Interview with Kristin Fillhouer

LEH: All right. Can you say your first name and then your last name? And spell out your last name?

KF: Sure. My name is Kristin Fillhouer. The last name is F as in Frank, i-l-l-h-o-u-e-r.

LEH: All right. Looks like we're good to go. So why don't we start out with some just sort of general questions and information? So what brought you to the UW Colleges and what were the things that made you stay?

KF: So I started with UW Colleges in 2003. And I was hired to coordinate a pre-college program for adult students called Project Ahead. And that was something that was unique to the Rock campus. All colleges had pre-college programs, but Project Ahead was unique to Rock. And the best way to describe that was a program that's very much like a school counselor for adults. So helping them navigate the higher education process, whether they wanted to come here, get a GED, HSED or go on to technical school. We helped them navigate through that and helped them remove any barriers they had to go into school.

And I had an office here at the campus. And I also had a campus at Beloit. And I absolutely loved the work I did. It was really in the trenches work, helping people achieve their educational goals. So providing access and opportunity to those goals. And for me, it really didn't get much better than that. Sometimes success was somebody achieving, getting through a math class they didn't know they could get through. Sometimes it was seeing them graduate.

So, yeah, I did that work for almost six years. And then had the opportunity to take an assistant dean position. And then had the opportunity to create change on a more systematic level.

So it's been, I think the students that we work with are hardworking. They are kind, grateful to have the opportunity. And I have always said that I felt like I think the reason, I can't speak for everyone, but a lot of us stay is because we get more from it than the students do. It's really a special place.

LEH: Can you expand on that?

KF: Sure. Which part? The--

LEH: Oh, sorry.

KF: No, go ahead.

LEH: I was just thinking like the last part where you said like you get more from it.

KF: Yeah. You know, let's see, how would I describe that? I learn lessons on a regular basis from students. Daily. I see some of the challenges that our students face and how they persevere. How their attitude, you know, I'm a big believer that it's 10 percent what happens to you and 90 percent how you respond to that. And I see them responding in a positive way every single day. They're resilient, positive. The way that they're able to navigate, I just, it puts other things in perspective for me. So if we get, it's a reminder to me every day that the work we're doing is, should be day in and day out about student success. That they should be at the forefront of every decision we are making, and that their input is incredibly important to that process. And I think we can overcome any, let's see, any challenges when we're focused solely on that.

And so you know, sometimes I'm helping a student with a FAFSA or I'm helping them with an application, or you offer them an application waiver, and they had no idea that these resources existed. And you hear their stories. And you see that they're able to, you know, when I think that something is hard and then I see a student achieve what they're able to achieve, I realize that what I'm doing isn't really that hard. So I think that they help keep things in perspective for me and help the positive attitude when I'm solely focused on their needs. And the needs of the staff so that they can serve students.

LEH: Yeah. Could you maybe like expand more on financial aid? And 00:06:00just sort of like in person student support versus like other ways of supporting students? And maybe how those things relate to the restructuring process?

KF: Yeah. I'll try to answer. Hopefully I'll get at what you are asking me. But if not, stop me. So because we're a smaller institution, we are able to develop relationships with a good number of our students. Any student who wants that is going to get it, whether it's through student services staff or instructors, custodial staff, doesn't matter. And I think that that is what makes our work really special. And I think our students need that maybe more than they would if they'd planned to go to another campus. So we try to kind of meet every student where they're at. Look at a student as an individual. Okay, what does this particular student need? Now there's times, because we don't have as big of a staff, where we have to do things in groups or provide that option to students. But in terms of financial aid, we are often going out into the community doing financial aid presentations. And our admissions counselor is out talking to classes about social media and applying to college. And there's a menu of presentations that she will give to high schools. And what we've always said is what we're doing is really trying to make sure that every single student knows all of their options. I'm not a believer that this is the right place for everybody, or that everybody should go to X school. What I am a believer in is making sure that students are knowledgeable about all their options so that they can make an informed decision.

And so all of the services we provide, I am working with a student right now who I went to Milton High School and presented a financial aid presentation. And I'm working with a student, it's a first generational college student. And she's got questions about her FAFSA. She is not planning to come to this campus. But she had a couple of questions and so I'm working with her and her family to make sure that they're doing that correctly. That's not, I'm not saying 00:09:00that to you know, brag about that in any way. It's just that I think we all are such big believers, you know, the Wisconsin idea and providing access to those students who might not get it any other way. So I would say that every single staff member on this campus, just it's part of who they are and they're going to go the extra mile for our students or anybody who needs the help.

LEH: Yeah. So you said that like not, the former colleges are not necessarily for everyone. But sort of like balancing that with like enrollment and some of like the other things, I was just wondering, sort of like what you found have been the areas where like the colleges like have had like success with community members just like in the region that you work in.

KF: Yeah. I'm going to repeat back the question, make sure I understand it. So how have we worked with the community? Are you talking for enrollment purposes? Or just to build those relationships?

LEH: Either one. It's up to you.

KF: Okay. Okay. So you know, our institution, so the colleges were transfer institutions. So we were serving, we're serving students who maybe want to stay with us for a semester because they're in a situational scenario that requires them to remain in their communities. Sometimes we see students through two years' worth of schooling and they earn their degree from us. Either way we have a responsibility to again meet the students where they're at and make sure that we can help them achieve whatever their goal is. So success for every student is going to look a little bit different based on their needs. We've had students who start here and they're here for a semester because maybe they're caring for a parent and they can't leave home right now. And we also have students who are, you know, I have a plan and I plan to go to X school. So their goals are a little bit different and they might be here two years.

The reason I share that is because when students transfer to wherever they're going, like now the students are transferring to the main campus at White Water or outside the system, even, within or outside of the system, we know 00:12:00that they're going to go onto that school and that's where they will earn their baccalaureate degree, which is their ultimate goal. So we work, I think, really closely with the community in order to make sure that people understand the type of services that we offer to students. The type of institution we are. And again, it comes down to access and removing barriers.

So an example of that, and I wasn't part of the conversations when this started, but an example of this is our collaborative degree program. So there were other people leading the institution at the time. But there was definite need through a conversation with community members that we had a number of citizens in a fifty-mile radius that really wanted an engineering degree but could not, were place-bound. And they couldn't travel and go to school in Milwaukee or Madison or Platteville. And so we worked closely, knowing that that was the need of our community to try to create this collaborative degree program now that White Water shares with Platteville. And we just re-signed our MOU last week.

We also have a nursing collaborative degree program with Black Hawk Tech and UW Oshkosh. And those students attend all three institutions and ultimately can earn their BSN without leaving the area. So I think that's another way that we've tried to connect with the community.

We also have a strong continuing education department. And they're able to provide training or services to communities, nonprofit organizations, to support the work that they do through courses or enriching our community because of the children's programming, youth programming that they do.

LEH: Yeah. Yeah, I think sort of the relationships that the former colleges have with like these sort of, with the counties--

KF: Yeah.

LEH: --and with those communities are just really, really interesting.

KF: Yeah. And thank you for mentioning the counties. Yeah, we have, I mean, obviously wouldn't be here without the county. And we really value their commitment to the students we serve. We are really lucky to have such strong partnerships there with members of our staff that participate with different committees, county board committees. General services and veterans 00:15:00education and aging services. And I just think it makes the whole community stronger when we all have voices in those discussions. So.

LEH: Yeah. Yeah. I was wondering, too, so do you think that sort of students' understanding of like their pathways changed at all? Like did you see any like specific questions or changes, either like because of or like during the restructuring process?

KF: I think I understand the question. So every partnership, every receiving institution and branch campus may be doing this a little bit differently, so I can only speak to the work that we're doing. But we maintain that access and transfer mission. And students have a much better understanding, I think, of how to be admissible to White Water, what that path looks like. And I think we're seeing an increase in the number of students who are obviously going to White Water because of this new partnership. They're used to it. We're using all the same systems, so it's basically moving to a new set of buildings.

We are still, we still have our transfer mission. Some students are going into majors that may not be offered at White Water. They have family elsewhere. Whatever the reason may be. So I don't know that much has changed in terms of, anecdotally, I don't have any data on this. But anecdotally I would say that students, I think there's benefit in that the way that we had operated in the past, where students were really about helping the students understand and become knowledgeable about all of their options, because that continues to be the foundation of our work, they're able to set their own path. So I don't, I mean, I guess I would say that in the almost eighteen years that I've been here that yes, students have changed and their patterns of majors, those kinds of things, have changed. But at the heart of it, I think we're about helping them understand options, helping them figure out what their gifts are, 00:18:00what they're passionate about, and making decisions about, again, all of their options. I just think that's at the heart of it. So that hasn't changed. And we might be using different software to get them enrolled in classes. They can now take a shuttle back and forth between Rock and White Water. But at the heart of it, that they're still getting that basic service.

LEH: Yeah. Yeah. I think those, it seems like those sort of services, especially in person, for like some of the college, just like the different groups that the colleges, the former colleges, serve, can end up being really important. Yeah, I was wondering if you could expand on sort of the relationship between enrollment and restructuring as the process. And if you want to talk about regionalization with that, too. Yeah, just as the process unfolded.

KF: Yeah. So just kind of an overview of how we handled that? Is that kind of what you're--

LEH: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, if you have any like--

KF: Or how it's impacted us?

LEH: I was thinking more like how you guys dealt with that at the institutions that, or in the region that you work in.

KF: Yeah, so during regionalization, we centralized more of those services. So admissions, financial aid. And some of these were already centralized. But we even created more structure around the centralization. So for example, in regionalization, every campus had someone on their campus who did admissions work. Processed applications. After regionalization, we had three individuals in the institution who handled applications. And so previously that admissions person might have been doing a couple of other jobs. Same with financial aid. We might have had a financial aid coordinator on each campus but then we still had the central office. After regionalization, it was just the central office that was doing that work. And so we pushed things more centrally. We used technology. We got, and I think because of that work, this is Kristin Fillhouer's 00:21:00opinion, but because of that work in a lot of ways through presentations with my counterparts that we did at conferences, I think that it forced us into having to make change that was maybe, I think students welcomed that. We were using technology more. We had to, because we didn't have as many staff. So you had to take the place of that. So systems were being automated, as opposed to being manual, which was welcomed. Because we were spending a lot of time, paperwork for that kind of thing. So I think we were absolutely moving in the right direction. I think we were actually ahead of the curve.

And so then, with the restructuring, this last restructuring, we have been incredibly lucky to work with our wonderful partners at White Water. And we took, we had many a conversation with admissions and enrollment management about how to fold us into the process. I think we, the one thing that I have noticed throughout the process, whether it was through regionalization or restructuring, is that the people that I was involved in working with were very much solution-focused. So there certainly were things that we tried that maybe didn't work or that we had to tweak. But we all, again, had students at the forefront of the decision making process. And so, okay, this isn't working for students. There was no personalizing of that. I think we all just had students at the forefront.

The specifics about that, what we've chosen to do with our partnership with White Water, we have a recruiter for the Rock campus. And you know, again, it's about I think that there's more opportunity with the restructuring than anything else. And I think whether it's through the shuttle or the ability to have students living in housing, it's been, again, very student-focused. And so the process of, that was sort of how we started and then we built everything around that. And where am I going with this? I guess what I'm trying to say is, I think it could be easy to get caught up in sort of fear and competition when we're talking about enrollment. If you give too much to the branch campus, do they have more students enrolling? And if you don't give enough to the 00:24:00branch campus. You know, there's a fine line to walk. And I don't think anybody in our discussions has ever thought about it in that way.

It's going back to what I was saying earlier at the foundation. These are two institutions who serve different--well, somewhat similar. In a lot of ways, very similar populations. But it's really allowing the student to make the choice in what's best for them. So, you know, encouraging visiting both campuses. How do we make the process, if you want to apply to both institutions, if you get denied at the main campus, can the student automatically come to the Rock campus? How do we make it really easy for students at the Rock campus to "transfer", quote unquote "transfer," to the main campus? You know, should they have to fill out a whole other application? We're one institution. So it's really been about trying to make things as seamless as possible.

Lots of conversation about how students can take classes at each, you know, a student at White Water wants to take a class here or vice versa. How do we make that process easy, so that the students don't feel like they're running into barriers?

And like I said, every conversation, whether it's with advisors, admissions, enrollment management team, has always been about how do we make this easy for students? We are one institution. And let's not put the brunt of having to work through this on the student.

So if you start that way, if that's your foundation that you're building off of, it makes all the other stuff pretty easy. And so I think we've done a really good job of saying here are your options. What's the best fit for you?

We've definitely seen an uptick in the number of students transferring from the Rock campus to White Water. I think we've also, people are identifying us with White Water in a different way. So that has, I think, also helped enrollment. And now I'm sort of rambling. Does that make sense, anything I've said?

LEH: Yeah. What? Oh, yeah, yeah, no, it did. Yeah. I was wondering if you could sort of expand on that. Like do you feel like there's sort of like a staff culture of like being one institution? And like is there the marketing and stuff of like one institution?

KF: Yeah. So I think, how do I want to say this? We have an excellent marketing communications team at White Water. One of the things I really appreciated is yes, we are absolutely one institution. We are partners. That word 00:27:00is thrown around a lot. And that's great, because I do think that's true. I think we've built strong relationships across the institution.

I think the other great thing is that people, I'm thinking back to a marketing campaign we did for fall '19 registration. And we are using a lot of, the same sort of fonts and colors and graphics that White Water's using. They also let us be us. There are different cultures. And this was even true in regionalization. I was on three different campuses who all had three, you know, there was that like we're all serving the same population. However, each culture had a very different and distinct culture, even though they were all part of the colleges. And I remember being really surprised by just how different all three campus, at least in my region, were.

And you know, there are many, many ways that we're alike. I think they were able to help us shine in the areas that were good. So I'll give you an example. We are affectionately known in our area as U Rock. And there was a lot of conversation, should we use UW Rock? How should we promote that? So University of Wisconsin White Water's name was all over our promotional materials. But they used U Rock. That's what people in this community know us as. They allowed us to keep a little bit of the old as we move into the new. And I think that that's really important. It reminds people that we still exist. They're connecting it to something they know. But we also get to partner with White Water and have that name recognition there. And so I think they did a really nice job of folding those two things together. So, yeah. Hopefully that answers that question.

LEH: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I think, yeah, it's interesting the different sort of like stakes that are involved. I was wondering if you could sort of expand on the role of the county with Rock County, the Rock County campus, and their involvement in some of like the financial stuff through regionalization.

KF: Yeah. I would absolutely--[pause]

LEH: Yes. Yes.

KF: Does that sound right?

LEH: Yeah.

KF: And again, I can only really talk about the Rock partnership. The Rock 00:30:00County partnership. But we have had a strong relationship with our county for as long as I've been here and beyond that. The county obviously owns the building. And when we went through this most recent restructuring, our county board chair, Russ Podzilni, participated in the restructuring meeting. He also, and along with other county board members, participate in any other master planning, housing discussions, anything that has to do with the property, they have some representation so that they're participating. And did so also with this last restructuring. And so they were involved in the name discussion. You know, they have questions and concerns, as you can imagine. Is the expectation of what they go going to change at all? So that's one component.

And then along with that, there are two committees, two specific county board committees, that staff from the campus. There is a general services committee that our facilities director participates in. So they meet twice a month? Once a month? And they are talking about facilities types of issues. So the county board continues to support us annually within their budget. And then if there's other special projects, we prioritize those with their help to get it in the budget for the following year.

And then there's also an education, veterans and aging committee. And I sit on that. And so we provide updates to the county board about what's happening out here. And it helps us with collaboration as well, if we see a need to bring groups together, we can do that.

LEH: All right. So, yeah, you mentioned the thing about keeping like U Rock as (laughs) like a thing that people liked about the campus. Were there any other sort of like things with naming and some of like the communication of like financial stuff that stuck out to you in the process?

KF: Well, just thinking back to the naming, it feels like it was a hundred years ago, but I think it was like last year. The county was really involved in that process. And it was important to them to be, it was important for all of us to make sure that the county was represented in the title. So to honor that partnership. And so that was one way that we created our own, again, our own campus culture. Because we are funded differently. The way that the county supports us will remain the same.

And so I guess what I would say about that is that that's not how the receiving institutions are funded, right? So always making sure that we keep it at the forefront of discussion. And we go back to the county. If we're going to do anything with the buildings or anything that the county has purchased for us. If we're going to make changes to anything, we want to make sure that the county is okay with it. So we continue to keep them in the loop as we're having conversations about, you know, whatever the topic might be.

When you talk about funding, are you talking specifically about county funding? Or just in general?

LEH: Either one.

KF: So, the funding, let's see, I'm trying to think about how to talk about this. So the county funding continues to, hasn't changed at all. It's just now they're giving that to the University of Wisconsin Rock County, the University of Wisconsin White Water-Rock County, as opposed to U Rock. But that process remains the same.

As far as how the budgets were set up, I believe that our campus and Milwaukee are the only two branch campuses that are operating as a separate college under the receiving institution's umbrella. Whereas Oshkosh, Fox Valley and Fond du Lac now all share the same curriculum and they are branch campuses. We are a separate location and a separate college. So we maintained our own 00:36:00curriculum. We have a dean. And so those, as those decisions happen, we had to, we were no longer receiving central dollars. Obviously, Colleges doesn't exist.

So what does a budget structure look like? So we did a lot of mirroring of what other colleges do at White Water in terms of their budget structure. And then we innovated where we needed to innovate. So although we are a separate college, adding on the fact that we're a separate location complicates things. And by complicates things, not in a bad way, but we have our own set of building. We do not have the police on our campus. We don't have residence life here. So we needed to make sure that we had additional budget line items to make sure that other, because we're a location and a college, if that makes sense, we may have needed additional things that some of the other branch campuses throughout the state didn't need, just because of the structure that we went with.

So those, we worked really closely with the vice chancellor for administration and her budget team to come up with, you know, we basically took all of the line items in our budget and created new budget lines where needed. And then we consolidated some things. We created new line items that maybe in the past were things that our central office had done, and now we were going to have to do that locally. So I would say it was a collaborative effort.

I think some of those decisions in terms of, our 103 budget is done. But there are some things that we still have not had budgets come over yet. So that's still a process. A work in progress.

LEH: Yeah. I just sort of, so like with UW White Water as a receiving institution, what, could you sort of expand on sort of like the culture at UW White Water and how that sort of interacts with the restructuring process? Like movement of personnel and people over from the former Colleges?

KF: Yeah. So, [pause] I'm trying to think about how I want to talk about this. So right from the very beginning, the foundation was laid. And it was very clear that this is a partnership and that they wanted involvement. So what I would say is anyone on the Rock campus who wanted to be involved in any of the discussion regarding restructuring, anybody who wanted to be involved could be involved. I'll put it that way. So there was inclusion in the process. Every member of our campus, every department within our campus, had the opportunity to be involved. And you know, just like anytime, some people were actively engaged. Others participated on a level that was most comfortable to them.

So I think because of that, from the early onset there were two things. It was how can we translate this new partnership into opportunities for students? And how can we make sure that people are involved at both campuses? And so we had a lot of people step up and take leadership roles. Whether it was faculty, staff or instructional academic staff.

In terms of culture, you know, I think a lot of it has to do with our size. We are so much smaller. And so you know, we were able to report out in a way on what was happening easier because we were tiny enough that you know, if you're having one meeting, most people are going to be at that meeting.

We were allowed--not allowed, that's not even the right word. As we communicated with one another, we were given lots of opportunity to keep some of our campus culture. So I feel really lucky about that. We're not micromanaged in any way. I mean, there's things that, we have fit into White Water structure in 00:42:00terms of--for example, here's an example. The deans of all the colleges meet with the provost once a week. Well, we were never in those types of meetings with the Colleges before. Well, that's not true. The deans did. But now our interim dean participates in those conversations. So we're fitting into their structure in that way, if that makes sense. So they've already got these governing bodies. They made sure we had representation on all of those. So I sit in on enrollment management meetings and student affairs meetings and [care?] team meetings. And our dean sits in on academic program type meetings. We're involved in budget committee.

And it may seem really simple. But the idea that we've built those relationships--I mean, I can pick up the phone and talk to, call anyone at White Water. And I'm getting assistance. Right? Because we've taken the time to build those relationships. So that, in turn, impacts the students in a really positive way. Because if I have a student having an issue, I know exactly who to call. And people are there to respond. I mean again, the sense is student first. And if there's an issue, what are we all going to do collectively to fix it?

LEH: Yeah. It kind of sounds like a nice merger of like the mission of the former Colleges with the sorts of resources that White Water has.

KF: Yeah. I think you actually said that perfectly. Because the things that we could never offer students before, they can offer. And we have also given White Water the opportunity to keep students who they might have denied in the past because they can now choose to come here. So we have students who really, really, really are passionate about going to White Water, so maybe don't have the ACT scores or GPA to get in. But they can start with us here at Rock and live over in White Water and participate. You know, they can live with their best friend and still have that experience and just come take classes here. So I think we've each gotten something out of the partnership.

LEH: Yeah, yeah. What about student activities and student life? How has that sort of been impacted?

KF: Yeah, so this is another example where our students have been given much more opportunity because of the partnership. Now we are extremely lucky because we are fairly close to one another. So it's about a 38-minute 00:45:00drive from the Rock campus to White Water. And that helps. That's huge. But we have the free shuttle. And the free shuttle runs in the evenings, during the day. We also will run the shuttle for special events. Like I just sent out an email to students yesterday saying if you're interested in going to the Division 3 semifinal football game at White Water on Saturday. Let me know if you're interested, and if we have enough people we'll run a shuttle on Saturday. So we're trying to engage them, get them over to the main campus for things.

We've done a couple of special activities where we have a Rock County Day at the football game. We have done a Janesville Jets hockey, UW White Water-Rock County hockey night. The students are able to participate in Greek life. They can participate in clubs and organizations. Now that gets a little wonky as a student because of seg fees. But students can still participate at the very basic level.

We provide they can do anything over, participate at anything at the University Center. So movie nights, craft nights, bowling. They have health services available to them. So the Rock students have to pay a twenty-dollar copay to use those services. But they can if they want to. And we're hoping to actually roll out some services here at the Rock campus this next year. They did some flue clinics for us this year.

Let's see what else. Club sports we'll continue to offer. We're working really closely with the recreation department at White Water to get some kind of one-time options going for spring. Mental health services, White Water's now our provider. So they have someone come over a couple of days a week. Seg fees pay for all that, but now we're paying a staff member at White Water to do it. And that's great, because it's just more aligned if they're having an outside contractor come in and do that.

What am I missing? I know I'm missing something. Oh, the HawkCard. Obviously our students all have the same HawkCard. And that connects them. They can use the libraries. And vice versa. If a White Water student is here, they can use the library here.

Also, the shuttle, if we have students who live in Janesville who are commuting to White Water, they can now take the shuttle, too. So maybe they have absolutely no affiliation with the Rock campus, but they need to get to White Water. So we'll have a lot of students that take the shuttle that way as well. They're commuters.

Yeah, but really is, as long as they have the HawkCard, they are able to do 00:48:00anything any student at White Water can do. Except for Division 3 sports.

LEH: Yeah. So how did people in, have people in the community reacted to some of those changes? Has it been like pretty positive, or--

KF: Yeah, I would say it's very positive. I think one of the most common questions we've gotten as long as I've been here is when is Rock going to start offering more four-year degrees? Now Rock is a little bit unique. We are the largest community of Janesville-Beloit, the largest community in the state of Wisconsin who does not have a four-year institution. A public institution. So White Water coming on board, I mean, I think the opportunities are really endless. We're still tweaking some things. There's all the behind-the-scenes work that had to happen. And we still have kinks to work out. And so, you know, within the next couple of years, I think those discussions about how we can be more collaborative, what kinds of programs do we want to offer, I think that will continue to evolve. I think the community's really excited because there's name recognition with White Water because we have been so close. And we have White Water students that are in our community on a regular basis. So it seems like a natural fit.

I think the students, you know, it's interesting because the entire time we were working on this, I think we all felt very strongly that we wanted students to have opportunity. And we didn't want them to sort of what I call making, we didn't want them to see us making the sausage. So we didn't want them to know of all the things that were happening behind the scenes to make everything work. And you know, like I said, I think it would be impossible to go through this type of thing without having some kinks in the process. But we're getting there.

And for students, I don't think their world has changed anything other than for the positive, because their opportunities--oh, because I thought 00:51:00of a couple more. Career services. We now have a career services person onsite once a week, which we never had before. Veteran services. There were some things we lost in the restructuring. So for them, it's addition, right? They have more services. Now they're still choosing us for all the same reasons they chose us in the past. It's just now we can offer them more.

So, yeah, I think it's [the same? Been seen?] 51:37 And all I heard through the beginning stages of this process was positive comments. I'm pretty active in the community. And people would tell me this is really great, don't you think this is great? So, yeah, I think it's been seen as a good thing.

LEH: Yeah. Yeah. I think, well, it's interesting, too that like Janesville, that that area doesn't have, that White Water is the four-year school. It's kind of interesting--

KF: Yeah. And we do have, I should say, I don't want to slight them, we do have Beloit College, which is in Beloit. It serves a very different population and it's much smaller. So I think it's the UW System. You know, if you think about where those campuses are located, we're the largest community without one of them. So, yeah, I think this seemed pretty natural.

LEH: Yeah. Can you elaborate on that? Why it sort of serves a different population?

KF: The Beloit College?

LEH: Yeah.

KF: Well, and I don't know, I mean, I'm a little hesitant, I'm not well-versed, but I know that they serve students, the majority of their students are coming to them from out of state. It's a private institution. So it's, you know, again, we're serving that access population. They're smaller. I couldn't tell you the size. But private institutions, public institutions, you know, it's another option for students, so it's good. That's a positive thing. But I think the access piece is, you know, that's maybe not as, they do have some pre-college programming. I'm trying to be really careful because I don't know enough what they do to--

LEH: Oh, yeah, yeah.

KF: Yeah, that makes sense?

LEH: Yeah. (laughs) Yeah.

KF: But I can tell you that most of their students are coming from out of state.

LEH: Yeah. Right.

KF: So it just creates a different kind of culture.

LEH: Yeah. Hmm. Let's see. What else? So you said that there are like some 00:54:00things in the process that like students don't see. What were some of the challenges in the process that students wouldn't have necessarily seen?

KF: Hmm. So, I don't know that I can get really far into the weeds on this. But when you think about the undertakings of all the student records. So moving records out of PeopleSoft into the PeopleSoft at White Water. And trying to match that data to new policies and procedures and processes. So we created a whole new college and then we had to bring all the records over to this new college. So we had to merge the information into a new format. That's a massive undertaking. And you know, just how they calculate GPA and the academic standing. The amount of work for the registrar's and admissions office. That's a whole other thing. How are students going to apply? Who's going to process all those applications? It's not like they had more staff to do that. So all of those things. I mean, the amount of detail that went into those kinds of conversations was tremendous. Financial aid, I would say the same thing. The process of getting approved to deliver aid. Figuring out the cost of attendance for students. How is the system going to know that students are Rock students and not White Water students, because they're going to have a different cost of attendance. So it really was around student records.

How are we going to pull data to know how many students are, like you know, at Colleges we had an enrollment report that we could look at and know how many students had applied. How were we going to be able to track that? So the student record component, all of the detail that had to go into figuring that out was monstrous. And so, and because, so there was a consultant hired by 00:57:00System to help with some of the, but the bulk of the work was done by the individuals in the system who work on those campuses. There might have been some technical aspects to get that all moved over. But I'm only kind of scratching the surface on the amount of work that it took.

And someone described to me--I thought this was great--so someone described to me, this was actually somebody that was helping us with our ID machine. So we were going to transfer everything over to using the HawkCard. And the amount of work that it took to get our systems to match the White Water system and make sure that all of our students' information was put into the new system correctly. I mean, these are all things, as you can imagine, if one little thing doesn't get done correctly, you know, it can slow down the process and then students are waiting. And you want to try to do the best you can. I mean, the brand new freshman isn't ever going to be a brand new freshman again. So our goal is really, we want them to have the same experience that anybody as a new freshman is going to have. So if there's too many hurdles they've got to jump through, that's not giving them the same experience. So we set the bar that high.

And obviously we had, you know, there were glitches in the process. I can't imagine that wouldn't happen with something that big. But I think that student record component was huge. But anyway, Dave was saying to me one day, it was about a year in. And he said, "You know, when the partnership was announced, we all were so excited about the opportunity. And it was like you have a party and you throw confetti in the air. Like, this is great!" And he said, "A year in, the confetti's all around us on the floor. And we're picking it up and trying to figure out where the pieces go."

And I thought that was a really good description. It wasn't bad. It was just that we started out from a thirty thousand foot view. And now we're in the trenches trying to make sure that processes are working correctly. And that's a lot of work. It's a ton of work. So I give kudos to all the individuals that had a part to plan that.

LEH: Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I wouldn't even like think about that, that a freshman is never going to be a freshman again.

KF: Right? And you think back to your experience, and I mean, I had a 01:00:00wonderful experience. I wouldn't have wanted that to be bogged down with just a bunch of stuff that is not important, you know, or end up dropping out of school because of an error we made.

LEH: Right. Yeah. And that's also like kind of goes into like enrollment, in a way, of you want to keep things the way they are or running really well. For people to keep coming.

KF: Right. No, you're absolutely right. And I think, yeah, that's a huge component of it. I think staff at the colleges has been through a tremendous amount of change in the last five years. So that's the other thing, you know, continuing to, I think that's, when you start to put the students first, anybody can get onboard for that, because that's why we're all here. But you know, change is challenging. So keeping people motivated. Sometimes I think it's, especially when we're talking about technology, sometimes I think it's harder for staff than it is for students. We get used to stuff and then it's hard to change. But, yeah, so.

LEH: Yeah. Yeah. Could you maybe elaborate on that? What changes were difficult or easy for staff?

KF: Yeah, so, I guess what I would say is in 2015, when we went through the regionalization process with the colleges, I work in student services so we lost a lot of staff across the state. And that was difficult. People, everyone had to reapply for jobs. We've had people that have been here twenty-five, thirty years who were having to reapply. That just in and of itself is stressful. I understand why we did it that way and it makes sense to me. But the process of going through that and seeing some restructuring. Now I think we had great leadership and I think people could start to see where we were headed. I think we were moving in the right direction on many, many things. Even by consolidating some of those services, I think we were headed in the 01:03:00right direction.

So we're in it, we're getting up to speed, we're about I don't know, almost two years in. And we had to change processes. You know, the way we did admissions, the way we did financial aid. All of that had to change. And we had new software we were introduced to to keep notes because everything was starting to become automated. So then at the end of 2017 when the announcement was made about the restructuring, people were just starting to feel like they were getting in a groove. And then we had to have a conversation about a whole new way of doing things.

And so now we have been introduced to, we didn't have this same, I mean, White Water was wonderful about making people, you know, people right away were worried about employment. And that seemed to get addressed very early on in the process. It appeared that we were going to be able to keep things as is. And that's a great thing to get out of the way right away, right? Because then people can just get onto the business of making sure we get the right processes in place.

But it's change. And I think that everyone was, nobody was negative about it. I certainly don't want to give that impression. It's, you know, I think even the older I get, the harder a time I have with it. It's when you're in the places that make you feel the most uncomfortable is where the majority of growth happens. We teach our students that all the time. So it's a good reminder for staff that even though we're fluctuating and going through change again, that this continues to keep us relevant. Students are still going to need us. But it's hard, you know? You get used to something. And like I said, the older I get, you get set in your ways. You don't want to change. But I think change can be really healthy and it can be a good thing. You know, ask me this on a different day and I might have a different answer. (laughter) I think it's challenging.

And I think students, what I would continue to say myself and to staff is, do the students care? Is this more of an issue for us, or is it the students? Like if we got XYZ new service, are we freaking out because it's new? Or 01:06:00are we hearing from students that it's bad? And you have to make sure that you're separating those two things. Because I think it's easy to fall into I just don't want to do it this way, because for the last fifteen years, I've done it this way. That's not a reason to keep doing something. And this change requires us to have to think about things differently. I think it makes people nervous. But I think that nervousness or that uncomfortableness can actually be a good thing. Now, other people might not agree with that. (laughs) I know there are some days that I'm like oh, can we just have one day where we're not figuring something out? But I think at the end of the day, it benefits students greatly. So.

LEH: Yeah. All right. I think that, that is maybe a good place to stop. But before I let you go, I just want to ask do you have anything else you want to add? Anything that strikes you as like really important or just anything, anything else?

KF: Well one of the first questions you asked me was why people stay. What do people love about the colleges? And I think about the people that I worked with, and I've been here, I left for a little short stint, but I've been here almost eighteen years. And most of the people that I work with have been here anywhere from ten to thirty years. And I did not work in higher ed all my life. I didn't start working in higher ed until my thirties. So I had a lot of experience elsewhere. But I will tell you that I have never worked with a group of people who care so much about students. And I think that's why the partnership with White Water went so well. Because again, all decisions were being made with them in mind. That was the first question: How will this impact students?

One of the leaders at the White Water campus said, "We are going to hold students harmless every step of the way." That was sort of the motto. And you know, when you work with people like that and everybody's on the same page, it's a great feeling. And the colleges, just a really, really, really 01:09:00special place. I'm really lucky to work with this group and the people I've worked with across the state. So, yeah.

Before I start crying--(laughter) I know, I do. Sometimes I think about it, it's just, I feel very lucky.

LEH: Yeah. All right. Well--