What's the Big Idea?

WAA highlights the UW's influence around the state.

There are many reasons to be proud to be a Badger: the university's scientific discoveries, its educational excellence, even the athletic successes that have catapulted UW teams to national prominence. But what makes us most proud is the Wisconsin Idea, the principle that the UW's duty is to make its benefits available to every home in the state. The Wisconsin Idea, first voiced here in Madison, remains an animating influence on public education.

This year, WAA helped spread the Wisconsin Idea by organizing UW Alumni Day in La Crosse, an event designed not only to build pride among Badgers, but also to highlight the impact of UW-Madison's education and research. During the May event, we helped take Robert Golden, dean of the UW's School of Medicine and Public Health and Katharyn May, dean of the School of Nursing, to La Crosse, Wisconsin, to meet with community leaders and local media.

While there, Golden and May discussed plans to work with La Crosse's Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center to help improve health care in western Wisconsin. By placing their students in programs at Gundersen, both deans hope to head off a looming shortage of health care workers in rural Wisconsin.

"We built a quality program in La Crosse with the hope of these nurses practicing in the area," May told the La Crosse Tribune. "We're finding that almost one-third want to practice in the area."

WAA works to publicize and support these programs because we want to remind people how much the UW does to serve the whole state. It's a constant theme with us — at Alumni Days such as the one in La Crosse, in our Made in Wisconsin learning events, and even with our Badger of the Year awards, which highlight the important work that UW grads are doing in communities across the state of Wisconsin.

So what's the big idea? The UW is — and we proclaim it every chance we get.

The Big Idea

WAA isn't just telling Wisconsin residents about UW-Madison's influence around the state. We're showing them through a variety of creative initiatives, including: 68 learning events this year; nine Badger of the Year awards given to alumni across the state of Wisconsin; and, inspired by WAA's advocacy program, Alumni for Wisconsin, 1,235 Badgers who worked to support the UW at the state house over the last two years.