It’s a challenging time for the public sector, but Eau Claire’s new top leaders say they’re ready to work with the community – and each other – to overcome obstacles and move things forward. We sat down in the V1 Gallery for a conversation about fresh eyes, old problems, and new opportunities.

It's big news when a new leader takes the helm of one of a community’s biggest institutions. It’s really big news when, in the space of less than a year, a community finds itself with new leaders at its three largest public-sector entities – organizations that combined employ more than 3,200 people and serve well over 75,000 constituents. In July, UW-Eau Claire Chancellor James Schmidt joined City Manager Russ Van Gompel (who started in November) and Superintendent Mary Ann Hardebeck (who became leader of the Eau Claire school district last September) as the newest member of an elite group – the folks whose inboxes hold the region’s toughest assignments. All three are new to the Chippewa Valley, but they say their past experiences and unbiased, fresh perspectives will help them steer our city, schools, and university through rough waters. In a wide-ranging interview with Volume One, the trio opened up about being asked to walk on water, combating “La Crosse envy,” and squeezing into the State Theatre’s seats.

V1: All three of you were in your prior positions for a while. Why make the leap and come somewhere where you are brand new? It’s not as if you started at a lower level and worked your way to the top in an organization. You’re coming and taking that top job in a brand-new place. Talk about what motivated you to do that.

CITY MANAGER VAN GOMPEL It’s no secret I was in Brown Deer for 15 years. But it was an opportunity to come to a community that I thought had its act together. It was an opportunity to come to a larger organization in my case doing kind of the same thing. But it was not only coming to a larger organization in a larger community, it was really the quality of life that Eau Claire had to offer. That was the selling point for me. I was not looking to leave, so I would have been entirely happy staying in Brown Deer, but the more I came into Eau Claire, the more I fell in love with the community. So for me it was a no-brainer once the opportunity presented itself. After coming up and visiting a couple of times and visiting with staff, it was clear that it was the right thing for me.

SUPERINTENDENT HARDEBECK I’d say it’s very similar to what Russ said. It was an opportunity to lead a school district. I was very taken with the idea that the board had gotten out in front of what the state was doing with their vision for post-secondary success, the idea that every student would be a graduate (and) college and career-ready. That very much echoes what’s going on in the state, but the board had taken this action prior to these things happening in the state. (It’s a) good school system, a lot of good work has been done here, and I think there’s more work to be done. … Coming out of northern Virginia, which is very congested and busy, and coming to a community that really feels like a community, where you feel like you know your neighbors and they know you, it was just very appealing to us.

CHANCELLOR SCHMIDT I’ve been asked that question a number of times. I was in Winona for just about 15 years, I had deep connections there being an alum, and having served on the alumni board for eight years before going back to work (there), multiple generations of family members with Winona State degrees. My last four (university) presidents had encouraged me to go off and be a president, but it really had to be the right place and the right fit. It was really only the last couple of years that I thought, “You know, I am ready to do something different, I’m ready to lead an institution.” And so I started looking more seriously a little over a year ago. Universities publish these profiles of what they’re looking for. They’re 20 to 40 pages long. The whole walking on water and everything else is usually listed explicitly in the profile. And I’d read a number of them, and none of them resonated – none of them. …

And why (Eau Claire) got my attention was it had been a school, a university that I had admired my whole time at Winona State. It’s one of Winona State’s primary competitors. In my business I want to understand what’s good about other institutions. … Once the profile was published, I was surprised at how well what they said they were looking for in a chancellor seemed to align with my strengths as I perceived them. You never know going into a process: Just because you think you’re a good fit doesn’t mean they think you are. But I thought the alignment is better. Coming to the community was really the icing on the cake. … That’s been the neatest thing to me, how wonderful the community is. How everyone universally says, “We have great schools, you’re really going to like the schools.” That doesn’t happen everywhere. I would tell you as father of two kids in the school district, they didn’t want to move. And it’s been a bumpy period, but all of them have said they like their teachers, they like the schools. And that’s the kind of true test that a parent needs to know about making this decision.

V1: Talk about the strengths and advantages of coming in at the top of an organization, rather than rising through the ranks. What are the challenges there?

VAN GOMPEL I went through that once, prior to Eau Claire. When I went to Brown Deer, I was coming from outside the organization into the role of manager. Prior to that in my previous opportunity in Little Chute, which was my hometown, I was promoted up from within, so I had exposure to them both. It’s a little bit different coming in from the outside. Not only (do you lack) the tie-ins to the community, but also the tie-in to your organization. My style is basically one where you come in and listen and try to understand. I’ve had other colleagues that come in with their own set of ideas and they try to not necessarily push, but are a little bit more heavy-handed in getting their perspective and their viewpoints implemented maybe too quickly, and sometimes you alienate people within your own organization. One thing I found is that if you … try to understand the culture of the organization as well, and you do that in a respectful manner, that you can build a lot of trust within the organization, and that goes a long way. The thing I’ve learned is being a leader you have to get people to buy into your support and buy into your ideas.

If we’re going to attract business and do economic development, we need to recognize people come to a community because of schools and education and the services we provide. ... We can  do all we can on the municipal side of things, but if we’re not growing our tax base, we’re going in the wrong direction. – EC City Manager Russ Van Gompel

SCHMIDT I think that there are advantages to each. I’d been at Winona a long time, and had I stayed there, I think you have the advantage of knowing the place, being able to set out and really understand what you’re trying to accomplish. I think the advantage of coming in from the outside into the top job is you bring in fresh eyes. I think I’ve gotten the best of both worlds, because I have a seasoned executive staff, people who I respect and trust and have a good understanding of the institution. …

I just had my first administrative half-day-long meeting. … I got their ideas on the table – similar to what Russ said, doing a lot of listening. … But towards the end I started making a few observations to this team, and I said these are just from a new guy on the block with fresh eyes, these are things I’ve noticed, what do you think about them? And I listed a number of them, and I said the reason I bring it out is pretty soon I will have been here a while and you won’t get my first impressions anymore. … And I think there is a value to coming in without necessarily any baggage. Certainly as the three of us look for opportunities to collaborate, we’re all kind of new and we can get by with asking what some people think are dumb questions. You say, “What do you think of this?” And they’re like, “Really? You’ve been here how long, and you don’t know the answer?” Sometimes you do know the answer, but you ask the question because you really want to get their perspective on it, and I think in many ways it’s easier, as the new guy or gal on the block, and the advantage of having us each in a senior leadership positions is they’ll tolerate it, and usually attempt to give us a straight answer.

HARDEBECK I think initially you’re hired for a certain set of skills and experiences you bring to the position, but I think ultimately coming in as a brand-new person is such a great opportunity to build relationships, and to build relationships in perhaps a different way than you would if you came up through the ranks. You’re looking at it through a fresh set of eyes and doing a lot of listening. I think initially you have to come in with the idea that it is about relationship-building, because if you don’t built those strong relationships, you’re not going to be around long to get work done. It’s very exciting to come in, there’s so much to learn, there’s so much history to learn. What I say to the people I work with is I may not always know exactly how you got to this place or all the history that went with it, but I do have a broad range of experience and certainly training, and I can be a resource.

VAN GOMPEL I think some of the difficulty is that if you have the history – I’m trying to find the right words to say it – when you have that history, sometimes you bring in previous grudges or biases that have developed over a period of time. Right, wrong, or indifferent, you have a certain perspective based on things that might have happened in the past, and it sometimes makes people a little bit more cynical. I think it’s helpful to the organization to have that fresh perspective. That’s not saying it’s wrong to build upon previous experience within an organization, but I think when you come in from outside the organization and you’ve seen things handled a different way or conducted a different way, at least you get people to think about why they’re doing what they’re doing.

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V1: This question is especially for the two of you who are from out of state. There has been a great deal of turmoil in Wisconsin in the past few years over the state budget and over public employee compensation, a lot of division between the public and private sectors. Why come to a very high-profile public job in that sort of situation? You would think that might turn some people off.

HARDEBECK I’m going to go back to what I said before. I think it’s a great professional opportunity and a great challenge to bring all your skills and knowledge to a very unique situation. Because things are in a state of flux, you have a lot of opportunity to kind of create a continuous improvement model, but you also have an opportunity to develop new kinds of relationships, and I think about the new kinds of relationships we’re developing with various work groups that were in our organizations before – with the teachers union, with the classified ranks, all of that – and it’s really exciting to see … the positive working relationships you can develop. We just finished a working conditions survey, and we got a lot of feedback from the staff about how they would like to see their working conditions improve, and a lot of it is about having more input into the decision-making, being able to predict what’s coming next, have a say in how these changes are being made for us. A lot of the change that’s being imposed upon the school district is coming from the outside with the higher standards and educator effectiveness, so we know what we have to do, and it’s a great opportunity to involve your organization and the people in your organization in that decision-making, determining how you’re going to move forward as an organization.

SCHMIDT I think public higher ed has had a difficult time across the country, so the types of cuts that we’ve seen in Wisconsin maybe have been a little worse than other states, but universally, with very few exceptions, public higher ed has taken a bit of a beating. … I believe that higher ed leaders have to take part in changing the dialogue. … The University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire (was) founded almost 100 years ago. Why was it founded? It wasn’t to give Johnny an education. The community came together and said, “We need this. We need a normal school teacher’s college. We will be improved by the establishment of this school.” A hundred years ago people understood that society was improved by the improvement in education of individuals. Individuals change society. Somewhere along the line, and it’s one of my biggest regrets as a higher ed leader, is that this was lost through neglect. … When I was a student at Winona State in the ’80s, the state of Minnesota was picking up almost 80 percent of the cost of my education. … Today in Minnesota and Wisconsin our respective states are picking up between 20 and 30 percent, depending on which set of numbers and how much of the budget you look for. As people in Eau Claire look at the hillside where our campus is, know that the public is picking up one out of every five dollars they see happening there. My point is, it’s a public good and a private good, and somewhere along the line we bought into the notion that higher education is primarily a private good. I would argue in our schools, that the inspirational teacher who’s teaching my sons … those individuals who are Blugold grads have been improved personally, but I believe the biggest value has been to society.

HARDEBECK You make such a good point, in that as your sources have dwindled from the state, I don’t think we can say that locally. I think locally here there’s great support for education, for services, and for taking care of your neighbor. I walked into a situation where there had just been a $55 million referendum passed for the improvement of the schools buildings. … I think it speaks to a strong commitment for the community, for the value that they place on public education, and on creating a stronger community, because we see across the nation, as your schools go, so go your communities.

SCHMIDT So to really answer your question, I wasn’t afraid to come to Wisconsin because of what had happened here. I believe in some ways I was drawn or called to be a part of this dialogue, and I do believe it’s one of the reasons I was hired was to have that conversation. I am privileged to be at a very strong institution. I will tell you that one of my messages to our faculty and staff was to lift their heads up, that they should be proud of their work, because I am proud of their work. And I know that a lot of unfortunate things get said in the heat of a political environment, and regardless of what’s happened in the past, I’m here to send that message that they are valued and that they are important, and I’m going to work to try to make sure that we create a joyful work environment.

HARDEBECK And yet one of the things that we see is that our employees are very shy about bragging about themselves and the work that they do.

SCHMIDT A Midwestern thing.

HARDEBECK I think it might be kind of a national thing.

VAN GOMPEL It’s not just higher education. It’s just delivering the local service: the person in the street maintenance position or park maintenance position, or the person working in inspections. The issue is public perception of the service we provide. And I think society in general – and I hate making generalizations – has been accustomed to a pretty decent delivery of service, whether it’s on the educational front or local services, and the perception has changed in my 20 years from one of gratitude for service being provided to one that now sometimes society looks at it as a benefit, (that public employees) should be privileged to be in the position we are. I think we are, I think we are providing a service. But the negative perception out there that it takes three guys to fill a pothole – one guy doing the work and the other two to watch – is pretty prevalent in today’s society, and it has a huge impact on morale. I truly believe that like any other profession, 90 to 95 percent of the folks doing the job are doing an excellent or outstanding job, and it’s that 5 or 10 percent that give everybody else a bad name. The unfortunate thing in Wisconsin’s environment is there’s been a lot of that festering that everybody is critical of the service that they’re getting. We’re not in a McDonald’s or a vending machine mentality, where you put in a dollar and you’re only going to get a dollar in service or product that you want. We’re in here doing things that are good for the society in general, and the community as a whole.

The trio of new civic leaders – Hardebeck, Van Gompel, and Schmidt – gather in the Volume One Gallery Oct. 1 to discuss their new gigs and the community.

V1: Now that you’ve all had a chance to get your feet wet, what do you see as the biggest challenges facing our community in the near future, and how can we work to overcome them?

SCHMIDT I’ll take a shot that this. It’s a great lead-in from the previous question, because I don’t get to pick up the phone and call Madison and say, “Send down a truckload of money, I’m running short.” And clearly today’s not when I’m going to call Washington and ask them to do something similar. (Editor’s note: The interview was conducted Oct. 1, the first day of the federal government shutdown.) So one of the things that attracted me to Eau Claire is the great potential to do things together. I’d be an advocate for greater state and federal support for all of our work, but I believe we can be smarter and work together. And without going into a speech on it – and certainly the Confluence Project is an example of that – I see great potential, though, and I already know that our institution works closely with the school district. …

I think the challenge is for the people of Eau Claire, for the stakeholders in Eau Claire, to believe in themselves, to believe that we really can do big things together, and that we can be smart about it, and that they can be great investments, and they’ll show great returns to improve it. I’ve been doing a little bit of an industry tour, and I was having a conversation with a local very large organization – I won’t name the name – and I said if there’s opportunities for us to work together we’d be interested. And they said, “We have a real interest in building on the great work of our K-through-12 school system. The quality of the school system is the single biggest determiner as to whether or not we can attract the kind of professionals we need to be successful in our business.” They of course talked about the importance of the university, the city, and others, but they said if we could work together, this private industry, and the university, to do anything we can to continue to elevate the great work that you’re already doing, sign us up. And I think that shows that there are leaders in this community who do see that we’re in this together and we don’t have to wait and whine about what Washington and Madison are or are not doing for us.

VAN GOMPEL You get back to the whole thing that I just said a few minutes ago, is it comes down to financial. And for local services, the financial position right now is in property values. In order for us to maintain and grow our property values, we need a fine university system, we need an excellent school system. If we’re going to attract business and we’re going to do economic development, we need to recognize people are coming to a community because of schools and education and the services we provide, so we have to work together to further enhance and further provide for economic development and redevelopment within the community. So that’s why it’s so critical. We can do all we can on the municipal side of things, but if we’re not growing our tax base, we’re going in the wrong direction.

SCHMIDT If all three of us each put a dollar in and we can get $5 worth of return, it’s pretty good, and I think there are a number of those opportunities, otherwise I’m holding it out (gestures) and I couldn’t possibly get what I want for this dollar. … If three of us can get along, if three of us can work, other people will invest, because they say, “Hey, I can get $5 for a dollar in return.” In essence, let’s leverage each other’s assets. One of the great challenges … (is) I don’t think the community knows how to tap in to the assets of the region. So I again don’t have a big drawer full of money, but I’ve got 1,400 faculty and staff who are really bright and committed, and I’ve got almost 11,000 students. How’s the community going to tap into that knowledge base? Not only the knowledge, but the shared volunteer network. How is it that with fewer state dollars, how can I make sure my education students get (an education) as good as or better than the people who came before them? If we can work collaboratively with the school district, we can probably design something that might actually cost less and provide a better experience and serve these populations, the students who are in your school district.

HARDEBECK You said what’s the great challenge, and the great challenge is the expectations keep increasing. The expectations for collaboration, for our product, for the standards in the schools, for how do you deliver the services, for the presence the university has in the community, all that expectation keeps rising at a time when resources are dwindling. And in our school system, we see people who are working, we see parents who are working very, very hard, and it’s very hard to make a living wage, and I think that’s where the collaboration’s going to have to come in creating this kind of economic base in the community that’s strong and that supports …

SCHMIDT And what are those 21st century jobs?

HARDEBECK … and where are those 21st century jobs, and how do we get them to Eau Claire? And how do we keep them in Eau Claire?

SCHMIDT How do we grow them here, like we did with JAMF Software?

V1: What are some ways in which your entities already collaborate, and what are some new ways that could be pursued to enhance that collaboration?

HARDEBECK The city and the county and the school system have a joint commission now on shared services, and we’re collaborating how to find out how to administer our organizations more efficiently, perhaps by sharing services, whether it’s purchasing, or one of the things that they’re looking at is health care and how to provide that. So kind of on an organizational level, you see that with the city and the county and the public schools. With the university there are so many touchstones – for want of a better word – whether it’s student teaching or the Blugold (Beginnings) program you have for students, or the Gear Up program that we have, so much of the professional development that our teachers are able to access through the university. I think just that intellectual presence in the community really serves us very, very well.

SCHMIDT For those people who’ve not been in a university community, it’s hard for them to contrast what those ideas are. (Hardebeck) described a very porous relationship between the university and the school district, and my goal is to become even more porous, to completely blur the lines of where the university starts and stops. I invite everybody in the community to walk onto our campus – we don’t have any crossing guards to keep people out, we don’t have gates – and come and be a part of it, and ask questions. You will be amazed what you’ll find.

VAN GOMPEL The point I was going to make and build upon what Jim was just saying is take advantage of the opportunities culturally, artistically, even sports. I mean, people should appreciate the fact that they can see some pretty good hockey, football, basketball, and all the other programs and services, and the cultural side of things – productions and plays and concerts and things like that.
If you’re not in a community that has a university, it’s a lot more difficult to enjoy some of those.

SCHMIDT So the biggest risk is us not taking advantage of the opportunities we’re presented with, that we’re not working to create the opportunities that are possible. It’s very hard to get certain stars in alignment, and when they come into alignment, I think we need to have the courage to step forward and do them. … When I talk to some people in town, they say, “Oh, Eau Claire’s always been fill-in-the-blank.” If they’re saying they don’t like that, it doesn’t have to be that way. We as a community can make these things happen for ourselves.

V1: You talk about the fresh perspective you bring to your organizations. You’re obviously bringing a fresh perspective to this community, too. It’s interesting to come into this community and get a sense of what it looks like, what it feels like, how it behaves. Personally, what did you wish was different once you got here? What has pleasantly surprised you, and what has been an unpleasant adjustment?

SCHMIDT Let me say one of the positive things. I missed getting to the farmers market downtown Saturday, and I heard there was one on Sunday out by Festival Foods. I was out running some errands. I got there 10 minutes after it was closed, and yet most of them were still open, and I just had a blast. I whipped through it, and I found all these local fresh foods. … I called somebody as I’m leaving the parking lot and I said, “I can’t believe I’m in a community with a farmers market that’s a good one that’s four or five times a week depending on where you are in town.” There are a few of those small things that do enhance this quality of life.

HARDEBECK I really think it’s about the people. I mean, that’s been the most positive thing I’ve found out there. Everybody is just so welcoming and so nice, and just go out of their way to make sure that you get – like you said at the farmers market. I love going to the farmers market because you see all these people that you know. That, I think, is the fun thing about living in Eau Claire, is that as you meet people, you see them again and again and again. It just is
a great sense of community.

VAN GOMPEL I haven’t come across any huge negatives. I see positives in not only the people but the natural resources of the area: I mean the rivers. The proximity of the lakes. If you enjoy an urban setting, you have an urban setting. If you want to get out and enjoy a rural setting, you have the opportunity to do that. The social problems that the community’s facing are the same as any other community, but I think in Eau Claire there’s a stronger support base to help with the homeless folks and to help with the underprivileged people in our community, so I just think from a community and an organizational standpoint, I think there’s a lot of good things in place to help address those issues.

V1: None of you are politicians, nobody has to get re-elected here. So we’re going to press one more time. There must be something that so far you’ve been disappointed by or that you’d love to see improved in this community from just a personal standpoint. Isn’t there sometime when you’ve thought, “I wish this was different in this town,” or “This is something I would love to see the community work on.” Maybe it’s not within your power to do so, but something that we could all work on in the community that you’re seeing with those fresh eyes.

SCHMIDT It’s one we’re working on, so it’s been identified, and I think the key piece of community – the notion of running into people and meeting people and having that sense of community – includes a city center. And cities all across this nation struggled with it as they moved out to the freeways and the highways. I do believe a downtown defines a sense of community. I’m not devaluing all the retail and all the things that are not downtown, but I think downtowns are central to who we are as a people. And I believe that the Confluence Project – in addition to all the other work that’s already happening – can build that momentum. … Just like there needs to be good schools, people are attracted to that kind of downtown environment, and the same kind of shops, the same kinds of restaurants that bring in tourists also attract college students, college professors, and the types of professionals that we want for here. And I think, in my mind – and (Volume One has) done a lot of writing on the Confluence Project and a lot’s been written – but I think that that is one of those opportunities we could miss. We need to do it together.

VAN GOMPEL I want to follow up on one of the things that Jim talked about. I think sometimes Eau Claire sells itself short. They suffer, for lack of a better term …

SCHMIDT Self-esteem?

VAN GOMPEL Self-esteem, but no, La Crosse envy.

SCHMIDT Well there’s some things in La Crosse that are pretty competitive to the university … (Laughter.)

VAN GOMPEL I know. Let me clarify that. I mean, Eau Claire is not going through anything different than Appleton, Green Bay, La Crosse, Janesville, Oshkosh, are doing and have experienced. You talk about downtowns, and they all started out as manufacturing (cities), they all had to rely on natural resources, they all converted, they tried to make downtown their central retail outlet space, and people started going out to the fringes, to the malls, and started shopping, and downtowns lost all their identity. And they all are working on trying to build that sense of place. My one thing, and to build off of this – and I don’t want to make enemies with (Eau Claire Regional Arts Center Executive Director) Ben Richgruber – but the first time I stepped foot in the State Theatre, I said, “What the heck is this place?” First of all, you know, I’m not a small person, and I could hardly fit in the seat, legroom-wise with my legs. We saw – who was it? Last fall. The guy from Fleetwood Mac …

SCHMIDT I was going to say, Lindsey Buckingham.

VAN GOMPEL Lindsey Buckingham.

SCHMIDT That was on the one on my mind, because I missed it. I would have liked to have seen that.

VAN GOMPEL I got a seat for Lindsey Buckingham. And my knees are like up to the seat in front of me. We did go see White Christmas, and I got a balcony seat, so I had a little bit more legroom. And that was pretty good.

V1: So you’re signing the City on to support the Confluence Project? (Laughter.)

VAN GOMPEL To be honest with you, we don’t have too much difference of opinion on it. It’s something that has to be done. It’s something that I think this community needs. What we have to do is find a way of coming together and getting all those stars aligned, and we’re working really hard to make that happen. But you’ve got to create a sense of place. Often that sense of place has all the ancillary services, restaurants, and other establishments, but the State Theatre is pretty sad. And the limitations with stage space and everything else, so we need to do that, and there’s no doubt about it, it’s just making sure that we do this in an appropriate manner. It comes down to finances, like I said earlier, but I’m pretty sure that this is going to work out in the long run. There’s going to be skeptics no matter what you do. Whether it’s slicing a piece of bread, you slice it one way or you slice it another, you’re going to have somebody who’s going to criticize you for how you slice the bread. And we need to work through that, and I think the community has done a pretty good job of coming together. Now all the things that have been proposed in the past – we can go over the history from convention centers to arenas and everything else – the time is now to work on it, and we have to come together to do it, and that’s going to be, the process is not always easy, it’s not always simple, especially in this situation. It’s something that has to come together.

V1: In addition to work and home, a lot of people seek out a third place, somewhere they can relax and unwind. Have you found those places in Eau Claire? You’ve mentioned the farmers markets. What are some of the other places you’ve found that you enjoy that add to this community?

HARDEBECK I love the bicycle/walking paths that you have. So picturesque, so peaceful, so safe. And it’s a great kind of calming, leveling type thing if you’re a walker or if you ride your bike. That’s great. It’s something I think that’s unique. I didn’t have access to something like that before, so I’ve enjoyed that.

SCHMIDT We were thrilled. The house we found was on the edge of one of those bike trails. I felt really good as a parent to young kids that immediately across from my house is a little bike trail that leads into the soccer park where my kids play. My schedule’s been awfully full for me to have found a place yet, but where I have found it is sometimes it’s at a soccer field just watching my kids participate. … Without getting into too many specifics, I think the faith communities very strong here as well, and I certainly enjoyed finding a home for that and have felt very welcomed, and it feels very vibrant and meaningful.

VAN GOMPEL Mine is a couple of different things. We’re close to the Chippewa River and I enjoy getting out and recreating, just riding or fishing. Golf opportunities, sports.

SCHMIDT You don’t golf enough.

VAN GOMPEL I know that. (Laughter.)

SCHMIDT Neither do I. That’s the joke. We told the two people we were golfing with, “You know your tax dollars are well-spent because clearly we’re not on the golf course very much.”

V1: You talked a little about “La Crosse envy” and how maybe this town has a little bit of an inferiority complex sometimes. People in the Chippewa Valley are very friendly and warm, but there is sometimes a resistance to change, although that is probably not unique to this community. Given the challenges that we face, do you find that people are resistant to doing things a new way or not?

VAN GOMPEL I don’t think it’s anything different than you see in any other community. People are afraid of the unknown more than anything else, not necessarily change. There’s a comfort level. But it’s that way in any community. I draw my experiences in growing up near Appleton, going to school at Oshkosh, and living not too far from Green Bay. Those issues are there no matter what. A lot of communities in Wisconsin have a long history that I’ve mentioned earlier, starting with natural resources, whether it’s logging or the paper mill industry or whatever, and we had to go through this transition. And doing those transitions is never easy.

SCHMIDT It’s been a scary time, the last two decades have been bumpy with economic crises and the sense that things are being done to us, and certainly the staff of the university five years ago had furloughs, reductions in benefits. You can be very resistant to change because most of the change hasn’t been very positive for many people. … Instead of having change happen to us, can we be part of the change and create and envision our own future, can we almost pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and do something together but yet as a community instead of on our own. I think the challenge we have as leaders of our organizations is to let people feel a part of that change, that they have a say in that change, that part of our job as leaders is to listen, to involve, and bring them along, and have them get excited and buy into the change.

VAN GOMPEL I think that engagement or empowerment component is something Eau Claire shouldn’t sell itself short in. There are a lot of places that are still stuck in the mode of operating in the ’50s, ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s where government or institutions made choices and decisions based on the information they had available, and basically said, “Here’s what we’re going to do whether you like it or not.” And I think Eau Claire’s been on the forefront of getting people’s opinions and having an active engagement process, and that’s another reason why I was drawn to this community. Within our profession, the citizen engagement and open democracy is pretty well known, and Eau Claire is known as being one of the leaders. And I think a lot of times people forget about that. We do really want to be representative of the people that live here. We’re stewards of their resources, we collect those resources and we provide a service, and hopefully they get good return on their value.

HARDEBECK I think people in this area are very realistic and practical about change. They understand that going through change is kind of hard work, and there’s recognition of that.

SCHMIDT (Author) Stephen Covey talks about the old days, you’d go along, and there’d be some change and it would be disruptive, and the main focus was to get through the change to get back to calm water, get back to normal.   And he argued that we’ve entered a permanent whitewater world – it’s always changing. And you’re going to have to have your crash helmet on. The important thing is for everybody in the boat to talk, deal with things, react almost instinctively, and know to paddle in the right direction so we don’t end up on the rocks. It’s a frightening, different world we’re in, and we’ve got to get a little more comfortable with it. Things aren’t going to just get to calm water very often.

HARDEBECK When we had the all-staff (meeting), I used the metaphor that we are on the rapids in one of those rubber boats and we were at the top of the rapids and we had to get the kids down safely. And there’s a lot of whitewater in between, but everybody believes we can get them safely down the shore to graduation.

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