Campus Rebirth: Dean Judy Goldsmith recalls renovation of UW-Fond du Lac campus
by Monica M. Walk

Technically, it was a campus renovation. Locally, it is acknowledged as a rebirth.

“It was a dying campus,” confirmed Judy Goldsmith, the dean who spearheaded the transformation at the two-thirds mark of her nine-year tenure at UW-Fond du Lac. “Nothing had been done to keep it up. Our enrollment was down, while others’ (UW Colleges campuses) grew.”

In January 1999, that changed drastically: nearly $13 million was approved for major capital improvements. At 32 years of age, the campus was poised to return to its original position as an institution on the leading edge of education.

The once-fashionable browns and oranges would be lightened and brightened; the noisy heating system silenced; the crowded classrooms eased and enlarged; and the whole campus outfitted with the technology and infrastructure now necessary to prepare students as global thinkers.

Perhaps most significantly, the campus was gaining an additional structure, which would join the existing buildings while providing a new library, theater, music rooms, large group instruction room, book store, and an eating and gathering space. Rising between two existing buildings and joining together all student activity other than physical education, this new building—The University Center—would give the campus a hub, a heart, a connection of people and place.

This campus-altering renovation began with a commitment of $900,000 from the UW System to equip and furnish a much-needed theater. Goldsmith saw the larger possibility. She approached the Fond du Lac County Board—the original funding support, and sponsor of the campus grounds and permanent facilities—with the invitation to analyze the state of the campus.

“We looked at what we had, the condition, the needs…how we were meeting needs,” Goldsmith said. “We worked around the clock for a month to do this. We created a detailed analysis of the problems and needs for the next decade-plus. The preparation involved every single person on campus. It was a real work of art when done.

Buechel brought the analysis into the working committees of the County Board; members then visited campus to view the facility described in the report. As the time for the board to vote on funding drew near, Goldsmith worried: the nearly $13 million figure deemed necessary for renovation loomed large.

“But, they were committed,” she recalled. Public statements were made to the effect that the renovation would be expensive, but lack of care over the years had led to the current deterioration. “The vote was unanimous. It was extraordinary, magical.”

It could be that Goldsmith was the right person to carry the request. With English degrees from UW-Stevens Point and SUNY-Buffalo, she began her career in academia.

Volunteer work for the National Organization for Women (NOW) then bloomed into leadership as national executive vice president (1978-82) and national president (1982-86), where she served as spokesperson and chief administrative officer for the organization—and earned the nickname “The Professor” from reporters in acknowledgement of the complete and grammatically correct quotes she provided. She was, perhaps, uniquely positioned to comfortably talk with legislators about education.

From funding approval to the revamped campus unveiling was a mere 21 months…and in between was a “hellatious mess,” Goldsmith laughed. The campus remained open, and while the movement to accommodate classes and offices was sometimes unsettling, it generally was smooth due to the efforts of business manager Marilyn Krump.

“She was so organized…charts and grids,” Goldsmith recalled, “and unfailingly nice. She also had impeccable taste in furniture and colors, and she saw that all the intricate pieces were put together with minimal disruption.”

The construction, by local and original campus contractor C.D. Smith, was a fascinating process, Goldsmith said: “We would call each other to look out the window at what was happening.”

Spirits rose with the building walls. “I took faculty on a tour through the Commons, so they could see the outlines of the soaring windows,” Goldsmith said, “and I could see the looks on their faces.” Windows—especially the interior windows specified by Bray Associates Architects, offering views of the beautiful campus from hallways and adjoining offices—remain among Goldsmith’s favorite feature: “There was now a sense of openness, of transparency…and so much more sunlight.”

Timing was impeccable for the unveiling of the renovated campus: October 2000, a new academic year in a new millennium.

Much of the celebration made use of the just-completed stage—dancers, musicians, actors, and singers bringing life to the musings Goldsmith had entertained while sitting on unfinished seating tiers, awaiting the theater’s roof.

Giving tours to the public during the dedication week was joyful. “Many had been on campus previously, and their jaws would drop,” Goldsmith reported. “It was all positive comments; mostly ‘I can’t believe this is the same place.’ It was a period of extraordinary euphoria. People smiled all the time.”

Reactions went beyond this emotional response. “Enrollment went through the roof,” Goldsmith said. “People could feel proud to go to school here. The grounds had always been beautiful, but now the science labs were current, there was storage, it was functional. The campus was now the loveliest of the 13 UW Colleges. It was a 21st century educational environment.”

Goldsmith, who retired in 2002 and continues to live in Fond du Lac, said she is reminded of the renovation magic each time she returns to campus. “I never walk through the doors without a thrill,” she said, including her several stints teaching English and Women’s Studies on a part time basis since retiring as Dean.

She currently helps lead the Comprehensive Countywide Diversity Initiative and also serves as an elected member of the Fond du Lac County Board, supporting the community that so remarkably supported the UW-Fond du Lac campus during her tenure.

Leading the college was supposed to be a temporary position for Goldsmith when she accepted an interim appointment in 1993 at the request of then-UW Colleges Chancellor Lee Grugel, upon completing a two-year contract as Special Consultant to the Chancellor for Gender Equity and Affirmative Action at her Steven’s Point alma mater. Instead, she saw the vision of what the campus could be and stayed nine years to make it a reality for the community and thousands of students.

“It was remarkable to have seen the building going up and the work by the subcontractors,” Goldsmith said. “And then, to see it filled with students! To look down in the University Center Commons and see students by the windows with the sun flooding in…reading, relaxing, sleeping on the sofas. The transformation was glorious beyond words.”

One event specifically captured her feelings about the campus and its relationship to the community. The internationally acclaimed Vienna Boys Choir had performed, and people socialized in the Commons after the event. As Goldsmith was leaving for the evening, she held the foyer door for a couple behind her—and continued to hold the door for another 100 to 200 people.

“It was so lovely to stand there and see the looks on their faces,” she said. “They had had a wonderful evening, and were feeling high and happy. It was a really lovely experience, and I floated to my car and came home. That was so worth all of the hard work, all of the frustration, everything that went into the work that it took to renovate, to give new birth to that campus.”