Center for the Small City celebrates 20 years

Founded during the 1979-80 academic year in the UWSP Foundation and a year later made part of the College of Letters and Science, the center has always been directed by Wolensky, a professor of sociology, and Miller, professor and chair of political science. The program offers UWSP students, faculty and other professionals opportunities for education, research, interaction and problem solving.

The center and the minor in small city analysis associated with it are the only programs like them in the world.

"Ours is the prototype," said Wolensky. "Some other centers have come and gone but no one has sustained their activities and publications as long as we have."

The professors proposed the minor three years after the center began and geared it toward students with backgrounds in political science, geography, natural resources, economics and sociology. Many graduates with the minor have chosen careers in government, city planning, policy analysis and other areas.

The center’s reach has gone far beyond Central Wisconsin, Wolensky said. Recently on a trip to Poland, he met professors at Jagiellionian University in Krakow who had attended one or more of the center’s biennial Conference on the Small City and Regional Community that began at UWSP in 1978. Although it has focused mainly on small cities in the U.S., the conference has drawn participants from as far as England, Poland, Canada, Scotland, Japan and Brazil.

Among the range of issues discussed at the 13 conferences held since 1978 have been population movement to nonmetropolitan areas, economic development, energy futures, cultural diversity, public policy, the natural environment and most recently in 1998, work, welfare and poverty.

Conference participants have included students, professionals, government officials, city administrators and academic researchers. The discussions and interactions of those at the conferences have provided one of the most multidimensional small city educational opportunities available, Wolensky said.

"One of the contributions of the center's activities has been encouraging the interaction between academics, officials, and practitioners on many issues facing small cities," added Miller.

Proceedings have been published for each conference through the UWSP Foundation Press and sold to libraries and individuals for reference and further study. These biennial proceedings have been used as textbooks in courses around the nation.

The 14th Small Cities Conference will be held Sept. 28-29 at UW-Madison, co-sponsored by UWSP’s center and the Center for Community Economic Development at UW-Madison. The theme will be "Smart Growth: What to Do About Sprawl in Small Cities and Towns."

The center also has offered workshops and seminars on topics such as downtown development, solid waste disposal, population change and community social profiles. A community profile of Portage County was the theme of a recently held seminar sponsored by CAP Services, Inc. of Stevens Point. The Wisconsin Downtowns Association developed out of a series of workshops in the early 80s organized by the center to discuss the revival of small city downtowns.

"We provided the initial forums to examine the downtown problem," Wolensky said, "then government and economic leaders created the association to keep the discussions going and move toward providing statewide solutions."

In the near future, Wolensky and Miller plan to work with the 2000 U.S. Census to study the changing social, political and economic landscapes for nonmetropolitan small cities and towns.

The center was first developed with support from then Chancellor Lee Sherman Dreyfus and vice chancellor Jack Ellery, Wolensky said. Dreyfus had coined the term "ruralplex" to characterize the Central Wisconsin communities of Stevens Point, Wausau, Wisconsin Rapids and Marshfield, which he felt had great potential for economic development, cultural growth and quality of life.

"The idea for the center happened to fit nicely with the ruralplex idea," according to Miller. "The program’s purpose would be to provide educational forums and programs to study the small city and regional community from a multidisciplinary, multilevel perspective."

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