UW-Whitewater

[RU Rah Rah]

I'm thinking about applying for a teaching job at UW-W, and I honestly don't know a lot about the place (other than its success in sports, which, while cool, will have no impact on me whatsoever). Why do people go there? And what kinds of experiences do they have?

 

Thanks!

[burniebrewer]

There are quite a few UWW alumni on this board, including myself. Off the top of my head, I believe Brian the Automator and jaybirdwi2001 are alumni. I went there after junior college and received my BA.

 

My main reason for going was that it was close to home and a lot more comfortable than UW-Madison. I can't say it was *that* memorable though.

 

It's a suitcase college where everyone goes out on Thursday night and heads home on Friday morning. I did like the smaller class sizes though, my largest lecture was probably 40 students.

 

I'm sure the others will have more to add.

[BREWCREW5]

I am also an alum of UWW. Its an alright school. One of the main reasons people go there is because of the business program, as it is a great program. I think however most of the kids go there though is because it is relatively an hour away from Kenosha/Racine, Madison and Milwaukee. Most of the friends I made were from those areas. It works out well because you can schedule your classes Monday through Thursday and take off Friday morning to go home and work on the weekends. I played football at UWW for a year and it was a great time. I had a lot of fun there.

[TwinsBrewersWorldSeries]

UWW Alum (Undergrad and Grad)

 

The business school is top notch and the faculty is much more approachable/helpful at UWW than at UW or even UWM. If you are interested in relationships with students (professional/mentorship/networking/etc) than that is your place. If you're interested in $$$ or ego, look at UW... though all of the UW System schools are struggling to offer competitive salaries right now for new faculty.

 

In short, if you are looking to teach in the business school or MCS- UWW is definitely on your short list

If you are looking to teach outside of business- not sure how strongly you'd want to look at it

[temke]

ask this guy...

 

http://www.johnnylechner.com/

 

(sorry, i coudnt resist)

[RU Rah Rah]

I think John Belushi more than compensates for the Lechner guy.

 

It's going to be a tough call, I can tell. I've lived in Madison for awhile, my wife has a good job here, my kids are starting school, we own a house . . . and I'm not sure that I want to pick up and leave and start over in Massachusetts (Holy Cross) or Tennessee (Vandy) or wherever.

[Invader3K]

It's a nice school (another alum here). It's big enough where there are plenty of organizations and activities for the students, but not so big that it's overwhelming like Madison might be. If you are into sports, they have some good athletic programs (their football team has been very successful the last couple years). They are currently doing a huge remodel of the central campus area, putting in a new student union among other things. It should be pretty cool. The campus culture leans somewhat liberal (as most colleges seem to), but it's not like Madison or somewhere like that.

[ryne100]

The town is dominated by the University, but there have been some events to try to get more cooperation between the students and citizens. It's basically a Mon-Thurs school, with most of campus drinking heavily on Thursday night and going home Friday. Basketball games are fun to go to, and I hear the new meat market sells amazing brats for $3.75/lbs (not confirmed by me yet).

[jaybird2001wi]

My learning experience at UW-W was valuable. I actually did better GPA-wise in college than I ever did in high school because professors at UWW forced me to apply myself and basically laid his or her expectations of me out before classes even started.

I remember when I was a freshman and I asked if I can have more time for a speech I was writing and he said, "No, you must get it to my via e-mail or typed out outline by tomorrow, no later." I knew at that point that professors there were nice people, but they expected you to show an effort.

I came from a public school (Racine Park to be exact) and I was actually shocked to see students actually participating in discussion when I started my UW-W career. It was almost unheard of and basically encouraged me to be a part of intellectual discussion.

But you mention you live in Madison. It is not that bad of a drive. Half of my professors commuted from Madison and some were just pure adjunct professors at UW-W but made most of their teaching time at the UW.

Pretty much everyone who has commented, I am in total agreement with on the setup of campus.

I always avoided taking Friday classes, but eventually had to suck it up and take a few 8:50am Friday classes because that is all that was offered. To this day, I couldn't believe I actually made it to class on time after a Thursday night out on the town.

 

I can actually offer so more information than what was provided. I used to the student newspaper's sports editor and also interned at the Whitewater Register (city's "newspaper"). The Whitewater Register actually has less of a readership than the student newspaper I was part of and attempted to "compete" with the Royal Purple a few times.

The only thing the Register added to the community was high school sports stories, but we always were the ones that beat the Register to city-wide news stories because as some other people mentioned above, its a city dominated by the University.

As a matter of fact, I believe the population of Whitewater is around 12 or 13,000 but they actually count the 6,000 or so students who live on campus as part of the official census population.

So without UW-W, the City of Whitewater would not survive.

 

Also keep in mind, Whitewater has four law enforcement groups that handle the campus area (which I believe is WAY too much): Walworth County Sheriff, Jefferson County Sheriff, Campus Police and City of Whitewater due to campus sitting on the county line of Jefferson/Walworth. I believe the gym and athletic fields technically are in Jefferson County. The obscene amount of law enforcement causes more chaos when a house is being busted for underage drinking because all the cops from the four different agencies go there so fast it turns into a war zone sometimes.

[BREWCREW5]

Jaybird...pretty much every college in the country that is in a city will have at least 3 law enforcentment agencies (the campus police, the city police and the county sheriff) that could respond to calls. These 3 can help eachother out to provide a better service to the community. Jefferson county, which is close to whitewater does not patrol the campus or whitewater. The only way Jefferson county would be in whitewater with a police related incident is if Walworth county asked for assistance ( a bid incident). None of the campus is in Jefferson county. There maybe some newer student housing in Jefferson county but none of the campus.

 

In madison, there is campus police, city police and the dane county sheriff. No difference here.

[jlau20]

None of the campus is in Jefferson county. There maybe some newer student housing in Jefferson county but none of the campus.

The Wells towers are in Jefferson County.

I'll admit, I'm a suitcase packer on the weekend now that I found an internship on some weekends. Freshman year I stayed there almost every weekend though, and based on that I don't feel like I miss too much when I go home on weekends now.

It's pretty nice there though, of course the construction is a little annoying, but construction usually is. I don't have too many complaints about anything that I would tell you to not apply there because of them. The classroom setups in the current business building aren't really ideal. Some classrooms you can't even see half the projector screen and the way professors are with their powerpoints these days, that can be frustrating. I'm sure it will be better in the new building. I've liked most of my professors, none really stand out as being jerks or anything like that.

[hawing]

In madison, there is campus police, city police and the dane county sheriff. No difference here.

 

Don't forget Capitol Police! Just saying.

[Invader3K]

If I'm not mistaken, Starin Road is basically the border between Jefferson and Walworth counties.

 

Anyway, if you're not causing problems, the police aren't really anything to worry about.