Student Services notes 'innovation' elsewhere

Sometimes, it takes another campus trumpeting a new breakthrough to remind you that your own institution does a few things right, too. Such is the case with UW-Madison is set to open its new 250,000-square-foot Student Services tower in a few weeks.

“(UW-Madison) has never had anything like this,” Carol Gosenheimer, who is helping coordinate the project on behalf of the Division of Enrollment Management, said in a press release. “There will be more student services in one building than ever before. In one trip, you’ll be able to pick up a transcript, join a student organization, get a flu shot and look for a job in the Student Job Center.” That’s big news on the sprawling Madison campus. Meanwhile, here at UW-Green Bay, well, we’ve had such an operation for more than 30 years, and it keeps getting better, especially with last year’s opening of the new service center.

“In fact, UW-River Falls was here last week to view our Student Services Building and discuss how we did it,” Dean of Students Sue Keihn said. “Our integrated Student Services approach started with the construction of the original building in 1973. We just have been able to continually improve the integration with technology and a facility to match. Often times we fail to give ourselves enough credit for what we can accomplish with so little money and limited staff resources.”