UW-Whitewater, Harley-Davidson team for UW System ‘Partnership Award’
Released: April 2, 2002
The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and Harley-Davidson Motor Company have shared a unique relationship since 1998 that will draw statewide recognition on Thursday through a new “Partnership Award” from the UW System Board of Regents.
The awards program was created on the occasion of the UW System’s 30th Anniversary last fall to recognize thousands of individuals and organizations that make extraordinary contributions to the campus and to the UW System.
Harley-Davidson was nominated by UW-Whitewater to receive the award because of its involvement with the school’s Business Partnership Consortium. Harley-Davidson was one of the founders and lead interests in developing the consortium through the Management Computer Systems (MCS) program at UW-Whitewater.
The consortium is a mutually beneficial relationship between local businesses in the state and UW-Whitewater. It gives companies the opportunity to invest in the future through the university by providing financial assistance and establishing program goals.
“Harley-Davidson has been intimately involved with us for a number of years on several fronts and have really taken a leadership role in the consortium,” says Robert L. Horton, MCS professor. “They look upon us like they would any other supplier in business—we are a talent supplier with future employees.”
With help from companies such as Harley-Davidson, students at UW-Whitewater are currently developing new software for the consortium aimed at problem solving. The software will be available on-line for these companies to help share ideas in problem solving. The uniqueness of this project is that all the companies involved are not directly competing with one another, so there is no concern that the sharing of ideas would have a negative impact on their business.
The UW Partnership Awards will be presented during a special ceremony in Madison on Thursday evening, April 4, following that day’s Board of Regents meeting.
“This event will provide a special opportunity for the Regents to celebrate the excellence of the UW System and to reaffirm the importance of the individuals and organizations within and outside the UW System who are vital to our success,” said UW System Board of Regents President Jay L. Smith.
- Craig Coshun,npa@uww.edu
