Manhattan just isn't Chippewa Falls
The XMI corporation in Chippewa Falls makes high-end neckties and other clothing for stores like Nordstroms. However, before the ties make their way to people like David Letterman and Tom Brokaw, they are hand-sewn by workers in Wisconsin. Photo: Katie WeberThe next morning the seminar stopped at XMI Neckware in Chippewa Falls. The company—which creates silk ties and other clothing—was founded in New York City, but family connections brought it home to Wisconsin.
"Manhattan just wasn't Chippewa Falls," explains Vice President John Sazama. "In New York, the worker turnover was almost constant, but in Chippewa Falls the people who work for us are what we have going for us as a company. We needed the work ethic we can find here." The company payroll includes several Hmong immigrants, Sazama notes.
With annual sales around $10 million, XMI is a national leader in the industry; its Italian-silk ties retail for as much as $100 in high-end stores like Nordstroms. The company makes a point of sharing its success, and in the process has forged a unique connection with the UW-Madison: every year, XMI sponsors a design contest for textile and apparel design students. The winner receives a scholarship and the possibility of having his or her design used in one of XMI's product lines.
Higher education in northern Wisconsin
The next stop for the day was the UW-Barron County in Rice Lake, one of the UW System's two-year campuses. Students at UW-BC can take two years of general classes and then transfer to a four-year campus to complete a degree. Such students are often "placebound," explains Dean Paul Chase, sometimes because of work obligations on their family's farm.
After UW-BC, the bus headed north to the Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa Community College, with remarks by Ada Deer, a nationally recognized scholar and political leader, and head of the UW-Madison's American Indian Studies Program.
The two-year college has produced about 650 graduates so far—the typical student is a 35-year-old single mother, says the college's dean of student services. "We have second- and third-generation students here," she says. "We see every day the difference we make in our students' lives. The way out of poverty is education—I've been here to see it."
Molly, a returning adult student who recently completed her second degree from the college, agrees. "This is the first place I feel that I have really belonged," she says. "This place has given me a lot."
Mic Isham, a Lac Courte Oreilles tribal council member, discussed some of the environmental concerns facing the reservation. The community lost important wild rice beds—in addition to homes and ancestral burial grounds—when a river was dammed to create the Chippewa Flowage, which generates hydroelectricity.
The day wrapped up with a dinner with faculty at Northland College in Ashland, where President Karen Halbersleben urged UW-Madison faculty and staff to join with private colleges to advocate for the importance of higher education to Wisconsin. "We're all in this together," she said. "We must remember that higher education is a public good."
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