University of Wisconsin-Whitewater

The University of Wisconsin–Whitewater, also known as UW–Whitewater, is a four-year, co-educational, residential college accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. Part of the University of Wisconsin System, it is located in Whitewater, Wisconsin. Student enrollment in the 2014–2015 academic year was more than 12,000. The university offers 47 undergraduate majors and 13 graduate programs, with over 1,000 courses available to students. Approximately 1,400 faculty and staff are employed by the university, and the student body consists of individuals from about 40 states and 30 countries. The school was dedicated on April 21, 1868, as Whitewater Normal School and graduated its first class of teachers in June, 1870. Albert Salisbury, writing in 1893, remarked: "The young men and women who gathered into this school in those early years found here a new and stimulating atmosphere. The spirit of earnestness–almost a severe earnestness,–pervaded the place; and the high ideals of its administration were contagious in a remarkable degree." Salisbury wrote of a unique tradition of the school known as "Students' Day." One day during the term faculty would, unannounced, be entirely absent from the school. Once students recognized that the day must be "Students' Day", they would elect a President and Faculty from amongst themselves who would take up the regular duties of the day. The annual catalogue stated the purpose of "Students' Day" as the following: "The object of thus putting the institution under the care of the students is to test their moral culture, their executive ability, and their devotion to their work." In 1927, the school received authority to grant baccalaureate degrees in education and the name was changed to Whitewater Teachers College. With the addition of liberal arts programs in 1951 it became Wisconsin State College–Whitewater, and was later designated a Wisconsin State University in 1964. In 1971, after the merger of the former University of Wisconsin and the former Wisconsin State Universities, the school became part of the University of Wisconsin System and has had the name of University of Wisconsin–Whitewater since then.