| In some ways, they are like a "Tale of Two Cities" bound together by excellence. While the University of Wisconsin is a large world-class, public higher education and research institution, Edgewood College, on the shores of Lake Wingra, is just the opposite. Edgewood, founded over 80 years ago by the Sinsinawa Dominican Sisters, is a small, private, instruction-based higher education institution that sees its greatest impact on the local community level. Dr. Daniel Carey, the affable president of the 1,400 student college, is proud of Edgewood's roots and the core values it was founded on. "There are banners around campus that say 'Truth, Compassion, Justice, Partnership, and Community,'" Carey said. "Those aren't just Catholic values. They are universal values." And while Edgewood was originally a small Catholic college with fewer than 500 students, it has grown to be more inclusive. "About 40 percent of our undergraduate students come from a Roman Catholic background," Carey said in his office that overlooks the campus. "About 60 are from all other faith backgrounds. Sometimes there is a perception that only wealthy kids and families attend a college like Edgewood. That's not true. Our average family income is actually considerably lower than the average family income of students who go to the UW-Madison. About 35 percent of our students -- this data is two years old -- come from families whose total annual family income is $40,000 or less. I want to overcome that myth that we're only here for the wealthy. We have wealthy students, we have middle income students and we have students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. We serve all of those families. I think it is more like the real world." One area that Carey is not satisfied with is the level of racial and cultural diversity on campus. "I wouldn't say that we are where we want to be in terms of our diversity efforts," Carey said. "For example, just in this last year, we had over 100 of our employees complete over a full day of sensitivity training in terms of different cultures. I think that is a good sign, because for us, that's a pretty good percentage of our full-time employees. Diversity is one of our six top initiatives that we arepursuing in our strategic plan." The Community Scholars Program is one of the new initiatives that Edgewood has implemented to further its diversity efforts. "It's a full tuition scholarship where the students are expected to be active in community service and to give something back," Carey emphasized. "We want students who want to go back into their neighborhoods, who want to stay in Madison or Dane County. We'll be bringing the first students in this fall. I've met some of the kids who are interested. These are really neat kids. This is an initiative that I think is going to be helpful to us and help get the message out that we are interested in serving this population and interested in getting students who want to give back." Other initiative that will be new this fall include the creation of learning communities within new dormitories that Edgewood is completing that will focus on global education. In essence, it will be an "international" community within Edgewood. One of the things that makes Edgewood attractive to many students, in Carey's view, is its small, intimate nature. It's nestled on a relatively small campus off of Monroe Street. It has a NCAA III basketball team and other "minor" sports like volleyball and baseball that compete on and off campus. But it is in the classroom where its smallness is its biggest advantage. "The students here, I think, see themselves much more as an individual on campus," Carey said. "Our class sizes are typically 20 students or less. We don't have a single lecture hall that will accommodate 300-500 students. We just don't have that experience here, particularly once you get into your major. A lot of times, your class sizes are 10-12 people. I think that's a big change." And the smallness also allows students to form one-on-one relationships with their instructors whose primary purpose on campus is to teach. Edgewood is also service and community oriented. "In order to receive your undergraduate degree, if you are a traditional undergraduate student, you have to do the human issues program," Carey said. "They may go off to Appalachia and build houses. Some of our students went down to New Orleans and helped with the Katrina aftermath. But we have a lot of kids who do their human issues projects here in Dane County. We have one young woman who went back to Africa and helped with water quality. But it can also involve simple things like tutoring kids." And as a community-oriented college, most of Edgewood's graduates remain in the area. "They are Wisconsin kids," Carey said. "Nursing is our biggest program. We're sending a lot of nurses to St. Mary's and Meriter and other jobs here in the city. We're graduating a lot of teachers. Many of the teachers and counselors and principals and coaches are Edgewood College graduates. And we're educating a lot of the business people. Our three largest majors are nursing, education and business. I would like people to know that Edgewood is supporting Madison and Dane County by providing this talent pool. This isn't a brain drain situation. These are people who want to be here. They want to work here. For them, this is home." And so, if you are looking for that intimate higher education experience that will prepare you for a career that is in demand in the Madison area, maybe you should give Edgewood College a look. It's that other college by a Madison lake. For more information about Edgewood College, visit their website at www.edgewood.edu. |
| An interview with Edgewood College's Dr. Daniel Carey The college by the other lake By Jonathan Gramling |
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