First-Year Parents' Weekend 2008

Parents from around the country made the Alumni House their first stop on Friday, November 14 as they started First-Year Parents’ Weekend. On one of Madison’s first really cold days this fall, parents first enjoyed a hot cup of coffee or hot chocolate and a moment of calm before the weekend festivities.

Many parents were seeing their student for the first time since they left home earlier this year. And, as much as the students tried to downplay their excitement, it was evident that they too looked forward to the weekend full of football, State Street and intersecting home and campus life.

Former Monster.com executive and WAA member Steve Pogorzelski ’83 spoke with parents and alumni about the current and future job markets, explaining that the relationship between employers and employees has fundamentally changed.

Describing what he calls a “talent tsunami,” Pogorzelski said companies now compete globally for the most skilled employees, giving new job-seekers reason to be less loyal to organizations than previous generations. Today’s young employees are likely to move around on a “career lattice” as they seek a work-life balance, and are expected to hold 8-12 jobs over their careers, Pogorzelski said.

“Generation Y scares the heck out of a lot of people because they have very different expectations,” he said. “More and more workers believe they are free agents. This is a generation that is preconditioned for success. They don’t want to work for you for 30 years.”

Pogorzelski predicted that this year’s graduates will face challenges in the downsized U.S. job market, which in the last year has lost more than 1.2 million jobs, with half of those losses in the last three months. He suggested that the economic downturn could bring an unemployment rate of 8-9 percent.

“There is no end in sight,” Pogorzelski said. “Nobody really knows how far this will go in terms of unemployment.”

But he said that today’s first-year students will likely benefit from waves of Baby-Boomer retirements, which will create a shortage of as many as 12 million workers in many fields, ranging from nurses to accountants to auto mechanics.

“Longer term, no generation will have opportunities for greater career success and happiness that this current generation,” he said.

A job tip from Pogorzelski: Learn Mandarin. “Companies will pay anything to get Western-educated workers who speak Mandarin and get them to move to China.”

Parents had their first chance to meet Chancellor Carolyn “Biddy” Martin PhD’85, who started her term as UW’s new chief executive officer at the same time that this year’s first-year student began on campus.

“Part of my delight with this position to date is your children,” Martin said. “They’re talented, they’re open and they’re curious. They like to have fun, they’re creative about having fun and we’re all learning from them. They’re vulnerable, they’re young and it’s our enormous privilege to have them here.”

Martin said UW-Madison is facing challenges as it strives to remain a world-class university that keeps its commitment to serving the public. She said it’s too soon to tell how the economic downturn will affect Wisconsin in the short- and long-term, but the campus is again planning for budget cuts. UW-Madison will do all that it can to build on its strengths, remain accessible to students, properly compensate faculty and staff and keep the campus community safe, she said. Safety programs will be held harmless from budget cuts, she said, and recruiting top-quality faculty will remain a priority:

“We don’t want things grinding to a halt,” Martin said. “I hope your children will get the real advantages of studying at this world-class university. Your children are learning from the people who are creating new knowledge.”

Many parents were interested in hearing from UW’s new Chancellor and they asked some great questions. In past years, questions have “What is the university going to do about Halloween,” and “What about this #1 party school reputation?” This year, questions were more focused “What will the UW do to remain strong and a leader during this economic downturn?” Overall, it was a very enjoyable session — even if a few of us did have to stand.

Martin’s thoughts in response to questions from parents included:

Many parents and alumni attended the Day on Campus session about schizophrenia-spectrum disorders, and several clinicians in the audience asked questions of the presenter, Dr. Diane Gooding. Her presentation focused on her cognitive research that identifies at-risk populations by eye-movement response to test stimuli and non-affect to stimuli. Dr. Gooding is enthusiastic about her work, and shared with the audience how exciting and "fun" it was to work at the university, where she has the opportunity to be involved with other faculty in different disciplines. She said one of her most recent studies involved working with a faculty member in physiology, who had no background in schizophrenia. As the session came to a close, she was still taking questions one-one from attendees who approached her.

Dozens of parents took home the first edition of The Red Shirt, spirit wear from WAA that benefits student and alumni programming. Some parents were buying the shirts for themselves, others for their children. Some even went to have lunch with their student and came back to buy the shirt, or brought their student back with them! The Red Shirt was very popular — lots of people commented on the design and talked about wearing it to the BADGER HUDDLE pre-game tailgate the next day.

At brunch on Sunday at a King Street eatery parents and students filled the tables. Overheard was a dad telling his son and girlfriend about his time on campus and how everything has changed—and yet nothing has changed. At another table, both student and parents looked exhausted and relived that the weekend was coming to an end.