The new UW-Green Bay was widely considered ahead of its time in embracing the relatively new medium of television as an education tool. State-of-the-art production facilities were part of the design for the Instruction Services Building, one of the first three new campus buildings (along with the Laboratory Sciences and Environmental Sciences buildings) to open on the Shorewood site in 1969. Some of the programming was aimed at children (including this 1980s production with actors in woodland animal costumes), while most was more serious stuff, aimed at adult learners. UWGB made history in October 1970 by inaugurating a live, closed-circuit TV hookup of the course Man and his Social Environment, transmitted from the Instructional Services Building studios to Marinette. It was a higher-ed first in Wisconsin. (More on the photo above: It was taken during production of a program titled “Little Bear” featuring professional actors. “Little Bear” was produced in 1985 and was created as a tool to teach children about issues of child sexual abuse. An accompanying program for teachers was completed in October of that year and distributed to schools throughout Wisconsin and beyond.
Also worth mentioning:
Public Television came to UW-Green Bay during the 1972-73 school year, when WPNE-TV, Channel 38, set up headquarters as the first operating unit of the new state educational television network. Reporter Betty Brown wrote in her history “UW-Green Bay: From the Beginning” that a $386,000 federal HEW grant (huge for the time) helped equip the WPNE studios in the IS Building.
The two-way television network linking UWGB professors with the outlying two-year campuses was an early example of private philanthropy allowing the University to expand its reach. The Fort Howard (Paper Company) Foundation and the Ansul Company of Marinette provided funds for the TV courses.