MADISON – UW System President Katharine C. Lyall will deliver the spring commencement address at Nicolet Area Technical College in Rhinelander, Saturday, May 20. It is the first time a UW System president has addressed a graduating class at one of Wisconsin’s 16 technical colleges.
Lyall’s remarks will touch on the level of cooperation and integration between the UW System and the Wisconsin Technical College System to work toward a seamless system of lifelong learning in Wisconsin. In April, the UW System and the WTCS signed an agreement that further eases the transfer of credit for students transferring from a technical college to a UW System institution.
“My being here today is not merely symbolic. The UW System and the technical colleges, including Nicolet, are working hard to simplify the transfer of credit from one system to the other,” Lyall says. Lyall says students and employers have demanded the change, the Governor has made it a high priority, and that the state of Wisconsin needs the educational systems to work together.
Lyall will explain how both systems working together benefits students, employers and the state by educating a workforce with the professional and technical skills needed to build the “New Wisconsin Economy”- one based more on biotechnology and computers than on heavy industry and agriculture.
She will also encourage the graduates to embrace changes that lie ahead. “We can think of change as gaining something, rather than as losing something. The most powerful instrument for learning, invention and leadership is the human imagination,” Lyall says.
Contact:
Sharyn Wisniewski, UW System
(608) 262-6448