Issue date: 2/22/07 Section: Campus News

Media Credit: Andrea Pendergast Student Tara Jo Kirk (left) and Robert M. Knight, chair of the music and theater arts department (right) listen while United Way Executive Director Kris Becker (center) addresses the Idea Lounge audience at Pizza Plus Eatery.

UW-Eau Claire and the city of Eau Claire need to continue to work together to improve the community and its creative class, participants said in a discussion at Tuesday night's Idea Lounge 3.

"Behind a progressive city is a progressive school," Mike Schatz, executive director of Downtown Eau Claire, Inc. said.

The event, put on by Volume One Magazine, DECI, Chancellor Brian Levin-Stankevich and the College of Arts and Sciences, was held to give the citizens of Eau Claire a chance to voice their opinions on how the university and city can collaborate to improve the community, according to the event's press release. The event was the third such community discussion Volume One Magazine has held since Sept. 19.

More than 100 community members attended the event, held at the Pizza Plus Eatery, 208 S. Barstow St.

Schatz and other members of the panel said the university and the community need to work together to decrease the number of students leaving the Eau Claire area after graduating. They said there needs to be improvement with the three "T's" of the community - talent, technology and tolerance.

Both members of the community and the panel of experts assembled by Levin-Stankevich shared ideas, including ways to increase student attendance in off-campus activities, an improved quality of place in Eau Claire and more interaction between businesses and students, who are prospective employees.

Schatz also encouraged community businesses and groups to bring university students to downtown and let them see what the city has to offer.

"We need to show students all of downtown, not just Water Street and the mall," Schatz said.

Sophomore Bill Fuerstenau, a creative writing major, was among those who attended the event. Fuerstenau said he was impressed by the amount of ideas members of the community and the university brought up.

"There were a lot of good discussions going on there," he said. "If they continue to do these (Idea Lounges), we'll see some progress in the next few years."

Fuerstenau added that he believes all students should try to attend future Idea Lounge sessions.

As the discussion period came to a close, Schatz told those in attendance to come to the next Idea Lounge, hoping to build on the community dialogue that has developed in the previous three events.

"We're always looking for ideas."

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