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Reprinted from: Green Bay Press-Gazette
http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/

August 22, 2004

Q&A: The UWGB roots Weidner planted are now 'natural' part of landscape.

By Warren Gerds
wgerds@greenbaypressgazette.com

It's almost 38 years since Edward W. Weidner got a telephone call from the president of the University of Wisconsin System. Weidner was on the faculty of the University of Kentucky at the time.

"Ed, how would you like to be chancellor of a nonexistent university?" Weidner was asked.

Eventually, Weidner accepted, basically because he always liked to build things.

The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay was on its way.

We recently sat down with Weidner and asked him to give his perspective on the university as well as reflect on his father and experience in Vietnam.

What follows are excerpts from that interview.

Q.When you started in Green Bay, what was the campus like?
A. I was the first employee, so there were no buildings. There was a farm field with corn. Part of the site had been mined for topsoil, so all the topsoil was pulled off. Part of it was a quarry with sand and gravel. That quarry was used by local folk as a shooting gallery, to practice. The area along the shore (of Green Bay) was a series of mostly ramshackle cottages that were about to be destroyed one way or another. And we had an 18-hole golf course. That was where physically we started.

When I was appointed chancellor, there were no plans. We started from scratch trying to figure out what a plan should be.

That first year, I was mainly in Madison, sometimes in Kentucky. We had UWGB stationery that said, "906 Overbrook Circle, Lexington, Ky.," as the address.

Faculty, administration and eventually students were recruited on the basis of hope and plans and a dream.

Q. As chancellor, what was your greatest challenge?
A. Trying to get people in Madison to agree that we were a different kind of university and that we should be funded in a different way. We constantly were trying to make sure that the system did not develop policies that would make every university the same. We wanted to maintain our difference.

I think our academic plan made us distinctive, but most people don't know too much about academic plans. They do know something about sports, and they will follow Division I — and that put us with Milwaukee, Marquette and Madison. To this day, that is a great advantage.

Q. What role do you have with UWGB today?
A. I don't have any formal role. It's just that I'm friendly with people. I know them. The chancellor is really a very wonderful person who talks with me frequently. I guess I'm on a committee or two, but that doesn't seem to be major because I'm not on any central policy committee.

Q. So basically you are on the outside now, but with a lot of knowledge. What is the greatest challenge ahead for the university?
A. To have some of the regulations of the system lifted or modified. This would include lifting the limit on enrollment. I think a minimum of 7,500 in the foreseeable future is very desirable, (UWGB currently has an enrollment of approximately 5,400) and it would be very efficient from the number of faculty, the services provided and so on. The current chancellor does the same thing as I was doing. He's trying to maintain the knowledge in Madison that we are distinctive.

Q. Assess what UWGB has come to mean to Northeastern Wisconsin.
A. Today in many ways, the university is kind of assumed. Yeah, it's there. It's like any part of the economy. Sure, we have banks. Yeah, sure, we have a university. It is a compliment, I suppose. We have become just a natural part of the quality of life in our region.

More specifically, the university has graduated many, many employees in businesses and government in our region. A very high percentage of our students stay in Northeastern Wisconsin and work here. The quality of our work force is directly related to the university's efforts.

The university's faculty has carried out research that's very important to the region. For example, a lot of research has been done through the university and elsewhere on the Fox River and Green Bay on MSD (Metropolitan Sewerage District). The university is now looked upon as a natural source of technical information on many different kinds of projects.

In music and theater, the area has flowered, and I think the university has played an important role. Not a monopolizing role — and it should not — but it has stimulated the visual and performing arts, and I think it will continue to do so.

The fine athletic program has a major impact on Green Bay, on the economy and on recreation. Both men's and women's basketball programs are notable in terms of economy, recreation, regional and national recognition. That's a part of America. We do give regional and national recognition to universities that have strong athletic programs. We may not like that, but it's true.

Q. What did your father do and how did he influence you?
A. My father was a purchasing agent and office manager for a small company in Minneapolis.

My father influenced me in many ways, but one important way was that he was what we today would call handicapped. When he was about 12 years old, he got an injury in football that required a leg to be removed. He went through life with one leg.

It wasn't just my father, my mother very much, too — we were never allowed to think of our father as handicapped. We were never allowed to feel sorry for him in any way, manner, shape or form.

He drove a car; he had special little things to help him. He went hunting; I went hunting with him. He went fishing. He helped build a little cottage in what now is suburban Minneapolis but at that time was way out there.

He was a very conscientious, determined person and that certainly influenced me.

If you put it in a broader context, he had an idea: "You are who you are and you do the very best you can with what the Lord has given you." That philosophy permeates me today.

Sure, if you're 83 years old, you have some decrepit aspects, but you don't talk about that. You focus on what you can do and try to be constructive for the whole community, and he did that.

Q. What was your experience in Vietnam?
(Weidner was there in the mid-1950s, prior to the "hot war" involvement of the United States. Michigan State, where Weidner was chairman of the political science department, developed a technical assistance contract financed by the State Department. A member of Weidner's department closely knew the man who became South Vietnam's premier, Ngo Dinh Diem).
A. The United States did not feel Ngo Dinh Diem was strong enough to lead but had no alternative.

It was a very painful experience because we were very close to Ngo Dinh Diem. We saw his really pathetic efforts to try to stir up the country and become a national leader. He would invite a variety of people, including myself, to take trips with him to various parts of Vietnam. I've been all over the place.

I can just picture him now going down a village street clad in a white suit and tie. I mean. The villagers, some of them not very well fed, saw him. And him getting up on a podium and talking.

(Years later, Diem was assassinated.)

The whole Vietnam policy was based on untenable assumptions, namely international communism. It just didn't fly. Certainly not today.

Q. Having your name attached to a performing arts center at the university could hardly have been a life goal in your youth. And yet there it is. What does that mean to you?
A. I try not to think about it. That might sound funny, but I am a person who is very oriented to the future. It's not what you've done, it's what you can do in the future. That's true individually; it's true institutionally.

I know I had a dream of a performing arts center and I'm well aware of what I did relative to it, but I do try not to think about the fact that it's called the Weidner Center.

There, however, was a moment when that was a big lie. The moment was the first time I saw "Weidner Center" as a sign on the highway. Boy oh boy, all sorts of things churned inside of me.

I'm mostly interested in seeing it develop its appropriate niche in which the many different venues exist today. That's a major challenge, and the center leadership is up to it.

Q. You lived in a lot of places. When you retired, why did you stay in Green Bay?
A. My late wife, Jean, and I decided we would stay in Green Bay. We felt this was home, that our friends were here, that it was a vital community. Our whole life had been academic, so we had to be in a city that had a substantial university, and that was Green Bay.

Jean was a psychiatric social worker, and she had helped many, many people in this community. It was natural for her to stay here because she, in effect, saw nice people making it. The cards and notes I got when she passed away from people I had never heard of — that's one reason why we stayed in Green Bay.

My current wife, Marge, is born and raised in Green Bay, so it's home to her. It's inconceivable to me to live any other place.

At a glance

• Who: Edward William Weidner

• Birthplace: Minneapolis

• Age: 83

• Family: wife, Marge; children (by his late wife Jean), Nancy, Gary (deceased), Karen and William; (of Marge), Daniel, Mark and Christopher; 11 grandchildren; 2 great-grandchildren.

• Career highlights: Founding chancellor of University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, 1966-86; University of Minnesota graduate (bachelor through doctoral degrees); taught at various levels at UW-Madison, University of Minnesota, UCLA, Michigan State and University of Kentucky; coordinator, chief adviser Vietnam Project, 1955-57; author or co-author of eight books on governmental affairs.

• Hobbies: Bird watching (count is 711 in North America), fan of UWGB basketball (men and women), theater, visiting presidential sites.