Child care on campus

UW-Green Bay opened a childcare and human-development study facility in fall 1972 with 41 toddlers. Financed by student fees and gifts from the University League, an organization of campus and community women, the center found a home in a refurbished ranch house near the campus entrance. With annual operations running in the red, badly in need of repair and lagging behind modern design and code for contemporary child care facilities, the center closed in 1995. Student Government Association leaders and others have periodically encouraged the University to revisit the concept of an on-campus service. A consultant suggested a viable alternative might be to dedicate student fee support for contracting with privately run facilities nearby to hold slots open for student parents. Students who use such a service could be partially subsidized and reimbursed by way of a voucher system.

Peaceful protests, discussion

Two days after the May 1970 shootings at Kent State, about 2,000 local citizens including UWGB, St. Norbert and local high school students walked in a silent, candle-lit procession in downtown Green Bay, joined by mayor Donald Tilleman. Tilleman then visited campus later that week for a human rights and anti-war “Teach-In.” The UW-Green Bay students and faculty identified as talking with the mayor (who is at far left in this photo) included Sandra Vander Heiden (first row, second from left), John Henry (first row, far right), Tom Krueger (first row, second from far right), Professor Paul Abrahams (center with beard), Thomas Swoboda (next to Abrahams), Mike Morgan (second row, far right), Rollin Posey (second row, second from right) and Tim Brennan (second row, third from right).

Lombardi recommended soccer

UW-Green Bay plays soccer as its primary fall sport primarily on the advice of the late Vince Lombardi. The legendary Packers coach was an athletics adviser to Chancellor Edward Weidner in 1967-68 when the new university was charting its athletics future. Lombardi advised against college football because of its relatively high cost and the likelihood that the university team would be overshadowed by the Packers He also believed in soccer’s long-term growth potential and the prospects for UWGB success at the highest level of NCAA competition (which proved true).

The ‘Face Pot’

face-pot-800pxAt groundbreaking for the Creative Communication complex in October 1971, Green Bay Mayor Don Tilleman, Prof. Coryl Crandall, academic dean John Beaton and Conny Nelson were on hand for the occasion. If Crandall’s grin is particularly pronounced, it might be because of the ceremonial “face pot.” Creative arts faculty members convinced campus administrators that it was traditional to create a glazed pot with human imagery to hold some of the dirt, in order to bring good luck to the future building and its occupants. Some of the conspirators confessed years later that there was no such superstition… until they made it up for the CCC groundbreaking.

Naming of the 1965 Room

1965-room-dedication-plaqueIn May 1985, UW-Green Bay opened and dedicated the private dining room in the student union known as the 1965 Room, which has since become a popular venue for meetings and planning retreats. The room’s naming reflects the year of the University’s founding, when Gov. Warren Knowles signed enabling legislation authorizing a four-year institution for Northeast Wisconsin. A plaque displayed just outside the door honors 26 men and women — local business people, city, county and state officials, representatives of UW System Administration and others “had made bringing a campus to Green Bay their top priority.”

 

Adult ‘auditors’

In 1972, the new UW-Green Bay welcomed its first guest auditors, men and women ages 60 and older, who were invited to register for courses (in which there was extra capacity) and sit in free of charge, except for any fees for materials. The program was popular and a way for campus to connect with community members. The first venture of its kind in the UW System, it was soon picked up by other campuses including UW-Madison. The “auditors” program was curtailed sharply when high enrollments and budget cuts began to chafe in the early 1990s. Arguably, the decades-long popularity of the program set the stage for the success of the Learning in Retirement program.

TV was early, often

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.