The UW-Milwaukee has established an academic agreement with the University of Bialystok as part of an ongoing dialogue with universities abroad.

The University of Bialystok, established in 1997, has 15,000 students. The university was operating as a division of the University of Warszawa for 30 years prior to 1997.

The move continues a long relationship, as Milwaukee has been involved in Poland for nearly 20 years.

When Poland broke away from the U.S.S.R. in 1990, as part of reconstruction efforts, the U.S. Congress passed the USAID Act to help fund countries in need.

Part of the funding went to a program called S.E.E.D, or Support of Eastern Europe Democracy. Milwaukee rapidly took the initiative to secure some of the $9.6 billion in funds to establish programs to support Poland.

UWM political science professor Donald Pienkos said there was strong support for Poland from city and state officials after Polish Independence. Some of those working on the reconstruction were of Polish decent.

Polish has historically been Milwaukee’s second highest immigrant population, behind German.

Milwaukee established two separate programs. The first was a $4.8 million training program for Polish medical emergency personnel. The second was an $820,000 internship for local government officials.

“State officials came here and learned how to setup and run local governments,” Pienkos said.

Since that time, Milwaukee and Bialystok have built a sister city relationship.

Bialystok is a city of 295,000 located in the north eastern corner of Poland.

Delegates from Bialystok came to Milwaukee in October and signed an alchemic agreement. This has been the first visit, after the last was canceled in 2001.

“We had great cooperation in welcoming our guests,” Pienkos said.

The UWM library houses a number of artifacts of Polish history including maps and photographs.

“It was a real treat for them to see for themselves pieces of the Polish experience,” Pienkos said.

Chairman of the History Department Neal Pease specializes in modern Polish and central European history. Pease is in favor of expanding the communication with Bialystok as a way to connect with scholars and the eastern block of Europe.

The mayor of Bialystok, Tadeusz Truskolaski, was particularly interested in the economic potential the sister city relationship has. He is interested in finding potential investors in Milwaukee interested in the German market.

Coincidentally, Pease has been invited to speak at an upcoming dinner in Bialystok. Though unrelated to the agreement signed, Pease said he would be happy to utilize the opportunity to communicate possible ideas.

“If there is any message or anything I could take over there, I would be more than happy to do so,” Pease said. “But as of now, the university has not said anything to me.”

When asked, neither Pienkos nor Pease could say anything specific about what the new agreement could mean for UWM.

“These agreements tend to be vague and informal,” said Pease. “They are not concrete. Maybe there will be some sort of faculty and student exchanges, but I can’t say for sure.”