University and city partnership would create business, jobs
Released: May 2, 2003
A job creation partnership formed between UW-Whitewater and the city of Whitewater two years ago has been rekindled this spring with the hopes of establishing work for university students by bringing in new businesses to the city. The partnership was established after Jimmy Peltier, a UW-Whitewater marketing instructor, conducted a marketing survey and analysis of the city to see what types of companies would be attracted to the area. The criteria of the survey included resources such as the university, student work force, location and quality of life.
“The ultimate hope is to get a company to move to Whitewater,” said Therese Kennedy, an associate director of recreation sports and chairwoman of the Academic Staff Assembly who is also the liaison between the university and the city of Whitewater’s Community Development Authority (CDA). “There are incentives for businesses to come here with openings at the industrial park, vacant downtown buildings and the CDA offering grants and opportunities to help companies off-set the costs of moving and starting a business.”
The other half of the equation is education. Students would have opportunities for employment and internships at these companies. Currently a high percentage of students seeking internships or who graduate, seek employment outside of the city. Kennedy says another incentive for companies to move to Whitewater would be establishing a workforce made up of students with relatively inexpensive labor.
“The best mix for the city, according to the survey study, would be for companies that have ‘back-office technology’,” Kennedy said. “We are currently targeting businesses in Wisconsin and northern Illinois. It may be of great value for a company in the Chicago area for example, to move here because of lower taxes and our incentive plan.”
Those jobs may include telephone-based operations, marketing, lab and computer work. The positions would not be executive, but would provide an opportunity to have the university’s highly educated students utilized in the city.
What’s the likely-hood of this plan succeeding? Kennedy says she remains realistic. “The big thing is for us to get our news out there, with the economy in flux this is the time to do it. If we can make our pitch to about a dozen companies and show them how we can be an economic resource, then we have this model set for the future. Partnering with the city is a fantastic way to show the value of having a university in this region.”
- Craig Coshun ,npa@uww.edu
