U. W. Fox Valley

Dean Martin Rudd discussed how U.W. Fox is one of 13 campuses within the University of Wisconsin Colleges.  In the U.W. System, there are 26 campuses.  U.W. Fox provides the first two years of liberal arts education for students who wish to transfer and complete their baccalaureate degree at another university. The U.W. Colleges mission is to prepare students for success at the baccalaureate level of education and advancing the Wisconsin idea by bringing the resources of the university to the people of the State and the communities that provide for and support its campuses.  Because students are under prepared for college, U.W. Fox is working closely with their high school partners to try to understand what the students are missing to help them succeed at the collegiate level.  U.W. Fox hosted an in-service day for the Appleton West High School teachers to understand the difference between finishing a high school education and beginning a college education.  About 45% of the students at U.W. Fox are part time and 35% nontraditional students.  More than 50% of their students work more than 25 hours per week.  This can present some challenges.  There are 1819 students are U.W. Fox, 596 new freshman, 63% first generation, 34% age 22+ and have an average ACT score of 20.4.  The average student to faculty ratio is 20:1.  How do you retain students at all levels?  One of Dean Rudd’s passions is undergraduate research – taking sophomore level students and having them work on an undergraduate research project.  U.W. Fox is seeing an uptake in the number of students coming from high school backgrounds who are very prepared to do volunteer work and engage in civic projects.  Many of the classes at U.W. Fox encourage students to engage in civic learning projects to further their educational cores.  The U.W. System growth agenda goals are focused on producing more degree holders in Wisconsin, increasing the number of well paying jobs and building stronger communities.  How do they best prepare students?  They do so by the resources they use, operational excellence and collaborations.  Last Week, U. W. Fox opened a new collaborate engineering degree building with U. W. Platteville that was funded by Outagamie and Winnebago Counties.  There are 200 students in the collaborate degree program with U.W. Platteville.  Since 2005, they have put nearly 60 baccalaureate degree holders in mechanical and electrical engineering back into the community.  U.W. Fox is partnering in traditional and innovative ways for students to transfer from campus to campus in order to complete their baccalaureate degrees.