Last week, there was a mundane little story about a new agreement that will allow students to transfer smoothly from Milwaukee Area Technical College to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. But there is much behind that story, including the UWM dorm deal I’ve previously criticized and a lot of power politics that will change the urban landscape.
UWM has long had an abysmal record of educating black students. A story I did for the Journal Sentinel in 2004 found 47 percent of black women graduated from Alverno College in six years, compared to just 13 percent at UWM. The six-year graduation rate for black men at UWM was just 8 percent.
One reason for this terrible record is that minority students are more likely to need remedial help, and UWM is too big, impersonal and ill-equipped to offer this assistance. MATC, by contrast, specializes in remedial education. But UWM’s budget is driven by the number of students it serves, and it was reluctant to give up any revenue. It was essentially in competition with MATC, whose budget is also driven by student numbers.
The new agreement between them opens the door for students who need remediation to start at MATC and build credits they could eventually transfer to UWM. But if UWM loses the students, where will the replacements come from?
That brings us to the dorm being built at North and Humboldt avenues. This will provide more space for out-of-town students, making UWM less of a commuter school. UWM could draw students from a wider pool, could be more choosey about their test scores and could generate more revenue, as dormitories are sure money makers for universities.
Indeed, UWM Chancellor Carlos Santiago has begun making public references to UWM’s ongoing effort “to become more of a residential campus.” The university, it appears, is moving away from its long-declared “urban mission.”
Santiago seems to realize that academic empires are often built through a control of real estate. More real estate provides more revenue generators. Thus, UWM is expanding its campus both through this new dorm and the new multi-use development at Kenilworth Place and Prospect Avenue. The university has also created a real estate foundation, which, because it’s a nonprofit, has more freedom to wheel and deal.
A key to UWM’s expansion is East Side Alderman Mike D’Amato, whose district includes the university. D’Amato gets lots of complaints about UWM students, whose numbers have grown by 8,000 in the last decade. A recent city ordinance he introduced cited “the frequent occurrence of late-night parties, unruly behavior and other noise- and alcohol-related problems” caused by students.
D’Amato has been looking for ways to reduce the impact of students on the East Side. One developer told me D’Amato asked him to consider building a dorm at Humboldt and North, which is at the very edge of his district and would have less impact on his constituents. D’Amato, however, says it wasn’t his idea to build a dorm there.
Whoever had the idea, UWM pursued the project and chose KBS Construction to build it. UWM had earlier chosen the same company for its Kenilworth project. As stories in the Journal Sentinel have previously documented, KBS has donated some $43,000 to the campaign of Gov. Jim Doyle. U.S. Attorney Steve Biskupic is still investigating the deal, and there was an e-mail trail suggesting Doyle’s former Department of Administration head Marc Marotta took considerable interest in which company was selected.
The Kenilworth project, however, had a public bidding process. The new dorm on Humboldt had none, because it was technically not a government project but one run by UWM’s private foundation. UWM Foundation Executive Director David Gilbert told the press that Capstone Development and its partners, KBS, approached the university in December 2005 to build the dorm at this location.
But that’s not quite how Capstone Development remembers it. On its Web site, Capstone says the company “was contacted by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Real Estate Foundation to assist in developing a new student housing facility.”
Ken Nelson, a partner with the Prism development group that was first selected and then rejected for the Kenilworth project, questions why the university selected KBS and Capstone for the Humboldt Avenue dorm without shopping for a better deal with other companies.
“You could get condominiums on the Beerline for what they’re paying for a student dorm room,” he charges.
UWM is getting $30 million in bonds to finance the project and will build a 480-bed dorm, a cost of about $62,500 per bed. The state university guidelines suggest the typical price per bed should be as low as $40,000. Nelson says even $40,000 is too high. Why didn’t UWM shop around to consider other companies? This still seems like a very suspect deal.
Why Milwaukee Could Get a Lousy Police Chief
The last 20 years have seen a sea of change in how big-city police chiefs are viewed. Proactive chiefs like William Bratton, during his time in New York City, have been credited with innovations that can increase arrests and reduce crime. Safety is a big factor in a city’s livability. In some ways, the choice of police chief can be more important than the choice of mayor. As cities have recognized this, they have done national searches and offered higher salaries.
But Milwaukee is handicapped by a law stating that no cabinet member, including chief of police, may earn more than the mayor. This year, Mayor Tom Barrett will earn $142,383, up from $138,095 in 2006.
As of 2004, the pay for police chiefs in the top 100 cities was about $130,000, according to a story in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. At least 17 chiefs that year were making more than $155,000, some as much as $255,000. And that was three years ago. Will a ceiling of $140,000 discourage some candidates from applying?
The Fire and Police Commission is already conducting a national search for a new fire chief. “Our goal is ‘let’s get the best,’” says Len Sobczak, who’s served on the commission for seven years.
When Nan Hegerty was hired as police chief in 2004, the commission did not do a national search and all the final candidates were local. Sobczak believes Hegerty did a good job but clearly thinks a national search should be conducted this time.
“Speaking as a businessman, there are so many other costs you pay if you don’t get the best candidate,” he says.
And to get the best candidate, it may take hiring a search firm. “To do a thorough national search, you have to do some recruiting,” Sobczak says.
But that won’t do any good if the candidate turns down the salary Milwaukee offers.
And don’t miss the Dish on Dining by restaurant critic Ann Christenson.
