UWM Chancellor Finalist Dr. William Sherman Speaks on “Winds of Change”

One of three finalists in the search for a new UWM chancellor, Dr. William M. Sherman, gave his thoughts at an open discussion forum in the Wisconsin room of the Student Union, addressing the contemporary challenges of research universities and saying he wants to build UWM’s research mission to $100 million potential.

Dr. Sherman opened his presentation with a question posed in a feature story on Dr. Sherman by Media Milwaukee writer Evan Vogel: “If chosen, what could Sherman’s past do for our future?” He spent the remainder of his speech telling the audience just that.

The Akron University Provost’s CV gives an extensive range of credentials and accomplishments in the realm of academia. What it doesn’t say is that his father was a meat cutter, his mother was a cashier in a cafeteria, and he has a beloved Labradoodle named Cocoa “The Wonder-puppy.”

It also doesn’t say that he liked to spend time on his grandfather’s farm as a child and learned a lot from his time spent there. His grandfather would tell him, “I like it when you work hard, but I like it better when you work smart.”

He wove between his upbringing and experience since. When asked what his colleagues would say of him, he said, simply put, “Well, he knows what to do.” He believes his college years at Ohio State, Ball State, and University of Texas and later his positions at Ohio State and Akron as Vice Provost and Provost, respectively, have garnered him the experience needed to be chancellor at UWM and weather the “winds of change” that are stirring in higher education.

“Academic excellence is job number one,” Sherman said. The challenge is accomplishing this in an economic climate that faces high drop-out rates and other obstacles. He spoke of funding shifts, the value of a diploma versus the current job market, greater competition from other schools and the impacts of technology. He spoke of a need to build on these foundations to lead UWM to increased prominence and of his belief that this is a realistic goal.

He said he has initiated projects in the past to work to this end at other schools. It was found that a high percentage of college students who had nearly completed their undergraduate degrees couldn’t graduate due to a difference of sometimes only a few thousand dollars. Sherman’s work created a fund to pay this difference and help these students complete their degrees, he said. He believes that “for students to be successful, we have to relate to them.” He stressed his focus on student success and explained how he would go about achieving this.

He firmly believes that education and innovation produce sustainable prosperity and that we need to move from “strategic planning to strategic doing.” He supports the UWM’s strategy called the 2020 Plan, an effort to advance UWM as a top-tier research university, promote student success, research growth and community impact.

From the June 16 2020 Plan draft, “UWM has faced dramatic economic changes and declining resources. For UWM, these research challenges take the form of increasing competition, declining state support, evolving demographics and accelerating technological change. All of which necessitate a bold strategic plan to guide the development of the university.” The plan has four strategic goals. The first is to have successful students and graduate highly skilled individuals of all levels undergrad to doctorate.  Next is to promote research excellence to generate discoveries and scholarly outcomes recognized within a global research community. Third is a desire for community engagement, to deepen our positive impact with the city and region through community and business partnerships. Lastly it seeks institutional culture, enhancing a culture that embraces innovation, creativity and diverse perspectives.

“Every institution needs to be mission-focused and market smart,” Dr. Sherman said, “and very different in innovative ways.” To advance UWM in this mission, he offered several insights. He calls for a stronger investment of institutional dollars in research. He said currently UWM has a 17 percent investment of funds in research, but if handled correctly UWM could potentially generate over $100 million in research. By “leveraging strengths and gifting opportunities,” UWM can achieve this level of research excellence, he said.

When faced with a question from the audience in regards to university funding,“As chancellor, would you aggressively advocate to correct the inequalities at a state level?” He replied, “Yes.” He explained that if we increase our research initiative among other things, it would be possible to bridge the gap in funding between UWM and other more highly state-funded schools such as UW-Madison.

In regards to specific policy questions, he remained neutral on most subjects and essentially said he would do what was best for the university. He was asked about his stance on Campus Unions, and he said, “There are great institutions with them, and there are great institutions without them.”

He was posed a question about cutting sports teams funding. “Sports teams that come to some level of prominence support our brand,” he said, though he did speculate that he was almost glad that UWM didn’t have a football team because that is the most expensive sport.

To close the presentation, UWM’s potential chancellor went back to the original question he sought to answer, “If chosen, what could Sherman’s past do for our future?” His belief in UWM’s potential and his strategic plans to achieve success show us what he could potentially do for our future.

“Our institution can turn the winds of change. The Milwaukee experience and ecosystem can do that.” He said. The next question is “Will his plans and hopes for UW-Milwaukee be enough to land him the job?”