University develops Web site for ‘creating community’

UW–Madison’s sense of community and campus climate can be strengthened by a series of small acts, such as connections among individuals who may not otherwise have come together on this broad campus, says Chancellor John D. Wiley.

This fall, Wiley has been meeting members of the campus community — from those he encountered on move-in day at Bradley Learning Community to the students he spoke to at the Chancellor’s Convocation for new students — to take a personal step toward improving community and climate by making an effort to meet someone different.

“I would like your help with this effort,” Wiley says. “I’d like you to go out to coffee, eat lunch together or spend 15 minutes talking with someone you don’t know. This person can be another student, staff member or a professor.”

Wiley has asked everyone who participates in this effort to e-mail him an account of the meeting at chancellor@news.wisc.edu.

Some of the responses will be posted on a new Web site for diversity and climate-related initiatives, called Creating Community.

“I’ve already received dozens of e-mails, and the messages are inspiring,” he says. “Together, these connections can help us in Creating Community.”