Birth of a University
-
Upload
joe-hanneman -
Category
Documents
-
view
221 -
download
0
Transcript of Birth of a University
-
8/11/2019 Birth of a University
1/9
PERSPECTIVES P E C I A L 2 5t h A N N I V E R S A R Y I S S U E
1968-1993
U N I V E R S I T Y O F W I SC O N S I N - P A R K S I DE
BIRTH OF A
UNIV ERSITY
-
8/11/2019 Birth of a University
2/9
Start with a rich academic tradition. Add liberal amounts of brick and mortar. Season with
thousands of students and top-flight faculty. The result: Wisconsins newest center of higher education.
BIRTHof a
UNIV ERSITY
Nineteen Sixty-Eight was a monumental year.
The Vietnam War took an especially bloody turn with the North Vietnamese launching of
the Tet Offensive. On the streets of Chicago, police clashed with protesters outside the
Democratic National Convention to shouts of the world is watching.
Civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered on the balcony of a Memphis motel,
sparking race riots in more than 100 cities. Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy was felled by
an assassins bullet in the kitchen of the Los Angeles Ambassador Hotel.
Richard M. Nixon was elected the 37th president of the United States. The Big Mac was added
to McDonalds menu. In the Heat of the Night won an Academy Award. The Soviet Union invad-
ed Czechoslovakia. The Green Bay Packers won Super Bowl II.
And on a quiet, gently rolling parcel of farmland in Kenosha County, a university was born.
In the midst of a tumultuous year, Wisconsins newest center of higher learning rose from wood-
ed land between Racine and Kenosha. On July 1, 1968, the University of Wisconsin-Parkside was
officially founded.
On that momentous day southeastern Wisconsin gained afour-year campus of the prestigious
-
8/11/2019 Birth of a University
3/9
Looking east, constr uction
activit y proceeds on the new
Wylli e Libr ary/Learni ng
Center.
A dupli cate of the plaque
that hung on Bascom Hall
at UW-Madison. It reflects
UW-Parksides or iginal
ti es to Madison with i ts
ti me-tested words on acad-emic fr eedom.
I t wi ll be hung on campus
this year.
A rich traditionThe University of Wisconsin had had a pres-
ence in southeastern Wisconsin since 1933,
when it established two-year centers in Racine
and Kenosha. For years, residents want-
ed a university that offered four years
of study.
In the mid-1960s, they got the atten-
tion of UW officials and a powerful
coalition of state lawmakers para-
mount among them Rep. George
Molinaro, D-Kenosha. A bill introduced
in the state Senate and approved by the
Legislature in September 1965 mandated
creation of two new four-year campuses, one in
Racine or Kenosha and the other in the Fox
Valley.
It was a time of explosive growth in higher
education. Enrollment in Wisconsins public col-
leges and universities had doubled in the past 10
years, and was expected to double again in the
coming decade. The first of the Baby Boom gen-
eration was going to college.
The two new campuses were to be developed
by the University of Wisconsin, which consisted
of the Madison and Milwaukee campuses, the
UW Center System and UW-Extension.
They were born of the rich University of
Wisconsin tradition of freedom of inquiry, and
part of what former UW President John Weaver
once described as the indissolubly united, sym-
biotic triple missions of discovering knowledge
through research, sharing knowledge through
effective teaching, and, as public service, apply-ing knowledge to the everyday problems of peo-
ple where they live.
Finding a homeFrom the moment a special commission was
created to find homes for the new universities,
the lobbying began. Everyone got into the fray:
citizens, political groups, elected representatives,business people, doctors, lawyers and unions. In
downtown Racine, some wanted to fill in 100
acres of Lake Michigan to make room for the
new campus. Others wanted it built on the Bong
Air Force Base site in Kenosha County.
Ultimately, the commission rejected those sug-
gestions. In April 1966, the panel picked an
attractive, 690-acre parcel abutting PetrifyingSprings Park in northern Kenosha County, nearly
equidistant between the downtowns of Kenosha
and Racine.
Shortly after that, UW President Fred Harvey
Harrington recruited Irvin Gordon Wyllie,
chairman of the UW-Madison History
Department, to be the universitys founding
-
8/11/2019 Birth of a University
4/9
-
8/11/2019 Birth of a University
5/9
-
8/11/2019 Birth of a University
6/9
Fred Harvey Harrington:Former president of the University ofWisconsin, Harrington oversaw the initialplanning and development efforts for UW-Parkside and UW-Green Bay.
Harrington had a big hand in the selectionof the Petrifying Springs site for UW-Parkside,and he recruited the Universitys first chancel-
lor. Harrington resigned in 1970, in the wakeof violent anti-war protests at UW-Madison.He still lives in Madison.
Kenneth L. Greenquist:A former Progressive state legislator from Racine,Greenquist was a leading proponent of establish-
Irvin G. Wyllie:A noted researcher and historian, Wyllie wasnamed UW-Parksides first chancellor in 1966.Prior, he was chairman of the UW-Madisonhistory department.
Wyllie was the author of The Self-MadeMan in America: The Myth of Rags to Riches, which in 1963 was selected for the perma-
nent White House collection. He died in1974.
George Molinaro:A longtime Kenosha legislator, Molinaro was aforce behind legislation establishing UW-
U W - P a r k s i d e F o u n d e r s
PARKSIDE IS A PERFECT
EXAMPLE OF THE
WISCONSINIDEA OF BRING-
ING THEUNIVERSITY TO THE
PEOPLE. AND THE PEOPLE OF
THIS REGION HAVE DEMON-
STRATED THAT THEY WANT
IT.
UNIVERSITYPRESIDENT
FRED HARVEY HARRINGTON
JUNE, 1970
The issue is still debated. Opponents of the
merger say it curtailed funding levels critical to
the new university and forever altered what UW-
Parkside could become. A student newspaper
editorial in 1971 termed it The Death of a
University.Within several years, finances were cut, and it
became clear UW-Parkside would not develop as
its founders originally envisioned. Wyllie and his
successors would have to set the university on a
different course.
Loss of a chancellor
In 1974, his eighth year as chancellor, Wylliewas hospitalized for 11 days after having persis-
tent chest pains. He was released and ordered to
lose weight.
In October, he wrote to a colleague that his
blood pressure was down, his arteries were not
clogged and he felt fine. I have every reason to
be optimistic, if not sanguine, he wrote.
The very next day, Oct. 25, Wyllie was sittingin his favorite chair at the chancellors residence,
preparing remarks to deliver that morning at a
solar energy conference on campus. He never left
the chair. He died of a heart attack.
The campus stood still in mourning. At age
54, Wyllie left behind a campus that was still
under construction, still in its infancy. He over-
saw the birth of a university. The campus now
stands as a testament to his efforts. In a fittingtribute, the Board of Regents agreed to name
Library/Learning Center after him.
The chancellor was the living spirit of this
university, and that spirit shall continue to live in
all of the students who study here and all of the
faculty and staff who labor here on its behalf,
Vice Chancellor Otto Bauer said on learning of
Wyllies death.Although his tenure was cut short, Wyllie
knew the job of building the university would
stretch well beyond his years. Perhaps he said it
best in June 1974, four months before he died:
I am often asked, When will the campus be
complete, when will everything be finished? The
answer is never. Harvard, Americas first universi-
ty, was founded in 1636. It is still a developinguniversity, as Parkside will be through many
years and many future generations.
-
8/11/2019 Birth of a University
7/9
-
8/11/2019 Birth of a University
8/9
-
8/11/2019 Birth of a University
9/9