President Berne: A college degree isn't the finish line

A college degree isn't the finish line. It's the beginning of what we owe our communities.

I came to Madison as an outsider and almost immediately found myself on the inside. This was made possible by this community, and I recognize what a valuable and formative invitation that was.

The welcome was more than hospitality; it was both an education and an acceleration. You gave me the relationships, context, and trust I needed to connect so that the college’s most important work would not be delayed. 

Many in our community spoke honestly about the complexities and opportunities shaping our district.  

They did so because they want—actually need—Madison College to fulfill its responsibility as a connector and convener, and because success for this region can only be collective. 

We have opened the doors of higher education to more people in more places. We have prioritized student success by expanding academic and social offerings and ensuring support for basic needs.

Despite these significant efforts, we know that access and support are not meaningful if they don’t yield positive outcomes.  

Our focus is on activating access and support in the singular interest of student completion: ensuring our students leave with a meaningful and actionable credential that leads to employment or a four-year degree.

We value completion as a prerequisite for community vibrancy: ensuring that significantly more people achieve economic and social mobility. When this happens, not only are individuals uplifted, but their families and communities are, too.

Our work is about more than delivering academic content. It is about driving economic transformation, expanding workforce participation, and building generational mobility.

To achieve these goals, we must draw upon the power of collective impact. This power doesn’t come from hoping; it comes from concrete asks, such as the following:

We need sufficient, sustained funding so that Madison College can fulfill its mission and respond to our region’s workforce needs. Many of our highest-demand programs require specialized labs, modern equipment, consumable materials, and industry-experienced faculty.

Greater investment would help us expand needed capacity, reduce waitlists in critical fields such as nursing and other health sciences, and provide the hands-on education students need to enter careers in advanced manufacturing, public safety, and the skilled trades to be ready for tomorrow’s workforce needs.

We need a network of excellent K-12 and four-year institutions. Wisconsin needs strong educational infrastructure that includes technical colleges, universities, and private college systems.

We need our business leaders to serve on our advisory boards, provide internships and apprenticeships, hire our graduates, and share their expertise as adjunct faculty. 

We also ask employers to help us develop credentials that lead our graduates to a direct pathway into their industries.

We invite a deeper and more sustained relationship with our non-profit and community-based partners. Those who work in these spaces, and their supporters, are in a forever hustle to do more, fund more, and care more. We can be the connector that helps this work proceed most fruitfully.

These relationships move in both directions: Madison College helps drive change in our communities, and our communities' needs must drive change within Madison College.

I am grateful for our education, nonprofit, legislative, business, and economic development partners who have helped shape my first year of leadership at Madison College and see that investing in our students is an investment in our community. 

Thank you for your partnership and friendship and for carrying the message forward that our responsibility in preparing all learners for meaningful work is essential not only for them, but for all of us.

We feel the responsibility you have entrusted to us, and we are working every day to fulfill it. A college degree isn't the finish line. It is the beginning of what we owe our students, their families, and our entire region.

Dr. Jennifer Berne
President, Madison College