City Manager Larry Bierke, Sen. Dale Schultz, R-Richland Center and Chancellor Dennis Shields listen to Glen Bahr, co-owner of Erschen’s Florist, as he speaks about the lack of communication the City Council has had with the Downtown Parking Alliance. Megan Schmidt photo

Platteville’s Downtown Parking Alliance expressed their frustrations with community officials during a meeting Tuesday evening.
“I feel like I am hitting a brick wall,” said Lori Erschen-Bahr, co-owner of Erschen’s Florist. “I don’t understand why the brick wall is there. I have been coming to (City Council) meetings since March. I stopped counting how many (meetings) at 20. I shouldn’t have to work that hard to be heard.”
Hearing her concerns Tuesday were Sen. Dale Schultz, R-Richland Center, Rep. Travis Tranel, R-Cuba City, City Manager Larry Bierke and University of Wisconsin-Platteville Chancellor Dennis Shields.

The Downtown Parking Alliance’s goal of the meeting was to request regular discussions with the University and the City of Platteville. They were successful.
“Yes, (meeting) is fine with me,” Shields said to David Spensley, owner of the Bridal Boutique. “I agree. We are always looking for ways to communicate with the community. As the University developed a plan we thought we’d include public comment. I think we need to get together. I will show up as often as I can.”
Schultz suggested that each group select two representatives to “talk and get ideas on the table.”
“You have to have a relationship with eachother, even if you disagree,” Schultz said.
The Downtown Parking Alliance originally formed last year to address issues with the parking lot on Bonson and Pine Streets.  The group is made up of downtown business owners.
“Businesses were concerned about losing parking to development,”  Erschen-Bahr said. “We didn’t want permit parking to move into the (Bonson and Pine Streets) lot, If permits are put in certain places, then businesses might not be viable to stay open.”
City Council discussed turning the parking lot on Bonson and Pine Street into a two-tiered parking ramp in March.  The upper level would be accessible for residents and the lower level for the public. The parking ramp would create an additional 50 parking spots. It was a $4.5 million project that fell through.
“The developer backed out, because we changed the plan five to six times,” Bierke said. “So, the developer threw their hands in the air.”
The Downtown Parking Alliance later noticed customers were confused on parking accessibility near their stores.
“I suggest putting a group of people together to work on a cable access program that lays out the parking accessibility,” Schultz said.
The City Council still plans to keep parking downtown free for the public, Bierke said.
“I don’t like the idea of meters,” Bierke said. “We’ve narrowed it down to customers. They deserve free parking. I think that will always be the City Council’s stand on that.”
Regular meetings were not set at the open forum; however, the Downtown Parking Alliance plans to be in touch with the City of Platteville and UW-Platteville.
“This meeting is exactly what we needed,”  Erschen-Bahr said. “We need to have open communication with all parties.”

As a student, I hear these complaints while walking through campus, in the grocery store and in a substantial amount of conversations I either am participating in or eavesdropping in on. I had known students wanted more out of the university, but I didn’t realize we are also expecting a lot from the city of Platteville. Not until Platteville City Manager Larry Bierke was a guest speaker in my state and local gov­ernment class did I fully understand that the university and the city have to work together to make a lot of what we want happen.

In his presentation Bierke informed my class that the students at University of Wiscon­sin-Platteville are about half of the population of Platteville.

“We are trying to implement more student voices and opinions in decisions,” Bierke said. “Students should have more of a voice because of their overwhelming presence.”

We are here for a majority of the year and the city would be very different without us. Why can’t we make it different while we are here?

Believe it or not, the Platteville Common Council used to have students carrying a dis­trict for years with a yearly roll over. Several years ago it seemed students stopped being in­terested in city government engagement.

As of now, and not necessarily with student input, the city of Platteville is in the process of welcoming both a Dunkin’ Donuts and a Jimmy John’s. Who’s excited? The Platteville Police Department now has a prescription drug drop box to deposit old medications in. Also the PPD is implementing a free text notification service that can be found on the city’s website.

In a one-on-one interview with Bierke, I learned that if students want to see more chang­es happen in the city in their favor, a student Common Council member would hold a lot of weight based on the council’s status and power base.

There are multiple city boards and com­mittees with over 20 vacant positions that stu­dents are welcome to apply for. For example, the Historic Preservation Commission needs to fill a spot. Bierke said that the presence of an engineering student could greatly benefit the commission because of their knowledge base on maintaining and developing historical buildings.

The Safe Routes To School Program is also in need of some help in encouraging alternate transportation routes and options that focuses away from automobiles but towards bikes, footpaths and the like.

There is an entire list of the different boards as well as an application to be part of them on the city of Platteville website, platteville.org, on the Boards and Commissions link. Even if there are no vacancies for a board or commis­sion you are interested in, it doesn’t mean the city isn’t taking applications.

How is this going to benefit an aspiring col­lege student? Well, there is huge potential for résumé building, volunteer hours with a mu­nicipality, internships and the application of things learned in class. Working with the city of Platteville holds many opportunities for stu­dents studying a wide range of topics or for anyone with specific interests.

Change is wanted and needed. The city needs student voices contributing to decisions. Students should seriously consider getting in­volved with Platteville city.

With a little help from some manpower and sunshine, by the time school is out, this part of the state will have fields peppered with green. This includes Pioneer Farm’s fields. For the facility to accommodate the dairy, beef and swine herds, the animals need to eat. But for them to eat, crops need to be planted, fertilized and harvested with brand new top-of-the-line Case International Har­vester equipment.

The use of brand new machin­ery on the Farm didn’t happen by a stroke of luck or by means of copious amounts of funding to purchase the equipment, but by way of a state-regulated lease program. Terms for the program were signed in November 2009, and University of Wisconsin-Platteville became the first uni­versity to start this program, which is specifically between Ritchie Implement Inc., Case IH and UW-Platteville. All of the new equipment is brought to the Farm from Ritchie Implement Inc., out of Cobb.

It was while noticing the small amount of Case IH equip­ment in the UW System fleets that Case IH President Randy Baker got the idea to help out the budget-stricken system by supplying new equipment for the Farm. With the collaboration of UW-Platteville, Ritchie Im­plement Inc., and Pattie Lardie, Case IH manager of government sales, the agreement was made.

Now, and for the years to fol­low, the Farm is supplemented with new equipment before it is necessary for use. For example, a new corn planter was just de­livered. This gives Justin Daugh­erty, beef herd enterprise man­ager, and Pioneer Farm workers time to make sure equipment is prepped and ready for the upcom­ing planting and harvest seasons.

During the course of the year, when any particular piece of ma­chinery is being used on the Farm, the hours of use are recorded.

“The program allows Ritchie Implement and Case IH to pro­vide machinery to the UW-Platte­ville Pioneer Farm as long as the equipment is salable in Ritchie

Implement’s marketplace,” said Kevin Depies, salesman for Ritchie Implement, Inc. “Once the university is done with the equipment, it can be marketed locally with a discount for de­preciation. This is a win-win for the university, the community, Ritchie Implement and Case IH.”

There are three skid steers, 10 tractors that range from 31 to 350 horsepower, and harvest, tillage, and planting equipment on the Pioneer Farm. Anything that can be used in Southwest Wiscon­sin can be leased through to the university, but not everything the Farm uses is supplied by Ritchie Implement and Case IH.

There are benefits to using top-of-the-line machinery, other than it making the staff’s lives easier. Quality crops can be planted, grown and harvested, creating high yields of feed for the livestock on the farm, which ultimately results in high-quality dairy, beef and pork products.

Another benefit that the agree­ment provides is exposure and learning experiences for the stu­dents that work on the Pioneer Farm.

“It gives the students the op­portunity to run top-of-the-line equipment and learn the new­est technologies within the ma­chines,” said Laurel Ballweg, se­nior animal science major. “This prepares the students for their fu­ture after college and allows them to be more well-rounded and ex­perienced individuals.”

Jobs such as hauling bales, planting corn and hauling feed are all things that students have the chance to experience. Daugh­erty said that some students have experience working with farm equipment, but some have little to no training. Working on the Farm is a hands-on way for agriculture students to create a connection to what farmers do on a daily basis, especially if they are not going to be farming after college.

“They get to be proactive and use technologically advanced equipment that wouldn’t neces­sarily be on their home farms,” Daugherty said.

All students who are hired are required to take an in-house safety training course along with a Case IH-sponsored farm safety class for all workers.

“I thought the safety training was necessary,” said Ryan Ripp, senior animal science major. “I generally can jump in a tractor and go, but this is a good remind­er of how to be safe and to teach others to be safe on the Farm.”

The partnership between UW-Platteville, Case IH and Ritchie Implement is a relationship that gives students, staff and commu­nity members the opportunity to learn about the emerging agricul­tural technologies both on and off the field.

The spring semester is approaching rapidly, and there are many students, such as myself, that will graduate May 12 and face an impor­tant decision: graduate school or employment?

I completely support further education; however, I offer the following as reasons to pursue a career instead of a graduate degree. My argument is brought to you by peterson.com, which highlights numerous reasons op­posing graduate school.

First, graduate school is highly competitive. Graduate programs typically have less posi­tions than undergraduate programs. There’s competition for enrollment, research opportu­nities, grant money, and frequently, departmen­tal politics, according to peterson.com. I think competition is constructive for society. As col­lege students, we are competing for a chance of better employment in classrooms. You write a paper and you receive a point-value grade. You present a project and you are evaluated with a quantity based on your performance.

Raise the stakes, reduce opportunities for students to continue education through more strict pre-requisites, jack up tuition prices and you have a graduate program. Not to say that there’s anything wrong with demanding more from a higher quality education, which could lead to a better career, but is it worth it?

In addition to tougher competition, there are also the issues of higher costs and large sums of debt after graduating.

Graduate schools can be very expensive. If you do not plan to work during the semester, or will not receive an assistant job and waived tuition fees, education costs will soar, accord­ing to peterson.com. Furthermore, the website warns that debt incurred through graduate pro­grams might force you to accept a job based on availability after graduation, due to financial needs.

If the arguments above are not enough, there remains the fear of being overly edu­cated for the position. During tough economic times, if your seeking employment, having an advanced degree can be detrimental. You may be told, ‘sorry, you’re overqualified,’ according to peterson.com.

I hope that I haven’t squashed the dreams of some students who plan to attend graduate school, and I admire your efforts, but I fear that it will be quite difficult to succeed with the cur­rent condition of the job market and economy.

Gerrad Frei: Graduate School

Assistant Chancellor for Administrative Services Rob Cramer told me Tuesday one can never have too much education. I am inclined to agree with him, and I would believe that most of the students attending this university do as well. After all, are we not here to better our minds, to receive the tools that will help us perform in our careers?

This is why attending a graduate school af­ter completing an undergraduate degree is ben­eficial.

Grad school allows for specialized train­ing in a chosen field of study that cannot be achieved while pursuing a bachelor’s degree. Not only do grad students receive valuable work skills and advice, but they come to understand subtleties and nu­ances of their career fields in ways non-grad students do not.

Attending a gradu­ate school increases potential earning power. Those with MBAs in business-re­lated fields can earn nearly double the salary of their undergraduate level counterparts, accord­ing to gradschools.com. Those with an MBA also tend to receive jobs that have signing bo­nuses, while 52 percent are offered or have ac­cepted a job opportunity before graduating.

Grad school also brings with it the one great intangible that people often forget: the esteem. It should not be lost on those thinking of con­tinuing their education after receiving a bach­elor’s that the prestige that comes with having an MBA is not lost on employers. It appears ambitious, self-motivated and, most important­ly, it makes you look like a hard worker.

When considering where to go after your four years here, make sure to give graduate school serious consideration. It can provide crucial work skills, a greater pay rate and pres­tige. And students can find grad schools that will not only pay the tuition, but also give the student a stipend to help with food and hous­ing.

In the end, grad school makes you a must-have asset to a variety of companies or pro­grams, which will allow you the opportunity.