University of Wisconsin-La Crosse
EN-9: Community Partnerships

UW-L has a formal “supportive” partnership between our McNair Program and the La Crosse Fish Health Center. The partnership is the First Year Research Exposure (FYRE) program in which freshmen from underrepresented groups work in laboratories at the La Crosse Fish Health Center, which is one of nine fish health centers operated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The purpose of the Fish Health Center is to ensure that natural and managed fish populations remain healthy and safe for human consumption. Students are supported with a $1,000 scholarship. - Ongoing partnership since 2014. UW-L works in association with both the United States Geological Survey and US Fish and Wildlife to communicate information about invasive species to the public. This is an ongoing partnership.

UWL hosts weekly farmer's markets throughout the year in collaboration with the Cameron Park Market Association as well as with the support of the City of La Crosse. The outdoor Spring/Fall Market started in the Fall of 2013 and sells produce as well as arts and crafts, which are almost all created by students on campus. The Winter Market, which started in the Winter of 2014/2015, is hosted indoors in our Student Center on Saturday mornings and local vendors sell their home grown, and home made products to the community. In addition to hosting the markets, UW-L's Wellness Coordinator and Students for Sustainability works with Cameron Park Market Association to coordinate a UW-L "appreciation" market. At this event, UW-L students and staff get 5% off their market purchases and are recognized by the market community. UW-L works with the City of La Crosse to help promote consistent, culturally-competent communication and an alternative location to sell fare with vendors who go to the City's Saturday market. These venders are invited to participate in the Monday market at UW-L, which requires no fee except that the vendor to pay for their own parking during the market times. UW-L shares and the City of La Crosse share vendor contact lists and phone scripts for recruiting vendors. This is significant because of the language barrier with many of the vendors, who are part of our Hmong community. What is also significant is that UW-L's market is the only Monday market around town. Finally, UW-L also promotes this market with the neighborhood associations that surround campus.

UW-L's River Studies Center (RSC) has a “transformative” partnership with the Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center (UMESC). This is a formal partnership that has been operating for 25 years and that has been sustained by significant financial commitments and formal memoranda of understanding. The RSC-UMESC partnership have jointly completed many local, regional, and national environmental research projects that primarily focus on maintaining the ecological integrity of our aquatic resources and habitats. Examples of recent collaborative research topics include nutrient and sediment contamination of the Upper Mississippi River watershed, managing invasive species, assessing bio-accumulation of mercury in the Great Lakes region, managing mercury-contaminated landscapes, investigating effects of commercial and recreational boat traffic on the ecology of the Mississippi River, and documenting the cultural history of the Upper Mississippi River valley. This partnership is built around research initiatives that are jointly completed by scientists at UMESC and RSC, and it has provided hundreds of undergraduate and graduate students with exceptional paid research and internship opportunities. Over the past 25 years, the partnership among RSC and UMESC scientists/administrators has fundamentally influenced the research activities of both institutions, resulted in >100 jointly authored papers and presentation, and greatly expanded educational opportunities for UW-L students. Virtually all partnership activities focus on projects related to environmental sustainability.

www.uwlax.edu/mcnair/