that program so again I think this these are some changes that have have been happening happening over the past few years that that folks may not be aware of very good it's the UWS alumni I share your pride and appreciation of the facility also as the county board chairman and as a former county board member I've supported the key capital improvements that have made it what it is today currently we're working on a 1.8 million dollar heating and air conditioning upgrade could you talk a little bit about the progress of that upgrade and where we are oh yes that that project is near completion it's been underway for for almost a year now and the the situation was as I mentioned earlier this campus was built in in the early 60s and then of course with some additions subsequent additions but over time these systems age you know some of our systems were we're 40 years old and we're needing much more maintenance it didn't no longer were cost effective they weren't providing the level of comfort and efficiency that we we'd like to have some areas of the campus never have been air conditioned or heated properly you know for for budgetary reason other reasons you know things were never really uh fully implemented you know in terms of needs so we had an opportunity we we underwent as part of our master facilities plan study that I that I engaged in upon coming here we identified infrastructure needs infrastructure weaknesses for lack of a better word so that if we were going especially as it would relate to any future expansion of the facility the bottom line was no future expansion of the facility was possible given the current state of the infrastructure the mechanical infrastructure it just would not support it so it was just absolutely necessary to upgrade the existing mechanical infrastructure to support future expansions and to even to improve and and the existing facilities to bring them to the comfort level and efficiency and in fact bottom line some of these systems were on the verge of just dying so we would have been in real trouble but no thanks to the generosity and the wisdom of the county board they saw the wisdom and investing in the mechanical infrastructure of this facility and that that covered everything electrical systems heating ventilation systems lighting alarm systems phone systems you name it we we've got essentially a brand new facility in terms of mechanical infrastructure at this point great just a few short weeks ago we both took part in a groundbreaking for a four million dollar new science edition could you talk about the opportunity that that brings to students at the campus certainly um I mentioned uh that you know the facilities were built in in the early 60s and our science teaching facilities were as well and so they were fairly outdated facilities in terms of trying to teach contemporary science uh to our students but more importantly I mentioned again looking out in the community and trying to see what needs there are that we might serve and a big need that's a critical need right now is in the healthcare area particularly in terms of nursing shortages and that sort of thing and so again I'm working now in collaboration with Lakeshore Technical College to provide a bachelor's completion program for nurses that the healthcare industry locally the healthcare providers are telling me we need a BSN program for our for our students to complete that work well this new building will then begin to provide a basis and opportunity that becomes a launching point for us to be able to provide that kind of instruction the state and condition of our science laboratories previously would not have supported that kind of programming so again there's that responsiveness to the community so we we we upgrade and improve our ability to teach our transfer science program but now this new science facility gives us ability to bring on uh science based programings and health careers and and other sciences you know I'm even thinking about engineering programs and things of that nature so it's going to provide a tremendous opportunity uh for that kind of programming for the local community so incredibly wise long-term investment in my estimation great we talked earlier about partnerships between the state and the university certainly the Bratz family stepped up to the plate and making a huge contribution to help complete this facility yes the Bratz family foundation has a you know a long-standing history of benevolence and support for for the community and their basic premise is that they want to support education and services to the community to give back to the community and so a science facility uh and the opportunities that it would provide for the local communities you know appeared to be a very good opportunity for them to fulfill their mission and of course the science building is very much in keeping with the type of industry you know the the plastics engineering industry that the Bratz family uh owned so there was there was a good fit but underlying that is you know I think that the Bratz family saw the long-term benefit to the community by by helping support the construction of that of that facility uh what are their opportunities might be on the horizon we've heard talk of possibly co-location with UW extension other technology issues yes uh the co-location of extension is something that's being currently discussed uh in my view that was an that was something that emerged uh as as a positive relationship from the the facilities master plan study and the scanning of community needs I think there are some synergies some uh ability to expand improve programming and services for both institutions by co-locating uh extension on the UW Sheboygan campus extension is under a different arm of the UW system but it nevertheless is part of the UW system and so there's some benefits also for the county in terms of uh supporting uh functions rather than at separate locations maybe consolidating some of that into maybe there's some efficiencies that could be realized that way but but from my perspective the improvements and synergy that can happen in terms of programming and delivery of services to uh to the community I think uh make that a very sensible move in my estimation I think there would be benefit for both other opportunities as I mentioned earlier the uh collaborations with the technical college I think there's been a long standing need uh or or a push if I may say for for figuring out ways that we can jointly serve the citizens of Sheboygan county how can our institutions collaborate in order to make the transition between the two institutions easier for students and maybe enhance by putting together our our resources and strengths and enhance those opportunities so I see on the horizon an increase in that kind of collaboration with the technical college which I think again is a is a cost efficient move in terms of uh for the taxpayer for the county okay you've been in Sheboygan for about three years Dean and we're certainly glad that you're here what changes do you see going on both in Sheboygan and the state that may impact the University of Sheboygan down the road right well the change obviously the the economy the state's economy you know and that's that's that's snowballing down to local governments as you well know the county government city government and all of that but I think that that's going to precipitate institutions looking at ways to economize to to become more efficient and I think higher institutions like UW Sheboygan you know want to be part of that solution and how can we address both the economic needs of the state or help meet those needs but also the educational needs because these economic downturns then are also you see this this is typical during times of economic downturn you see an increase in enrollments um in higher education so just at the time when there there are fewer dollars available to support education there's an increase in demand and see and there there's there's attention there's there's the the rub and so I'm very interested in working with local units of government and state government and in devising ways that we can we can access because that's what we're here to do we're here to access and provide those opportunities in a way that you know within the environment that we're living at this point other issues I think there's some in terms of just higher education I think there's a a shift as I just mentioned particularly within the UW system towards recognizing that we need to be part of the state solution to economic and workforce development and so I'm seeing now direction coming from all the way from the Board of Regents level telling us look get involved in your local communities find out what those needs are see if you can't discover ways that that you can help address some of those issues and so I see us playing a larger role in terms of economic and workforce development at the local level and I think that's a different slightly different posture for the UW system as a whole and a function of these of these institutions and so it's a part of my responsibility I believe is to to engage in that kind of activity and get the word out and encourage people to to work with us because that's what we're here to do to serve in that capacity great speaking of the economy not only are we hurting nationally but certainly the state of Wisconsin and many viewers are probably tired of hearing about this 3.2 billion dollar deficit at the state level and as you mentioned earlier that certainly is coming home to roost and will affect all levels of government shabuagan county is just starting our budget process and it could be one of the most challenging that any of us have faced how does the budget proposed at the state level at this point affect UW shabuagan at this point the joint finance committee basically you know supported the governor's recommendation which was a 250 million dollar GPR reduction to the UW system and as well as I think about a 650 position reduction so the joint finance and also the governor recommended a a concomitant tuition increase to help offset some of the GPR reduction and so by the time you do all the puts and takes 650 million reduction in budget if the tuition increases pass as recommended that's going to replace some of that revenue loss to so that the net loss will be about a hundred million dollars what that means is for the UW colleges and the structure of the UW college the two-year campuses there are 13 of us but we're considered a single college which is a little bit unique as well but for the UW colleges that translates to about an eight million dollar loss to be spread among the 13 campuses and so at this point in time the the the portion UW shabuagan's portion we can handle in terms of cutting operations and travel and those kinds of of line items we don't need to cut any positions but the problem I just mentioned the increase in applications we're not going to be able to add positions to to meet that demand and that's that's the challenge right now our budget is fairly in terms of allocable dollars we're going to be basically flat in other words we're not going to see any net increase in terms of our revenue for next year so we have to devise a ways to to serve more students with the same amount of dollars and that's the challenge right now and so we're beginning to come up with creative ways to to access as many students as we possibly can given the available dollars but basically our budget is flat there's not a net reduction but it's flat we only have a couple of minutes remaining so one more question and I might have to respond pretty quickly but in short and I think you touched on this earlier a number of our viewers might be thinking well I understand the county and all these other local units of government are going to be having cost reduction plans the city's asked for reductions across the board shabuagan county is going to have their budget kickoff this month and we'll be looking for reductions across the board so taxpayers might be wondering how is it then that we can be making this four million dollar investment in UW shabuagan and some of the other mechanical upgrades that you mentioned earlier yeah how how would you respond to that question because it is that it is an investment in the future you know I mentioned again the role that the greater role that we're playing in the workforce and economic development of the region and of the state so I think it's important and and that that's borne out by the number of folks who want to access additional education if we can provide that access in that education to those students that's going to translate later into you know jobs higher salaries more income tax all of that coming back into the state coffers so you have to think about it as an investment in the future in the longer for the greater good the longer range good of the community and the state I think it's a it's a small price to pay for the greater benefit that's going to result in the long run well Dean thank you so much for being our guest today and and keep up the good work a lot of exciting things again happening out here at UW shabuagan if you haven't had an opportunity I encourage you to stop on by and see the where the new science building is is now being constructed they have broken ground and and maybe even want to stop in and say hello to the dean because he's certainly here working hard making good things happen next month we're going to hear from one of our other directors or department heads and that's going to be Dale Paul's at the health care centers as you know it was about a year ago a year in July that we had our consolidation implemented and went from three nursing homes to two and I had the 10 million dollar addition completed at the Rocky Knoll campus so I hope you'll join us next month on behalf of County Board Chairman Bill Gehrig and myself Adam Payne thank you for joining us today