UWO alumnus: When higher education opens doors

University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh alumnus, Phil Hanegraaf '81, right, who retired from a career in urban and transportation planning, made a stop on campus, meeting here with Chancellor Manohar Singh.

In June, Phil Hanegraaf, distinguished urban and transportation planning leader and University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh 1981 alumnus had a conversation with Chancellor Dr. Manohar Singh, Christine Gantner, Director of Alumni Relations, and Harshita Kaur, a student intern with University Relations and Communications, in a confluence of perspectives centered on the role of the University in meeting the unique needs of its students and supporting University community.

A Fellow of the Institute of Certified Planners of the American Planning Association and a Senior Fellow at DePaul University's Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Development in Chicago, Hanegraaf has built a distinguished career spanning more than four decades in transportation, urban development, regional strategy and community development, with a recognized portfolio of major metropolitan initiatives, multidisciplinary transit programs and neighborhood revitalization efforts that advance access, equity and enduring public value.

Hanegraaf's career has encompassed national planning leadership for major community development, infrastructure and mobility. Examples include the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey's Cross Harbor Freight Program, regional transportation and development planning in Chicago and Charleston SC; transit planning for the New York and the Maryland MTA; commuter rail system planning in Charlotte NC, airport planning in Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, and development of Montgomery County Maryland's $4B Bus Rapid Transit program.

Yet the true measure of Hanegraaf's career resides not in the breadth of his professional influence or the complexity of the communities and urban systems he has helped design, but in the human purpose beneath them: urban planning derives its significance from the opportunities it creates for communities.

Uncovering opportunity

Phil arrived at UW-Oshkosh with curiosity and determination, but without academic direction. Then came an unassuming decision with lasting consequence. After passing the campus learning center countless times, one day broke the pattern-entering rather than passing it.

Hanegraaf knew he had struggled with language mechanics, but with the help of what is now the campus' Project Success program, he finally discovered his learning challenge was undiagnosed dyslexia.

Project Success aids students with dyslexia, ADHD, and other language-based learning or attentional disabilities to achieve academic independence through multisensory, phonics-based instruction, developmental math and organizational tutoring.

Armed with this understanding, the University did not soften the demands before him; it helped him develop the capacity to meet them. Faculty members in the geography and urban studies program recognized the depth of his interests and created independent-study opportunities that allowed him to pursue emerging interests beyond a conventional academic direction. Hanegraaf notes that without the discovery made by Project Success or the support of the academic team to allow him to develop a program directed to his specific interests in planning, his university aspirations would not have been successful.

UWO met his unique needs

Fast forward to today: Hanegraaf is retired, and on reflection of his career, decided to visit to the Campus Success Center while on a trip back to his home town of Appleton to learn about current program status and services offered to students, and most importantly their efforts to diagnosis and treat dyslexia. He's learned 15-20% of the US population shows signs of the disability. However, only around 5-7% receive a formal diagnosis, with 75-80% remaining undiagnosed. Thus, of the estimated 40 million US adults that have dyslexia, only about 2 million (roughly 5%) have been diagnosed.

Following that visit, and in response to a communication on his thoughts on the importance of the program, Chancellor Singh reinforced the University's commitment to accessibility and accommodation to students distinctive learning needs, and invited a meeting to explore it.

The conversation demonstrated the University's conviction to the needs of its students, directed toward creating a strong community, both on and off campus. Project Success has helped to create community through meeting students' unique needs to meet goals in higher edcuation.

"Few universities today offer such programs" said Hanegraaf. "Students shouldn't hesitate to seek out services that successfully address their needs. Its empowering."

His academic experience helped build the intellectual architecture of his career. Planning rarely presents a single, uncontested answer-it demands the ability to interpret evidence, reconcile competing interests and discern the human consequences embedded within models, budgets and public systems. Technical knowledge defines the realm of possibility; judgment and engagement determine which possibilities merit pursuit-and how those choices ultimately enrich lives.

Hanegraaf is an example of how higher education, through meeting unique student needs, can facilitate successful and impactful careers. Reflecting on his years at UWO, Hanegraaf did not discuss a particular course, building or ceremony. He remembered something more elemental: "the doors that were open to me." He has paid it forward across metropolitan networks and neighborhood-scale initiatives, he viewed the built environment as a conduit to opportunity- creating livable places, bringing employment within reach and widening participation and reinforcing people's place within civic life.

Phil and his wife Suelynn (also a UWO graduate) reside Aurora, Illinois. Among his activities in retirement, Phil continues work with the DePaul University Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Development and lends his support to UWO's Project Success.

Story by Harshita Kaur, student intern, University Relations and Communications at UW-Oshkosh

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UWO Project Success