Category Archives: Culture

12 Dec

In Photos: The history behind Wisconsin’s historical towns

Photos by Caroline Crowley.

By Caroline Crowley

A drive down nearly any Wisconsin town’s Main Street will reveal a beautiful, historic downtown district.

Most of these classic downtowns were built in the 19th century, and they are rich in history.

According to the Wisconsin Historical Society, the development of the automobile and the rise of malls and shopping centers further from town centers endangered these historic downtowns. 

Many historic buildings were knocked down in the 1960s — others went out of business or struggled to survive.

In the late 20th century, many people took action to restore their small businesses. 

Wisconsin’s historic downtowns began to adapt and thrive once more.

During the pandemic, these small businesses struggled — but thanks to “shop small” initiatives, many were able to survive and thrive.

Photo by Caroline Crowley.
Photo by Caroline Crowley.
Photo by Caroline Crowley.
Photo by Caroline Crowley.
Photo by Caroline Crowley.
Photo by Caroline Crowley.
Photo by Caroline Crowley.
Photo by Caroline Crowley.
Photo by Caroline Crowley.
Photo by Caroline Crowley.
Photo by Caroline Crowley.
Photo by Caroline Crowley.
Photo by Caroline Crowley.
Photo by Caroline Crowley.
Photo by Caroline Crowley.
Photo by Caroline Crowley.
Photo by Caroline Crowley.
Photo by Caroline Crowley.
Photo by Caroline Crowley.
Photo by Caroline Crowley.
Photo by Caroline Crowley.
Photo by Caroline Crowley.
12 Dec

Neighborhood of togetherness: The origin behind Barrio Dance

By Charlotte Bellamy

A loud “let’s go” reverberated from the audience as Charli XCX’s “Vroom Vroom” blasted from the speakers while one dancer stood over another and pretended to ride them like a car. Dressed in navy blue mechanic coveralls with switching white and orange bandanas, Madison-based urban dance crew Barrio Dance Factory commenced their nearly 6-minute long routine on the biggest stage they’ve approached yet, World of Dance Chicago.

But, Barrio Dance Factory has a specific origin and that origin is AJ Juarez. 

When Juarez was 14, he went to a quinceañera in his hometown of Buenos Aires, Argentina. He described this in comparison to any other quinceañera and celebration in Latinx culture, meaning there was a busy and crowded dance floor. Juarez had no idea that this moment would spawn into an entire career throughout the years.

“I had no idea about dance, but I knew I had good rhythm, so I started freestyling,” Juarez said.

At the party, a local dance instructor told Juarez that she would give him a scholarship to train at her studio. Juarez agreed because of his natural affinity for dance and the inability of his family to provide the necessary financials for the expensive practice.

“My parents didn’t have the resources to send me to dance class. Dance was completely out of my thoughts,” Juarez said.

But now, almost two decades later, Juarez lands in Madison, Wisconsin, owning one of the city’s premiere urban dance studios, Barrio Dance.

“Barrio means neighborhood,” the studio’s website and Juarez explained. “That’s what we’re trying to create.”

Barrio Dance Factory crew member Madison Luizzo explained the welcoming and enriching nature of the studio.

“Barrio provides a safe space for anyone in the Madison area and even outside of Madison to come together and feel like they can be themselves with absolutely no judgment, but absolute encouragement and support,” Luizzo said.

It wasn’t a straight shot for Juarez to end up in Madison. Originally from Argentina, dancing has taken him to Los Angeles, New York, London and other parts of Europe as well. Among the dance world, Juarez lamented that flexibility and spontaneity are necessary to stay afloat.

A year before graduating from the Julio Bocca School of Musical Theater in Buenos Aires, Juarez landed roles with Argentina’s Broadway programming in “Applause” and “Aladdin.” 

From there, he went on cruises and traveled across the world working with Royal Caribbean and Celebrity Cruises as a featured dancer.

“I learned a lot, but I feel like cruise ships kind of stop you from growing because you do the same show,” Juarez said.“I had the time of my life traveling the world, getting paid to travel the world and doing what I love.”

If there is one thing about Juarez, it is that he is not complaining. Throughout his journey into dance, he has remained grateful for the opportunities he has had to continue a career in a competitive and at times hostile industry. 

So, after this Juarez needed a change. After sunbathing in Majorca and gallivanting through the French Riviera, Juarez needed consistency. He found himself in Madison after visiting an ex-girlfriend from the area. 

“It’s small but it has everything you need,” Juarez says about Madison.

Juarez said people always ask him, “Why Madison? Why a medium-sized town in a Midwestern state that is not necessarily a hub for dance?”

“I feel like I can help a community here. I have a purpose,” Juarez says. 

Unlike cities like New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, Juarez discussed the small, burgeoning dance community as an opportunity for development. Juarez said there are hundreds of dance studios in each of those cities alone, so the possibility for impact is much greater in a community that doesn’t have excess possibilities to begin with.

“It’s also about the culture. In places like New York, even if you have a day off you feel like you have to move very fast,” Juarez said. “This creates a lot of stress in your life, not even having a busy schedule, but just energy.”

Then, along came Barrio Dance. Employees and students of Barrio Dance agreed that the community created in that studio was next to none.

“Barrio brings so many people together through dance. I have met some of my closest friends through classes that I would have never crossed paths with without this community,” Barrio student Erin Wiegman said about the culture of the studio. Wiegman agrees that the structure of Barrio Dance is more impactful in Madison than it would be in other bigger cities.

Dance as an artform encourages the basis of Barrio’s strong community.

“Dance is a powerful tool for community building that empowers individuals and strengthens the collective,” Barrio instructor Jessica Billings said.

Juarez works to expand the output of his team and community at large. Luizzo talks about the opportunities Juarez gives his staff to continue improving their craft and discipline. 

“This is very uncommon at most studios, but AJ believes that you can always improve and you should never stop training,” Luizzo said. “He does an amazing job of helping his students come out of their shells and find their true passion for dance.”

Juarez has dedicated years of managerial meetings, behind the scenes work and late nights and early mornings to build this community. From Buenos Aires to Madison, Juarez recognizes the work necessary to keep and enhance Barrio Dance.

“It all comes from the experience of what I saw and what I lived,” Juarez said. “It involves a lot of time where you don’t get paid and do it for the love of helping.”

Back at World of Dance Chicago, Barrio Dance Factory concluded their performance by throwing their bandanas on the ground. The fabric floated gently on the stage after six minutes of exhausting and grueling work. Smiles illuminated from the whole crew. After a few seconds of stillness, the crowd and dancers erupted.

Some stood on stage and blew kisses to the crowd. Others wiped their faces in disbelief and fatigue. Juarez stood in the front and center spot, his crew behind him and beat forcefully on his chest and let out one last “let’s go,” as the dancers exited. 

Juarez summarized this experience best.

“I needed a place where I could call home, and that is Barrio,” he said. 

12 Dec

Racial makeup of Wisconsin

By Ryan Mares

This chart, created with information from the United States Census Bureau, shows that minority groups gaining an increased split of the demographic makeup within the state of Wisconsin.

Notably, the population of white residents in the state dropped 2.3% from 2000 to 2021. On the other hand, the percentage of Black residents increased by 1.1%. The percentage of Asian Americans nearly doubled, going from 1.7% of the state’s population to 3.2%. Similarly, the percentage of Hispanic and Latino residents more than doubled, shooting up to 7.5% from 3.6%.

Full numbers:

20212000
White86.5%88.8%
Black or African American6.8%5.7%
American Indian1.2%0.9%
Asian3.2%1.7%
Native Islander0.1%0.1%
Other2.2%2.8%
Hispanic or Latino7.5%3.6%
12 Dec

Is student drinking culture at UW an impact of the drinking culture in Wisconsin as a state?

Photo by Caroline Crowley.

By Kelsey Barrett

Wisconsin. The state of beer and cheese. What’s not to love about that? 

Known as the dairy state, Wisconsin is also home to a plethora of bars and government policies that make drinking accessible to just about everyone.

According to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, Wisconsin ranks third in the country for the percent of adults who currently drink alcohol. More Wisconsin adults report current alcohol use in the past 30 days (64.8%) than the national average (55.1%).

The University of Wisconsin-Madison, the state’s largest university, has unsurprisingly adopted a heavy drinking culture. Many attend the university because of its party scene and abundance of local bars. For some, the campus embodies an opportunity to explore partying and drinking.

I wonder, is the heavy drinking culture on campus a direct result of the drinking culture in the state as a whole?

According to the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards 2021- 2022 Annual Report, 1,045 alcohol/ controlled substance charges were given, and 904 alcohol use or possession charges were given in 2022 alone.

Tonya Schmidt, the Assistant Dean of Students at UW-Madison, explained that most students at UW-Madison drink to socialize and fit in. Schmidt oversees the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards which is responsible for investigating and adjudicating academic and nonacademic misconduct, along with student organization misconduct. 

“Students all want to feel a sense of belonging and they think drinking to meet people is the only way to do it,” Schmidt said.

While this may be true for the majority of white students on campus, it differs for marginalized students and students of color.

We need to stop normalizing and glamorizing the drinking culture on and off campus.

Tonya Schmidt

University Health Services conducted a study in 2017 called “Color of Drinking,” which aimed to “better understand how marginalized and underrepresented students of color perceive and experience alcohol culture at a predominantly white university.”

Like Schmidt explained, students that participated in the survey concluded that drinking culture is how UW-Madison students socialize. The survey also reported that “sense of belonging” at UW-Madison is tied to participation in drinking culture. It’s important to consider that this sense of belonging mainly comes from the lens of a white person.

“The alcohol culture is very white driven. People of color do not feel safe on this campus when alcohol is involved because people’s true thoughts about people of color come out,” shared a student of color who participated in the survey.

Another student explained that police officers and adults react very differently to drunk students depending on their demographics.

The study concluded that African American/Black students consider leaving UW-Madison at three times the rate of white students, citing racial climate as the number one reason, whereas white students cited academic reasons as their number one reason for leaving.

The study also concluded that 82.7% of students of color make a great effort to avoid fraternity and sorority housing, and 66.8% of students of color avoid Langdon Street, the street with the most Greek life housing.

Greek life is significant at UW-Madison, but unlike some other major universities, it is not essential for having a quality social life.

“Greek events ultimately contributed very little to the underage drinking incidents we deal with — not that it’s nothing, but there are so many non-Greek ways that students drink,” Schmidt said.

While underage drinking incidents may not have been heavily reported, there are an abundance of other issues that occur during alcohol-related Greek events.

Students of color that participated in the study say that they experience microaggressions while on Greek life property. The survey defined microaggressions as “brief and commonplace verbal, behavioral, or environmental treatment that communicates racial slights towards people of color.”

One student of color recited the time she went to a Greek life party freshman year and some boys started touching and playing with her hair.

The survey suggests that many students of color feel an overall sense of discomfort and isolation while on Greek life property.

Wisconsin’s heavy drinking culture and disproportionately high white population are becoming a problematic combination on UW-Madison’s campus. 

“We need to stop normalizing and glamorizing the drinking culture on and off campus and communicate that all students do not drink and that you don’t have to drink to fit in,” Schmidt finished.

12 Dec

Shining a light on the growing problem of antisemitism in Wisconsin

Photo by Milwaukee Jewish Federation.

By Aditi Debnath

At Temple Beth El on the west side of Madison, students as young as 4 years old walk past armed guards on their way to school.

Following the 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue massacre, the congregation’s policy required Madison Police Department officers to be present at all on-site gatherings. In 2022, the same community participated in active shooter training led by staff from the Milwaukee Jewish Federation.

Antisemitism, a long-standing and furtive form of bigotry and hatred, has become increasingly commonplace across the United States, including in Wisconsin. While Jewish residents represent less than 1% of Wisconsin’s population, the Milwaukee Jewish Federation reported a 459% increase in incidents of antisemitism around the state between 2015-2021. 

Milwaukee Jewish Federation Executive Director Miryam Rosenzweig said the increasing severity of recent antisemitic incidents is even more concerning.

“Holocaust survivors came to this country because this was a place where you had freedom of religion,” Rosenzweig said, “so the idea that we’re talking about securing the physical spaces of Jews is really shocking.“

Alan Klugman, executive director of the Jewish Federation of Madison, said antisemitism is exacerbated in Wisconsin due to an extremely divided political landscape.

“Politicians on the left and right are legitimizing hate rhetoric,” Klugman said, “It feels more dangerous from the right because they promote violence, though the commentary from the left is just as painful.”

Though antisemitic activity in America cannot be attributed to one cause, levels of antisemitism in the nation have historically correlated with political conflict. For example, in May 2021 the Anti-Defamation League reported a substantial surge in antisemitic incidents during the recent fighting between Israel and Hamas. 

The global pandemic in 2020 fueled conspiracy theories that falsely linked Jews to the spread of COVID-19.

Chad Goldberg in his office in Sewell Social Sciences on Dec. 12, 2022. Photo by Aditi Debnath.

In December 2021, a man distributed flyers in driveways and on vehicle windshields in Kenosha that included a list of Jewish officials in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials and accused Jews of creating a “covid agenda.” While the contents of the flyers are protected by free speech, in August 2022 the Kenosha Police Department fined the man believed to be responsible over $4,000 for littering..

As 2022 ends, the Milwaukee Jewish Federation and Jewish Federation of Madison are partnering for a second year with the Shine a Light on Antisemitism, an initiative to spotlight antisemitism over the eight days of Hanukkah. 

In 2021, the Jewish Federation of Madison worked with the band Distant Cousins to write a song titled “Just One Light” in an effort to raise awareness about and push back against the growth in antisemitism.

Antisemitic conspiracy theories and prejudice draw from 2,000-year-old tropes meant to dehumanize Jews. For centuries, many stereotypes have evaded public scrutiny because they create pejorative labels for Jews disguised as compliments.

Throughout the pandemic, casual comparisons were commonly made between public health policies and the genocidal actions of the Nazis in Europe — a lack of universal, unequivocal condemnation of this expression of antisemitism helped normalize greater insensitivity toward the Jewish community. 

University of Wisconsin-Madison sociology professor Chad Alan Goldberg said this type of rhetoric is partly driven by what’s termed “affective polarization,” which describes the partisan sorting via demographic characteristics a political party dislikes or distrusts.

“What you see is an increasing reluctance for people to call out antisemitism within their own political camp,” Goldberg said, “So they will be happy to call it out when it appears on the opposite side, but when it appears on their side, there’s a kind of defensive reaction.”

Affective polarization is a consistent force across the political spectrum. Heightened tensions in Israel and Palestine have fueled anti-Israel and anti-Zionist sentiments from progressives in the U.S, for example.

In September 2022, UW-Madison condemned hateful chalk messages written on campus which placed blame on Jewish student groups for conflict in Palestine. Though anti-Zionism is distinct from antisemitism, the two often intersect in practice, Goldberg explained, partly due to an antisemitic phenomenon called “Holocaust inversion,” where Jews are cast in the role of the Nazi oppressors, and another group is cast as the oppressed. Goldberg said younger generations are more susceptible to Holocaust inversions.

“For a long time [antisemitism] was on the decline for young people — until recently,” Goldberg said, “So as a result, they tend not to see Jews as marginalized but instead as successful whites.“

According to the Milwaukee Jewish Federation, there was an 80% increase in middle school and high school antisemitic activity from 2020 to2021. 

Vlad Khaykin, the National Director of Programs on Antisemitism at the Anti-Defamation League said rates of antisemitism in people under 30 are higher than ever. Khaykin attributes this growth, in part, to social media.

“We believe that the steady drip of antisemitic propaganda to which younger people are exposed is having a deleterious effect and closing the gap between younger and older Americans,” Khaykin said.

At the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, members of the College Republicans organization wrote chalk messages stating “Kanye is right,” referring to antisemitic statements made by the rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West. After repeatedly calling for hateful action against Jews and endorsing a range of stereotypes online, Ye said “I love nazis” on a podcast with right-wing influencer Alex Jones.

People under 30 are more exposed to messages like these since the ubiquity of social media makes the spread of hate messages even easier, Khaykin said. He explained that social media provides three advantages over traditional media: anonymity, ubiquity and immediacy. 

“A fearmonger can create a viral piece of disinformation, post it on social media, and it can make its way all the way around the world almost instantly,” Khaykin said.

Though it is too early to tell, the possibility of a generational shift in antisemitic attitudes is a disturbing one — Khaykin added that the furtive nature of antisemitism may reveal deeper divisions in American society.

“Antisemitism purports to provide an explanation for the gap between where we are as a society,” he said, “and where people believe we ought to be.”

12 Dec

ECASD faces accountability concerns after its now-reversed decision to discontinue Japanese language program

Photo by Wikimedia Commons.

By Hina Suzuki

The Eau Claire Area School District announced on Dec. 5 it will not discontinue its Japanese language program, as previously stated. The announcement followed after the public expressed disapproval over the decision of ending the program. 

“I had no clue about this decision, and it came out of the blue,” said Hiroko Nagai, a Japanese language teacher who has taught in the district for 20 years. “Kids are very emotional and upset and disappointed.”  

In mid-November, ECASD, the last school district in Wisconsin to offer Japanese language courses announced the decision to phase out its Japanese language program over the next two years. The district proposed to stop offering the first level Japanese next school year and discontinue the program altogether by the 2024-2025 school year while keeping their Western language –– Spanish, French and German –– and American Sign Language courses. The district also proposed to merge its Hmong language course with a Hmong History and Culture class in 2023. 

The decision to discontinue the Japanese program was based on a district-wide review that found a drop in World Language courses enrollment for grades 7 to 12 over the past decade. Although the review found that Spanish, Chinese, French, Japanese and German are in-demand languages amongst U.S. employers, ECASD decided that they could no longer provide all six language courses due to low enrollment, staffing shortages and changes in student interests. 

The public speaks out 

The district’s former decision was met with disappraoval and criticism. Eighteen citizens spoke in protest during the public comment section of the school board meeting on Nov. 28. 

“You may not realize this but when you published your decision in Eau Claire, it rapidly flew to Chicago, to the Consulate, then to the Embassy in Washington D.C. and the Ministry of Education in Tokyo,” said Andrew Seaborg, Honorary Consul of Japan who represents Japan and its interests in Wisconin. “I am here to offer you the resources of the Japanese government, including salary assistance and teacher recruitment when the time might be right.” 

Seaborg represents the Japanese government and its interest in Wisconsin. He noted that more than 80 businesses in Wisconsin are Japanese-owned and Japanese companies including Fujifilm and Hitachi have invested billions of dollars in the state, making the company its largest foreign direct investor. 

Nagai’s students also voiced their concerns infront of the board. 

“Her classes were some of the best I took at Memorial high school and the language skills I learned from her helped to open up my future to me,” said a parent whose son took Nagai’s class. 

“Please keep this program,” Clay Lawton, a current student of Nagai, added. “You don’t know how many people these would probably help and how many immigrants there are in the city that will feel represented from this program.” 

Japanese language education in Wisconsin

According to Junko Mori, a Japanese linguistic professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the Japanese program in Wisconsin’s secondary education system went through a significant change over the past 30 years. 

In the late 1980s, when Japan had achieved one of the highest economic growth rates in the world, Wisconsin initiated an internship program to establish a Japanese language curriculum for grades K-12 students, Mori said. Japanese speaking interns were dispatched to public schools throughout Wisconsin, she explained, and by 2000, they had implemented Japanese language courses in more than 50 schools. Now only five schools in Wisconsin – all in ECASD – offer Japanese language courses. 

Takako Nakakubo, a Japanese instructor at UW-Madison, said students with prior experience with the language are more comfortable with taking the university’s advanced Japanese courses. 

“It’s unfortunate that there are only a few schools in Wisconsin with Japanese courses because it’s quite the advantage when students who want to join our program know even just a little Japanese,” Nakakubo said. 

She also pointed out that learning a new language has more than academic benefits. 

“The district choosing to discontinue its Japanese program not only means it is one less language students can choose from but it also means less opportunities for students to explore different cultures and open their eyes in many different ways,” she said.  

As an intern who left Japan to teach in Wisconsin in 1989, Mori recently began a research project about the rise and fall of Japanese language education in the state over the past 30 years. As a part of the project, she said she is investigating the reason behind ECASD’s former decision of keeping its three Western language courses and discontinuing two Asian language courses. 

“Keeping the Asian languages at the high school level and having some exposure to different world regions is very important,” Mori said. 

Nagai, who also came to Wisconsin as an intern, said ECASD’s decision was “not right.” 

“This is not right because it is called the world language program,” she said. “We should have as many languages as we can but now courses are all European languages.” 

The community’s reaction to ECASD’s reversal on its decision 

At ECASD’s board meeting on Dec. 5, a week after a public display of disapproval over the decision, Superintendent Michael Johnson announced the district will continue its Japanese and Hmong courses. 

“The administrative team will seek alternative solutions to the challenges identified such as staffing, low enrollment or sustainability of world language classes, ” Johnson said. 

Three community members returned to the school board meeting to express their gratitude for the reversal but also to demand the board accountability and growth.

“It was a decision made without transparency and sensitivity to the community impacted,” Ka Vue, program director for the Black and Brown Womyn Power Coalition, said.  “We will all continue to hold you accountable through and through and hope that you all continue to listen and make the decisions that allow our community to thrive.” 

Several area advocacy groups, including the Eau Claire Area Hmong Mututal Assistance Association and the Social X Change Project, demanded ECASD to launch an investigation into the process behind its initial decision. In a letter, the groups said for trust to be rebuilt between the district and Eau Claire’s BIPOC community, reparation is needed. 

The topic would be visited at a later meeting date, according to Board President Tim Nordin. 

12 Dec

Why is… Sheboygan the surf capital of the Midwest?

Photo from Sheboygan Press.

By Camila Trimberger

Trimberger: When most people think of places to surf they imagine the coasts of California, Hawai’i or Mexico — definitely not Sheboygan, Wisconsin.

Colloquially known as the “Malibu of the Midwest,” Sheboygan is the freshwater surf capital of the world.

The Sheboygan surf scene has made a name for itself, whether it’s through attracting out-of-towners to ride the waves of Wisconsin beaches or pop culture references like the 2007 children’s animated movie “Surf’s Up.”

But in terms of real surfers, Mike Miller is head board waxer at EOS, the only surf shop in the city. He’s been surfing since 2004 and sat to speak with me about what makes Sheboygan’s waves so good.

Miller: We have a pretty good wave here. Like it, it’s a cleaner wave. We get some better days just cuz our geography of the lake. Um, we just have cleaner, we’re known for cleaner waves, so, you know, there’s waves on all the Great Lakes and many different areas, but, um, Sheboygan is right in the middle of the lake, so off north or or south wind…it is different, but we get pretty clean waves and we remind ourselves just the lake.

Trimberger: For the past 50 years, folks have been surfing off the coast of Sheboygan’s beaches. While the surfing community is always changing, Mike says a new crowd is getting involved.

Miller: We’re starting to see younger local kids get into it more, which in the past that was like they said, a lot of, lot of out, out of towners and like, I just didn’t know if the local scene was like the local community. Was that just up to speed on it? You know, they know that we do it and just some people just think it’s. Their thing, and like anybody that tries surfing, they get into it. They love it.

Trimberger: Tyler Stewart, a current senior at Sheboygan South High School is one of those kids. He’s been surfing on Lake Michigan for the past four years.

Stewart: I got into surfing when I first started working at EOS Surf the local board shop here in Sheboygan. And um, I’d say probably like six weeks after I learned how to surf for the first time, they had me start doing lessons. I was out there every day that I could.

Trimberger: And while Tyler isn’t on the waves as much as he used to, he’s incredibly fond of the community.

Stewart: The people here just, they don’t get mean at all like it. You can’t get in an argument because we’re all out there for the same reason. We’re just out there to have fun and relax and hear the waves crash behind us.

12 Dec

Brain drain basics: Wisconsin’s problem with the emigration of highly educated people

Photo by Caroline Crowley.

By Caroline Crowley

Savannah Kind graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a bachelor’s degree in environmental science in May 2021. In August, she packed a suitcase and moved to Seattle to join AmeriCorps and teach a classroom of elementary students.

When Kind boarded a plane and flew away from her old life in Wisconsin, she said she wasn’t leaving to escape the state. 

“It wasn’t that Wisconsin didn’t have career opportunities or didn’t have things I was looking for, it was more like I’ve been here my whole life and I’m looking for something new,” Kind said. “So it’s like, no matter how great Wisconsin is, it couldn’t offer me a new state.”

Savannah Kind. Photo by Caroline Crowley.

Kind is one of the thousands of highly-educated people who emigrate from Wisconsin every year. Though the state’s population continues to grow each year, its percentage of highly-educated people has been shrinking for decades.

This phenomenon is called brain drain. Many states struggle with the emigration of highly-educated professionals, but Wisconsin has been in the top 10 states struggling with brain drain since 1980, according to research from the Wisconsin Policy Forum.

Communications director and policy researcher for the Forum, Mark Sommerhauser said Wisconsin sees a significant amount of brain drain from freshly-minted college graduates.

Sommerhauser said these trends in emigration are, in part, due to the proximity of the Chicago and Twin Cities metropolitan areas to Wisconsin’s state borders. The career opportunities in these larger cities attract college graduates, he said.

In Kind’s case, she said some of her friends left Wisconsin after their graduation for careers across the country because other states were more popular locations for their careers. But, Kind said many fresh college graduates just want a fresh start — they want to live somewhere new and leave the nest one last time before they settle down. 

“A lot of times it wasn’t necessarily that they didn’t want to be in Wisconsin,” Kind said. “…It is kind of another chance to really figure out your priorities in life. And some people have that figured out and they have a lot of things that they want to stay in Wisconsin for and that’s a priority for them. Other people, it’s like, for me at least, my friends were ready to kind of do another reset, kind of figure out what different areas are like.”

There are still many graduates who remain in Wisconsin after their college careers. According to UW-Madison, over 40% of in-state students remain in Wisconsin after graduating college.

UW-Madison senior studying civil engineering, Ethan Wright said he’s always planned on staying in Wisconsin after graduation. He grew up in Stoughton, 20 minutes away from the UW-Madison campus, and stayed in Wisconsin to live close to family.

Aside from wanting to stay close to his loved ones, Wright said he is staying in Wisconsin after graduation because he’s still figuring out his future career.

“It’s probably because I don’t really know what I want to do for a job,” Wright said. “And so that might be why a job isn’t the biggest priority for me right now.”

He also expressed concerns about leaving the state and starting over on his own — “that sounds really scary,” Wright said.

Though Wright could see himself leaving the state in the future to raise a family or follow a career, he said it is likely he would return to Wisconsin eventually.

Many people return to Wisconsin after straying away directly after graduation — Kind said she believes she will return to her home state eventually, either for graduate school or to be closer to her family and friends.

Wisconsin has a draw for people of family-rearing age — the state has a low cost of living, a good education system and is an attractive place to raise children, according to Sommerhauser. Madison and Milwaukee are also rich in job opportunities for people with college degrees.

Despite these benefits, Sommerhauser said the state government could be doing more to retain and attract highly educated populations. Though the Midwestern region as a whole is struggling to retain college graduates, states like Minnesota and Illinois have proved that some factors can attract people beyond the geographical features of a state.

Our development priorities have to be different if we want to keep more of our graduates here instead of seeing them head for Minneapolis or Chicago or places beyond.

Tim Smeeding

Professor of public affairs and economics at the UW-Madison La Follette School of Public Affairs, Tim Smeeding said one way to reduce brain drain is by improving immigration policies. According to Smeeding, many Wisconsin college graduates immigrate to the state from other countries but are forced to leave when the government doesn’t renew their visas.

“This is a brain drain of people who came to us from foreign countries, who we trained and invested in and who want to stay but have to leave because we won’t provide them an opportunity,” Smeeding said. “That’s ridiculous.”

Smeeding also said the state needs to think more broadly about development to attract more college graduates. 

Despite Gov. Tony Evers’ helpful investments in small businesses, Smeeding said Wisconsin should offer more STEM opportunities to graduates as opposed to the state’s current priorities manufacturing and agriculture.

Madison offers these opportunities, Smeeding said, but opportunities must expand throughout the state. Microchip development is one way forward in this category — Smeeding said Wisconsin passed up an opportunity to work with Micron, a semiconductor manufacturer. This opportunity, and others like it, would have allowed the state to retain more college graduates in STEM fields.

“Our development priorities have to be different if we want to keep more of our graduates here instead of seeing them head for Minneapolis or Chicago or places beyond,” Smeeding said.