University officials and city administrators met in the Education Building Wednesday to discuss the relationship between the city of Madison and UW-Madison, a connection Mayor Dave Cieslewicz called
ever absolutely easy.""
The public dialogue was the first this semester in a series of ""Brown Bag Forums"" hosted by the Wisconsin Center for the Advancement of Postsecondary Education. It featured speeches by Special Assistant to the Chancellor for Community Relations LaMarr Billups and Cieslewicz.
WISCAPE Managing Director Henry Lufler opened the discussion by pointing out that, for much of the university's history, campus had not worked closely with the city.
""[Now] the current city-campus connections are very broad, very deep,"" Lufler said.
Both Billups and Cieslewicz emphasized that the relationship between campus and the city has become a ""two-way street"" with each institution affecting the other. For example, the university and city may rely upon one another in planning for terrorist attacks.
""Camp Randall is a venue that holds 80,000 people ... and could be the target of terrorist activities. Our security measures with respect to how we can secure Breese Terrace and the surrounding areas is a collaboration effort,"" Billups explained.
Additionally, as Dane County's largest employer, Billups said, the university's $1.7 billion yearly revenue has a huge impact on the community. Cieslewicz agreed that the university contributed both to Madison's skilled workforce and its image.
""The city could take the attitude that the university is this big gorilla ... throwing its weight around,"" Cieslewicz said. ""But we need to step back and appreciate having the university in our midst. It's fundamentally a part of who we are as Madison.""
Campus works closely with the city in urban development as well. Billups cited the Joint Southeast Campus Area Committee, appointed by both the chancellor and the mayor, which is discussing the proposed redesign of the east side of campus, as an example of cooperation between the institutions.
Other areas of cooperation discussed at the forum included Johnson Street repairs, Halloween security, campus' Cogeneration Power Plant, alcohol issues and federally mandated orange alert procedures.
UW Regent member Fred Mohs contributed to the discussion by pointing out that relations between the two entities were hostile in the past, especially when the university pushed campus boundaries into surrounding neighborhoods. Mohs said, however, that campus-city relations had become ""a great success."" The panelists agreed.
""We've found these relationships ... to be challenging, rewarding--they've been very useful and sometimes wrought with conflict, but we know that the collaborateive, cooperative approach is our only option,"" Billups concluded.
