Daily Pioneer News

PLATTEVILLE - The University of Wisconsin-Platteville's Distance Learning Center made a bold move to increase their national presence in engineering and project management by exhibiting at the National Manufacturing Week exhibition March 7-10 at Chicago's McCormick Place. The largest show of its type in the country, the exhibition is actually eight separate shows in one with over 1,000 exhibitors. In 2004, the show attracted over 26,000 attendees.

UWP's graduate programs in engineering and project management exhibited in the design engineering section. "We want to let the industrial, mechanical and electrical engineering markets know that we are a national player, " said Dawn Drake, UW-Platteville's executive director of distance learning. "We have graduates in some of the most prestigious engineering firms in the world. We want to be a provider of educational services to their employees."

The show was attended by some of the university's outstanding engineering and project management faculty. The Distance Learning Center's representatives at the show used the occasion to present the engineering department's new Controls and Structural/Geotechnical emphases, as well as the project management department's new PMP Test Prep course.

The university representatives were successful in generating several hundred leads. "Our objective is to increase our distance learning programs by attending trade specific events that will provide us with a greater level of national exposure," explained Joe McShane, the Distance Learning Center's corporate marketing manager. "Online education is the wave of the future, and we want employers to be able to distinguish between our quality education and the for-profit diploma mills. Our motto is 'Integrity since 1866' ".

The University of Wisconsin-Platteville is the oldest university campus in Wisconsin. It was founded as the state's first Normal School for the education of teachers in 1866. The Wisconsin School of Mines was founded in 1907. The two schools merged in 1959, became the Wisconsin State University-Platteville in 1966 and merged into the University of Wisconsin System in 1971.

UWP offers four degrees online: an undergraduate business administration degree and graduate degrees in criminal justice, engineering and project management. For more information, visit www.uwplatt.edu/disted, call 800-362-5460 or e-mail distmarket@uwplatt.edu.

Contact and Prepared by: Joe McShane, Distance Learning Center corporate marketing manager,mcshanej@uwplatt.edu