It was 50 years ago when Elvis Presley topped the charts with “Heartbreak Hotel” and “Hound Dog,” Ernest Borgnine (you might know him as Mermaid Man on “SpongeBob SquarePants”) won an Academy Award and a man who would go on to be president, John F. Kennedy, released the landmark book “Profiles in Courage.”

1956 also was the year that the first classes were held at the newly established University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. We will be celebrating that important milestone on Sept. 25 (Founders Day) and then throughout the remainder of the academic year.

I can assure you, however, that our university is doing far more looking ahead than looking back.

Student success — especially for those in their first year — is a very high priority for UWM faculty and staff. Over the past two years, we have developed a program called Access to Success. It is our campus blueprint to both enhance access to UWM and promote greater student success. I know you will be hearing more about the program and I encourage you to take advantage of it.

A longtime challenge at UW-Milwaukee has been a sufficient amount of university-operated housing. While the average UW System institution can house more than 25 percent of its students, UWM cannot house even 10 percent. The latter percentage will finally change a bit for the better this year.

This semester, we are opening Kenilworth Square. Designed primarily for upperclassmen, the new housing development a mile south of campus is an important step forward for our university. Plans also are well under way for another housing development, this one for first-year students, just a little west of Kenilworth Square. We hope this one will open for the fall 2007 semester.

And regardless of whether you live on or off campus, you will be able to take advantage of the Pavilion — the university’s new academic, athletic and recreational facility — for the entire academic year. Not only is this a great place to work out during the day, but the parking structure adjacent to it is one of the few student parking facilities on campus that almost always has available space.

The 50th year at UW-Milwaukee is going to be a special one. I am glad that you will be joining us for it and wish you the best of success.

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