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Last Thursday October 22^nd, the Corridor Corporation, one of our sister agencies in the 30^th St. Industrial Corridor, held a breakfast fund raiser at DRS. UWM Chancellor Carlos Santiago gave the keynote address after which a panel of "reactors" got to react, as it were.

What he had to say, essentially, was that UWM needed to increase research and research funding as a way to propel economic growth in the region. No argument from me because if the University does anything to propel economic growth, it's better than nothing, and certainly better than what has been going on the past several years.

The University and the City has several scolds out there who think that water research, advanced manufacturing, or public health will do nothing to advance economic development. Problem with them is they give no alternatives except alternatives that they know full well, will never happen. So why argue an unarguable case? Well, that's what academic do while the rest of us in the economic development world think for ourselves.

One of the people in the audience asked the Chancellor, did he think that UWM would ever want to put a research facility in the Corridor? He said no, not surprisingly. But why, was!

The reason was that there were no "partners" in the Corridor, like GE Healthcare, located in Wauwatosa. It made sense to build an academic research center where companies like GE were applying research and technology.

Notwithstanding the fact that the Chancellor was standing in the middle of a research based company like DRS, building the next generation of power electronic conversation equipment for wind turbines and the US Navy, his reasoning was off base and maddening.

The Chancellor said when growing a research capacity, the paradigms were either stay on campus, or go where their partners are.

Well, some of Milwaukee's greatest corporations used to be here. That was a long time ago. But they used to be here. So what about a third paradigm? Go where you want your future partners to follow. Like the 30^th St. Industrial Corridor. Why not catalyze growth and take some risks?

Companies like AO Smith and others didn't want to be located in an African American neighborhood, and like so many others in urban America, they fled. So the Chancellor of UWM, twenty years later says UWM needs to be in the suburbs because of companies once located here, are now located there.  UWM, in essence, was compounding the original crime. Talk about blaming the victim.

A former chancellor once said to me, in effect, UWM is competing for the best students against the likes of UW Madison and Marquette. And asking white parents of those students to pick UWM when, say the Engineering Department, is considering moving to Tower Automotive, is a suicidal decision for a competitive university.  At least she was honest.

Chancellor Santiago said about the same thing. What world class research talent will be recruited to UWM if they have to work at N. 27^th and Capitol Drive?  How can you compete in this world against $900 million per year in research dollars and football Saturdays at Camp Randall?

My wife gave me the answer. What's wrong with educating kids? Why can't UWM do what UWM is good at? Black kids have historically been well educated in Black neighborhoods. What a novel idea! Expand the campus in Milwaukee!! UWM is not UW-Wauwatosa, or UW Port Washington. It's UW-Milwaukee. Instead of a fool's errand, competing against Madison, why not have modest research goals and major educational goals; like graduating and placing UWM grads into companies in the region. Or, helping MPS, as one of their core objectives. Or keeping Milwaukee companies from leaving Milwaukee?

Its just a question. The one I should have asked.