EAU CLAIRE — The board overseeing the UW System will hold its monthly meetings this week at UW-Eau Claire, making it the governing body’s first gathering here in six years.

Though the Board of Regents is not slated to vote on any items that will specifically impact UW-Eau Claire, the meetings do serve as a rare time for them to get an in-person look at the campus.

“When they come to visit, we really want to put out the red carpet,” said Paula Gilbeck, the university’s interim chief communications officer.

That includes Chancellor James Schmidt making a presentation during the Regents’ Thursday afternoon meeting entitled “Inclusion, innovation, impact!”

Highlighting programs and partnerships on the campus, the presentation will feature guest speakers, live performances and videos.

And when the Regents wrap up their meetings on Friday morning, there will be a video and panel of speakers focused on business collaborations in west-central Wisconsin from companies that hire UW System graduates.

“We really want to talk about the impact of partnerships in that I-94 corridor,” Gilbeck said.

Panelists scheduled to speak represent economic development organization Momentum West, Royal Credit Union, Xcel Energy, UW-Stout Career Services and manufacturing companies Interfacial and Nolato Contour.

Presentations on programs, initiatives and projects happening on the UW-Eau Claire campus will also be included in committee meetings held on Thursday morning.

At noon Thursday, the Blugold Marching Band will make a special performance on the outdoor terrace located on the third floor of the Davies Center.

While the formal meetings will be happening in the Davies Center — the student union on campus — there are also informal gatherings scheduled on Wednesday and Thursday evenings for the Regents.

Those invite-only events are a Wednesday evening dinner at The Brewing Projekt and a Thursday evening reception at the Pablo Center at the Confluence.

The latter of those is intended to show off one of the public-private partnership projects the university completed since the Regents last visited.

“They will be getting that tour of Pablo,” Gilbeck said. “Folks that were key to that collaboration will all be in attendance.”

The Regents most recent visit for monthly meetings was in October 2016, and since then the campus has seen several changes. The university’s largest dormitory had been renovated and redubbed Karlgaard Towers. New student housing was built with Aspenson Mogensen Hall, The Suites and Haymarket Landing. And the university opened the Flesch Family Welcome Center.

Two members of the Board of Regents live in Eau Claire. Attorneys Edmund Manydeeds and Dana Wachs, the latter of whom previously served in the state Assembly, are both currently serving as Regents.

Toward the end of Friday’s Regents meeting, employees from UW-Eau Claire, UW-Stout and UW-River Falls are slated to get 2022 University Staff Excellence Awards.

Contact: 715-833-9204, andrew.dowd@ecpc.com, @ADowd_LT on Twitter

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