birth of a university

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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


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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


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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


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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.


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