Chapter Three: Fall 1966–Fall 1968

In brief remarks that closed the evening, Weidner picked up on several themes from the first campus planning report. He declared that the new institution would have a statewide rather than a local mission, and suggested some areas that might become “fertile academic fields to till”in a quest for distinction in Wisconsin's higher education enterprise. He ended his talk with a tribute and a challenge to those who had brought the University to birth:

“While remaining true to the purpose of a university and to the important philosophy underlying liberal education, we may also find real advantages in students understanding the immediate community surrounding them as a means of extending their insight into the country as a whole and the world beyond,” he said.“What better way to begin than to concentrate on some of the aspects of the physical environment of Northeastern Wisconsin, its health and recreation activities or its economic and social development programs?

“The community has contributed significantly to the founding of the new campus,” he acknowledged. “But my message tonight is less one of thanks than of invitation. Your work—our work—has just begun.”

Welcome reception at the Northland Hotel (L-R) Don Tilleman, Myron Lotto, Jerome Quinn, Edward W. Weidner, Warren Knowles, Fred Harvey Harrington

Once settled on the campus—in modest quarters at the edge of an oat field—Weidner worked to refine an academic plan. The University would be organized as four “theme” colleges: Environmental Sciences, Community Sciences, Health and Leisure Time (soon to be renamed Human Biology) and Creative and Communication Arts (later Creative Communication and eventually Communication and the Arts). After consulting with community advisory groups on nearly every phase of university life, Weidner organized a series of academic planning seminars that would bring professors and administrators from across the country to consult on curriculum. The first seminar, held in July with 21 participants, focused on programs in the environmental sciences. At other meetings through the summer and fall,  Weidner and his advisers formulated plans for liberal education seminars, off-campus programs and professional studies as well as theme college curricula. Weidner also worked to expand an administrative staff that at the time included, besides himself, only two senior aides: Russell White, assistant chancellor for administration, and Robert Maier, assistant chancellor for instruction and research. White came from the vice presidency of Transylvania College in Kentucky, and Maier from the University of Arizona administration. By November 1967 the regents had also approved appointments of five deans and directors and several faculty members.

Maloney farmhouse, Chancellor's Office 1967-1972

Nine months after arriving in Green Bay, Weidner could point to a number of major accomplishments. Curriculum development was on schedule; key administrators were on the job; construction funds had been appropriated and plans for the first buildings were taking shape. But except for two farmhouses on the Shorewood property, the University as a physical entity was still invisible. Weidner and his secretary occupied the first floor of the Maloney house, located down a steep hill from Bay Settlement Road. White worked in another farmhouse facing Highway 54-57, and others carried out their duties in plywood-walled cubicles in a warehouse above a Main Street discount store. In the open spaces of the warehouse, a small library staff worked at the acquisition and cataloging of the first library collections. Faculty members occupied offices at the Green Bay Center.

Campus site tour, September 1967 (L-R) Robert Maier, Raymond D. Vlasin, Russell White, Edward Weidner

Ground breaking for the University's first buildings: (L-R) Rudy Small, Jack Nash, Myron Lotto, Don Tilleman, Scott Knapp, Edmund Gersek

Ground was broken for the first buildings on Nov. 3, 1967—20 years almost to the day after groundbreaking for the ordnance building that provided the first home for public higher education in Green Bay. Townspeople, Green Bay Center students and faculty, legislators and local officials joined Weidner and his staff and well-wishers from Madison for the occasion. A cold wind whipped around the speakers' platform, set in the stubble of an oat field. On the ground, spectators huddled within range of the public address system, moving cautiously to avoid mud that surrounded a straw-covered clearing.

The speeches were brief. Sen. Warren likened the birth of the University to the birth of a human being, accomplished with pain but cause for great joy. Myron Lotto of the Brown County board, a farmer, called the soil of the site one of the finest in which to plant a university. “With care and cultivation,” he said, “there is no reason it should not grow and grow, and each year produce a bumper crop of graduates.” Mayor Donald Tilleman saluted the University's role in filling a void in the community, and Rudy Small predicted that the impact of UW-Green Bay would be felt in the state and the nation as well as the region. President Harrington spoke of the University of Wisconsin tradition. Dr. James Nellen brought greetings from the regents, and Scott Knapp, student government president at the Green Bay Center, told of the special significance of the day for himself and his fellow undergraduates.