Daily Pioneer News

PLATTEVILLE - University of Wisconsin-Platteville professor of business administration Steve Kleisath studies the art of teaching, and it's helped him shape his own ideas on how to be an effective instructor.

"It's not whether the student is bright enough to learn, but whether you're bright enough to reach the student," he said. "Teaching is a constant revision of how you teach as well as what you teach."

Kleisath is the new chair of the UWP Department of Business Administration and Accounting, and some of his goals for the department include maintaining the quality of prospective degree candidates in the program while increasing student participation in international experiences and internships. The professor feels experiences in foreign countries are very important for college students of today, especially business students.

"We're in a global economy. You can't get away from this concept of the global economy," he said. "We no longer have many businesses that can just play the domestic game. Many businesses want overseas experience."

Kleisath also said students with quality internships have better success at landing good jobs. While the business administration program has encouraged internships in the past, it will now require it for all of its graduates.

"We're developing more internships. It seems to be going really well," he said. "We feel this is going to be real exciting, when all of our students have internships, to see how that's going to affect getting employers on campus."

Faculty members are also excited about the renovation of Ullrich Hall, which is planned to reopen by the spring 2005 semester. A state-of-the-art computer lab in that building is designated for business administration and accounting.

Kleisath will lead a faculty of 17 professors and adjunct instructors in a department with 400 on-campus majors. Additionally, 550 more students are enrolled part-time in the program through the distance education program, which offers an undergraduate business degree program as well as a master's in project management degree program, developed in conjunction with the engineering departments.

"I am very pleased that Dr. Steve Kleisath has agreed to become the new chair of the Department of Business Administration and Accounting. His department is one of our largest in terms of numbers of faculty and staff members and numbers of on-campus students," said Duane Ford, dean of the College of Business, Industry, Life Science and Agriculture. "It also is the department with the largest number of off-campus students that we serve via distance education. So the challenges for Steve will be plenty. But I know that with his 24 years of experience he will be very able to meet these challenges and to provide strong leadership in his department."

Kleisath feels one of the greatest challenges to higher education is adapting to the learning styles of present-day students.

"Students' learning methods keep changing. It's kind of like standing on quick sand," Kleisath said. "The next five to 10 years are going to be really interesting. We're going to see if universities can accommodate the students of today. That's the challenge as I see it over the next 10 years. We have to begin to adjust how we teach to [accommodate] how the students learn."

For 13 years Kleisath has been assessing his own teaching methods and "always refining" how he teaches. He also requests feedback from students.

"I ask my students to give me ideas on how to change. I ask for suggestions on how to improve. I'd say one third of the suggestions are pretty solid, and I try to figure out how to implement them," he said. "Every one of us has to teach differently. It's not wholesale change. You make a few changes at a time and eventually you evolve into a better teacher."

Kleisath lives in Platteville with his wife. He has three daughters, one of whom is a civil engineering graduate of UWP and another will soon graduate with a UWP degree in elementary education. In his spare time, Kleisath enjoys gardening, reading, studying genealogy and playing racquetball.

Contact: Steve Kleisath, chair, Department of Business Administration and Accounting,

Prepared by: Dan Lehnherr, UWP Public Relations, 608-342-1194, lehnherd@uwplatt.edu