The bedrock founding principles of UW-Parkside—community engagement and service to students who are the first in their family to go to a four-year school—haven’t changed. That was evident at a forum held Thursday to commemorate the school’s 50th anniversary.
It featured Al Guskin, the school’s second chancellor who served for ten years in the 1970s and 80s.
The 86-year-old Guskin spoke of the intense lobbying effort that led to the school’s founding, and it’s pledge to serve the community in ways that back then weren’t common. "The whole notion of the university and community coming together in some ways to bring the community out to the university was something that I think was fairly new at that point," he said.
Guskin left Parkside in 1985 to serve as President of Antioch University in Ohio.
After Guskin and Letven spoke, a number of other retired administrators and professors took the mic, along with a few alumni, including Kenosha County Executive Jim Kreuser, who earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Parkside, and served for two years as student body president. "This is absolutely one of the best experiences of my life to attend UW-Parkside," said Kreuser, adding that he probably wouldn't have gone to college had it not been for the close proximity of Parkside and its affordability. "I'm a first-generation college graduate,he said."
Over half of the school’s graduates still are the first in their family to complete a four-year degree.
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