UW partners with Menominee college

Some associate degree holders from the College of the Menominee Nation will be able to transfer to bachelor’s degree programs at UW–Madison under a pilot program agreement signed April 29.

The agreement applies to graduates of CMN’s Sustainable Development Program, which provides the skills and knowledge necessary to succeed in the fields of conservation, alternative energy, environmental science and resource management.

“The College of the Menominee Nation does not offer a baccalaureate degree in its Sustainable Development Program,” says Barbara Borns, program organizer and student services program manager with the Institute for Environmental Studies. “With this agreement, those students can transfer their credits to UW–Madison and complete a bachelor’s degree in several areas of study.”

The College of Agricultural and Life Sciences will be the administrative home for the program on the UW–Madison campus, however CMN graduates will not be limited to CALS majors.

The UW–Madison undergraduate programs that most closely fit the disciplines taught at the Sustainable Development Program are biologic aspects of conservation in the College of Letters and Science and the individual major in natural resources in CALS. Students may also choose to pursue degrees in botany, biology, economics, sociology, wildlife ecology, and forest ecology and management.

UW–Madison Chancellor John Wiley says the program will provide immeasurable benefit to the UW–Madison campus.

“It has long been our mission to promote understanding and universal respect for other cultures by increasing the diversity of our students, faculty and staff,” Wiley says. “A more diverse campus leads to a greater appreciation for a variety of cultures and backgrounds.”

A support network is being set up at UW–Madison to help ease the transition for the transfer students, many of whom are expected to be older students and parents. Several students are expected to take part in the pilot program for the first time this fall.

In addition to faculty advisors, students will also have access to staff members who specialize in working with minority undergraduates in the offices of Admissions and Student Financial Services. The American Indian Studies Program — which provides a center of activities for faculty, staff and students — and several other campus organizations are also prepared to assist students.

“An adequate support network is vital to assuring that these students are successful while they are here,” Borns says. “It is important that these students have access to resource people who can answer questions about both academic and non-academic topics.”

CMN was created in 1993 and joined UW–Madison and the Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa Community College as a land grant institution in 1994. It currently enrolls about 600 students.

The transfer agreement furthers the goals of a partnership signed in 1997 by former Chancellor David Ward, Wiley (who was provost at the time), and CMN President Verna Fowler and Vice President for Academic Affairs Jerilyn Grignon. The partnership set out a series of goals, including exchanges in faculty, staff and students, dual programs and collaborative research projects.