University of Wisconsin–La Crosse

Public university in La Crosse, Wisconsin, US

The University of Wisconsin–La Crosse (UWL or UW–La Crosse) is a public university in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Established in 1909, it is part of the University of Wisconsin System and offers bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees. With 9,600 undergraduate and 1,000 graduate students, UW La Crosse is composed of four schools and colleges offering 102 undergraduate programs, 31 graduate programs, and 2 doctoral programs. UW La Crosse has over 95,000 alumni across all 50 U. S. states and 57 countries as of 2021. The university is classified among "Master's Colleges & Universities: Larger Programs" with research expenditures of $3 million in 2020. Nationally recognized programs include occupational therapy, physical therapy, and physician assistant offerings at the graduate level. UWL also offers a top ranked archaeology and anthropology undergraduate degree program, the only one in the Midwest and one of few nationally. The UW La Crosse Eagle's 21 athletic teams compete in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, in NCAA's Division III. The university mascot is Stryker the Eagle.

The university was founded as the La Crosse State Normal School in 1909, the eighth of nine state normal schools established in Wisconsin between 1866 and 1916 for teacher preparation. Thomas Morris sponsored the bill in the Wisconsin State Senate that led to the university's creation. Initially, the La Crosse State Normal School was authorized to offer two year programs to prepare students for the teaching profession. Main Hall (now Maurice O. Graff Main Hall), the original building on campus, was constructed the year the school was founded. The La Crosse State Normal School opened its doors later that same year with Fassett A. Cotton as its first president. La Crosse State Normal School students began organizing several extra curricular activities within two years of the school's founding. In 1910, students published the first campus newspaper, The Racquet, which is still published today. The Physical Education Club was formed in 1912, making it the longest continuous organization in the school's history. The Physical Education Building (now Wittich Hall), the original physical education building, was completed in 1916 after delays due to the start of World War I. This was not the only setback for the school during this period. The school struggled through serious declines in enrollment and funding following World War I and throughout the Great Depression. In 1926, George M. Snodgrass became the school's third president, replacing Ernest A. Smith, who served for only one year. The La Crosse State Teachers College Training School Building was later renamed Morris Hall in honor of Wisconsin politician, Thomas Morris. The Training School provided practice and supervised observation for teacher training candidates. 1973 was the last year of operation for the Training School. In 1956, the college was authorized to establish graduate programs, which led to the Master of Science and Master of Arts in Teaching degrees. A graduate program in physical education was also established at that time. Since the adoption of the Eagle mascot, the band's mascot has been the Screaming Eagle, having been known as the Marching Chiefs before that.

In 1991, Judith Kuipers became UWL's third chancellor, serving until 2000. Under the university's strategic plan, "Forward Together," the university reorganized into four colleges: the College of Business Administration; the College of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation; the College of Science and Allied Health; and the College of Liberal Studies, which housed the School of Arts and Communication and the School of Education. The Cleary Alumni & Friends Center along with Murphy Library remodeling projects were completed in 1995. Construction continued on campus, and two years later, the Recreational Eagle Center and the Hoeschler clock tower were also finished.

The turn of the century saw several changes at UWL. The Archaeology Building and Laboratories, which was a US $380,000 renovation of the campus's original power plant, had its grand opening that year. Another major change was the resignation of Chancellor Kuipers. In the 2001–2002 academic year, the university's athletic teams won four national championships, three NCAA Division III championships (indoor track and field, outdoor track and field, and cross country), and one NCGA title (women's gymnastics). He replaced Douglas Hastad, who left to become president at Carroll College, in Waukesha, Wisconsin. His official inauguration took place on October 19, 2007. Gow often personally e mailed the entire student body to inform them about student accomplishments and upcoming university events. An accomplished guitarist, he performed at the Cartwright Center's "Cellar" restaurant for students after taking over as chancellor. The university supports cultural events, regional and national conferences, prominent speakers, applied research, health care, professionals with varying expertise, a large workforce, and numerous faculty, staff, and student community volunteers. The percentage of the university's budget that is state funded has declined over the past few years. In 1996, students paid 35% of the cost of their education at UWL and the state the remaining 65%. By 2005, the student share had grown to 51% as the state's shrunk to 49%. The university has felt the strain caused by decreased public funding. The university's centennial campaign and "growth and access" agenda are both aimed at providing the necessary financial resources to deal with the decreased state funding. The university's plans for the future revolve around increasing access to UWL for talented students of all backgrounds and expanding student research and academic opportunities. Both the centennial campaign and the "growth and access" agenda are major tools meant to lead the university to these goals. Students in the spring of 2012 overwhelmingly voted in favor of a new student center to replace the Cartwright Student Center. Construction for the new student center occurred during the 2014–2015 and 2015–2016 academic years, and the Student Union opened in January 2017. The new student center edifice was designed to emulate Grandad Bluff, a defining feature of La Crosse. It houses 7 distinct eateries, a game room, movie theater, live performance space, The Cove (a central hub for university organizations), the Pride Center, Veterans' Lounge, campus food pantry, a wide array of relaxation and study accommodate ces, and meeting rooms that can accommodate conferences and other events. In 2018, the Prairie Springs Science Center opened at a cost of $82 million as an expansion of the nearby Cowley Center. Named after a $2 million gift from the Paul Fleckenstein Trust, the 187,000 square foot building expanded the university's science program facilities and research capacity. The project represents phase one of a larger expansion plan. In late 2023, the University of Wisconsin System's board of regents unanimously voted to fire Joe Gow as chancellor and replace him with interim Chancellor Betsy Morgan. The termination came as a response to Gow being exposed for posting pornographic videos of him and his wife on public pornography hosting sites. Gow stated that his termination was a violation of his free speech rights and that he regretted not revealing his secret life sooner. Gow, who had announced in August 2023 that he would step down at the end of the academic year, had been previously reprimanded in 2018 for inviting porn actress Nina Hartley to speak on campus about free speech, which he said was a way of promoting academic freedom. In March 2024, the university announced James Beeby as the next university chancellor and 11th leader in school history. Beeby served as provost and vice president for Academic Affairs at Keene State College in New Hampshire and assumes the new role July 1, 2024.

The campus is located in a residential section of La Crosse. The extensive landscape of grassy fields, trees, flowers, and other vegetation gives the campus a distinct park like feel. The university has limited vehicle traffic on campus. In 2006, UW La Crosse received a "Grand Award" at the 2006 Green Star Awards competition for its campus landscaping from the Professional Grounds Management Society. To the east of campus is the La Crosse bluffs, of which the most prominent is Grandad Bluff (mentioned in Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain. Downtown La Crosse and the Mississippi River are about a half mile west of campus. Hoeschler Tower (1996), located in the heart of UWL, is the focal point of the campus and a popular destination and meeting place for students. Reuter Hall, an apartment style residence hall, was completed in 2006. Two 1950s era residence halls, Trowbridge Hall and Baird Hall, were demolished in the spring 2009 to make way for a new academic building, Centennial Hall, which was completed in the fall of 2011 and is the largest academic building on campus. In 2018, Badger Street was converted into the Badger Street Mall, a pedestrian corridor between the Student Union and Prairie Springs Science Center. The mall features new pedestrian walkways, including landscaping, lighting, stormwater management features, bicycle racks, and seating. The mall was extended further west past Murphy Library to the Whitney Center in 2020.

Graff Main Hall is the oldest building on campus built in 1909 and contains the chancellor's office, a 787 seat auditorium, classrooms, the departments of Philosophy, Psychology, and Modern Languages, and other administrative and student services offices. It was designated a historic site by the city of La Crosse, Wisconsin in 1984 and is on the National Register of Historic Places as the Main Hall/La Crosse State Normal School.

Built in 1916, the original physical education building housed faculty and staff offices, gymnasiums, a track, multipurpose and meeting rooms, a strength training center, a therapeutic/rehabilitation swimming pool, the Musculoskeletal Research Center, and the Special Populations Exercise Program. The building has been renovated for use in the preparation of special/adapted physical education teachers and therapeutic recreation specialists. Administrative, faculty, staff, and graduate assistant offices for the Department of Recreation Management and Therapeutic Recreation are located in Wittich Hall. The building is also the primary practice site for the Women's Intercollegiate Athletics Gymnastics team. Wittich Hall, the Physical Education Building of the La Crosse State Normal School, was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1985 as the Physical Education Building/La Crosse State Normal School. At the time of its construction, the library cost US $2.5 million to construct. The library also offers electronic resources, such as journals and databases. In 2006, the library opened Murphy's Mug Café, which is managed by the campus dining services.

Built in 1973, the Center for the Arts was named for UWL alumnus and Ho Chunk artist Truman T. Lowe in 2022. The Lowe Center for the Arts serves as UWL's hub for creative activity, housing the Departments of Art, Music, and Theatre and Dance. As such, the building is home to the University Gallery, Annette Recital Hall, and Toland Theatre. The University Gallery hosts exhibits by students, faculty, and professional guests. Many of UWL's music ensembles, faculty, students, and professional musicians regularly perform in the Annette Recital Hall. The Toland Theatre is the site of five of the Department of Theatre and Dance's seven annual full scale theatrical productions. Additional facilities include 20 practice rooms, rehearsal halls, a second student gallery space, ceramics studio, digital art studio, metals studio, painting studio, drawing studio, sculpture studio, music listening lab, sound design and mixing lab, offices, scenic shop, and costume shop and storage.

Built in 2000, the $27 million Health Science Center was a project of the La Crosse Medical Health Science Consortium. It is located in the center of campus and holds 46 classrooms, including two 250 seat auditoriums, various academic and student advising departments, and a Starbucks coffee outlet. A large, open entryway in the building opens up to the Hall of Nations. The room houses flags from 44 countries, representing the diversity of UWL's international students. Centennial Hall also houses a counseling and testing center and offices for communications, environmental studies, philosophy, and women's and gender studies. Considered LEED gold certified, Centennial Hall features a solar roof providing heated water for the entire building. The building's U shape design also provides 90% of the building's natural light.

Completed in 1974 and originally called "North Hall", in 2000 this building was named for former professor and Dean of the College of Arts, Letters and Sciences, W. Carl Wimberly. The building has classrooms, three auditoriums, and the offices of the College of Business Administration, the accounting, archeology, sociology, economics, English, ethnic and racial studies, finance, history, management, marketing, political science and public administration departments, and the Small Business Development Center. The 189,000 square foot building contains 36 instructional labs and 23 research labs that support the university's biology, biochemistry, chemistry, earth science, geography, microbiology, and physics programs. A $2 million endowment, the largest single gift in UW L history, was donated by Carolyn and Jay Scott in support of the new science building.

Completed in January 2017, UWL's new student union is three stories and just over 204,000 square feet. It includes offices for the Student Association, Student Senate, Pride Center, and the COVE, which encompasses all student organizations. It also houses an auditorium on the second floor, the University Bookstore, Textbook Rental Services, meeting rooms, a cafeteria, a theater, and a game room.

Cartwright Hall (1959 with additions in 1965 and 1985), is the former student union. It was home to the University Bookstore, Textbook Rental Services, TV and reading lounges, a computer lab, student organization offices and resources, the Involvement Center, Pride Center, and meeting rooms. Currently, it houses offices for instructors and space for gymnastics practice.

Mitchell Hall (1965) is a recreational, teaching, research, and service facility located adjacent to outdoor practice fields, soccer fields, and Veterans Memorial Stadium. Facilities include a swimming pool, basketball courts, wrestling room, dance studio, racquetball courts, and a strength and conditioning center. The field house located in Mitchell Hall has a 4 lane 200 meter polyurethane track, long and triple jump pit, pole vault boxes, nets for tennis, badminton, volleyball, golf, softball/baseball hitting, and a climbing wall.

The Recreational Eagle Center ("The Rec"), built in 1997, houses Intramural and Student Recreational Sports. The building includes a field house, a 200 meter elevated running track with warm up areas, a strength and conditioning center, a climbing gym, a child care center, TV lounges, locker rooms/shower rooms, and various multi purpose activity rooms. The Rec Eagle Center regularly hosts campus activities, such as Rectoberfest and the 5K Turkey Trot Run/Walk. Attached to the Rec Eagle Center is a child care center that serves the children of students and faculty. On July 2, 2015, then President Barack Obama spoke to a crowd of 2,400 at The Rec. President Obama was joined by Wisconsin U. S. Senator Tammy Baldwin, U. S. Representative Ron Kind, and other local leaders. Opened on October 1, 2018, a two level 35,000 square foot expansion included an enlarged strength training space, multipurpose recreation room, and other related support spaces. A solar roof on top of the building was included in the project and provides electricity for a significant portion of the building's energy usage.

As of the fall 2023 semester, UW La Crosse enrollment stood at 10,327 with 9,406 undergraduate students, 921 graduate students representing 36 states and international students representing 30 countries. Incoming freshmen average an ACT score of 25 and a median high school class rank in the 80th percentile, the second highest academic profile in the UW System. In fall 2023, 60 high school valedictorians were represented in the incoming freshman class. UW La Crosse also bolstered an 86.5% retention rate of 2022 23 first year freshman returning to UWL their next year, the second highest in the UW System after UW Madison.

UW–La Crosse offers 102 undergraduate programs in 44 disciplines, 30 graduate programs in eight disciplines, and 2 doctoral programs. Microbiology and exercise and sport science are designated as UW System Centers of Excellence, and the College of Business Administration holds international accreditation. UW La Crosse also offers Wisconsin's only nationally accredited degrees in recreation management and therapeutic recreation, the UW System's only nuclear medicine technology program, and offers one of two Midwest undergraduate archaeology majors.

The university is organized into three colleges and a school: the College of Business Administration; the College of Science and Health; the College of Arts, Social Sciences, & Humanities; and the School of Education.

The College of Business Administration (CBA) is professionally accredited by AACSB International (The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business). It provides undergraduate programs, along with a consortial graduate program in business administration.

UW–La Crosse partners with the University of Wisconsin–Madison, the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, the University of Wisconsin Platteville, and the University of Minnesota Twin Cities in a program that allows students to complete three years of study at UWL before transferring to the partnership university for two years to complete the science or engineering portion of a dual degree.

In 2022, U. S. News & World Report ranked UWL #124 among public "national universities" and number two in Wisconsin behind UW Madison and ahead of UW Milwaukee. Within the same report UWL ranked #250 across all national universities, public or private. In 2014 Kiplinger's Personal Finance, ranked the university fourth on its list of the "25 Best College Values Under $30,000 a Year".

UW La Crosse offers over 175 different student organizations in a wide range of areas, including academic, religious, cultural, athletic, political, social, and other organizations. Intramural sports programs are also available to students. The Physical Education Club, which was formed in 1912, is the longest continuously operating organization at the school. The six social fraternities represented on campus are Delta Sigma Phi, Sigma Tau Gamma, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Chi Phi, Lambda Chi Alpha, and Kappa Sigma; while the three sororities represented are Alpha Xi Delta, Tri Sigma, and Alpha Phi. Delta Sigma Phi is the only Greek organization on campus with a fraternity house. The Eta Rho chapter of the Delta Sigma Pi professional business fraternity is a coed option for students of the College of Business Administration.

The Racquet Press is UWL's student news source. The paper, which began in 1910, contains student produced articles about campus, community, state, and national events. The Racquet Press is composed of five major sections: news, sports, letters to the editor, photo series, and humans of UWL. The majority of The Racquet Press''' budget is contributed via student fees or from advertising. In 2013, The Racquet Press was ranked #32 in the nation and #1 in Wisconsin in the Top 100 College Newspapers for Journalism Students. The Second Supper was a satirical newspaper that was published by students. The Catalyst is a student produced and edited publication of a student submitted collection of original essays, short stories, and poetry. Each edition has a different theme. The Catalyst'' intends to provide a channel for creative intellectual inquiry to provoke campus and community discussion.

The University is located east of downtown La Crosse and is served by the La Crosse MTU transit system, which offers fare free service to students. Routes 4 and 5 provide bus service through campus, connecting to downtown La Crosse, WTC and Valley View Mall. SMRT buses stop on State Street providing regional bus service to Prairie du Chien, Viroqua, Tomah and other destinations. Intercity buses operated by Jefferson Lines stop at the student union. The bikeshare system DriftCycle has two bike share stations on campus, among fifteen located across the city.

The university's school colors are maroon and gray. The university mascot, which was adopted in 1989, is the Eagle. UWL men's athletics teams had previously been known as the Indians (1937–1989), On October 10, 2012, Colbert was retired, and a new similar looking mascot was introduced, named Stryker.

The Hanging of the Lantern tradition dates back to 1913 when UWL students hung small lanterns in house windows near campus. In 1931, longtime faculty member Orris O. White began a tradition of hanging one large lantern in the Maurice O. Graff Main Hall tower, above the building's south entrance. The act welcomed alumni who had returned home. "We'll hang the lantern in the old college tower over the south door. You won't need to look for the key—the door will be open," declared White. Since 1931, a lantern has hung each Homecoming. It hung on the south side of Graff Main Hall until 1997 when it was moved to the Hoeschler Tower in the center of campus. The tower's lantern hangs year round and is lit every evening at dusk.

The Lighting of the "L" tradition began after a 1935 college prank. Bored on a foggy day, F. Clark Carnes and Bernie Brown hiked up Miller's Bluff, north of Grandad Bluff. They gathered and piled brush in the shape of a 30 feet (9 m) by 15 feet (5 m) "L", started it on fire, and slipped down the bluff toward campus before police could locate them. When Brown and Carnes reached Veterans Memorial Stadium, the fog lifted and allowed the crowd to see the "L". In recent years, the "L" has been lit by electricity and shines from Grandad Bluff.