April 2, 2014

Commentary by Lucas Wimmer

It’s easy for the topic of conversation to go directly to football when talking about UW-Whitewater, and for good reason. The Warhawks have competed in eight of the last nine NCAA Division-III championship games, and have won four of the last five.

From getting games televised on ESPN to having 33 conference championships in their storied history, there is a lot to celebrate about Warhawks football. To have that be the one thing celebrated about UW-W, however, is to overlook the many impressive parts of our campus.

Sticking to the topic of sports, there’s many other bright spots to celebrate. The Warhawks wheelchair basketball teams both are fresh off national championship victories, including a third straight for the women and the fourth in five years for the men.

The Warhawks men’s basketball team is coming off a national championship in a thrilling way. Quardell Young’s last-second shot to push the Warhawks to victory was on SportsCenter’s top 10 plays. The women have reached the Final Four twice in a row, and Mary Merg’s two buzzer beaters in one game were the top play on SportsCenter last year.

Adding to our slew of national championships, the gymnastics team just won its third-consecutive national championship.

But UW-W’s success is not just limited to athletics. Our campus has been recognized for its greatness as well.

As recently as 2009, UW-W’s College of Business and Economics was nationally ranked in the best business schools category. The Princeton Review takes into consideration surveys from 19,000 students nationally, and takes into consideration categories such as post-graduation career opportunities and admissions, among others.

The campus in general has been improving recently,too. Hyland Hall and Laurentide Hall are beautiful, modern-style buildings that are valuable additions to our campus, and the renovations of Drumlin can be added into that category as well.

With so much national attention on our football team, it can be easy to slip into the mindset that UW-W is just a football school, but that does a disservice to the great work that gets done on other parts of our campus.

So, the next time you hear someone talking about UW-W being a football school, be “that guy,” and slip into the conversation to let them know why they’re wrong.