The
University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire was founded in 1916 as the Eau
Claire State Normal School, occupying a single building on land
donated to the state by the city of Eau Claire. The academic
history of the institution is reflected in its subsequent changes
of name and mission. As a State Teachers College (1927-51) it
awarded baccalaureate degrees in education; as one of the
Wisconsin State Colleges (1951-64) it added degree programs in
liberal arts. The state colleges were granted university status in
1964, and the Wisconsin State University-Eau Claire was organized
into the Schools of Arts and Sciences, Education, and Graduate
Studies. The School of Nursing was created in 1965 and the School
of Business in 1966. With the merger of the two state-supported
university systems in 1971, Eau Claire became a member of the
University of Wisconsin System, which includes 13 universities, 13
two-year colleges, and UW-Extension. Through a major
administrative restructuring, the School of Human Sciences and
Services was created in 1994 and all of the schools were
reorganized into the three colleges of Arts and Sciences,
Business, and Professional Studies. The College of Professional
Studies includes the Schools of Education, Human Sciences and
Services, and Nursing. Graduate programs are administered by each
of the colleges.
The University of
Wisconsin-Eau Claire today is a multipurpose institution, offering
a variety of undergraduate and graduate programs, and serving
regionally as a center for continuing education. The physical
plant includes 28 major buildings located on a 333-acre, two-level
campus, which embraces Putnam Park on the south bank of the
Chippewa River and is connected by a footbridge to the Haas Fine
Arts Center and the Human Sciences and Services building on the
north bank. The student body numbers approximately 10,500; faculty
and academic staff total over 700.
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The
University seeks to foster the intellectual, personal, cultural,
and social development of each student. It strives to provide
distinguished instruction in a democratic atmosphere, bringing
individual students into close contact with a faculty whose
scholarly attainments and concern for teaching are able to instill
a love of learning.
The
baccalaureate degree at UW-Eau Claire provides students with the
knowledge and abilities needed for lifelong learning. In designing
the degree, the faculty expect that graduates will have achieved
the following goals. The baccalaureate experience shall develop
for students an:
understanding of a liberal education.
appreciation of the University as a learning community,
ability to inquire, think, analyze.
ability to write, read, speak, listen.
understanding of numerical data.
historical consciousness.
international and intercultural experience.
understanding of science and scientific methods.
appreciation of the arts.
understanding of values.
understanding of human behavior and human institutions.
The
General Education Program, which forms part of all baccalaureate
degree curricula, contributes to the breadth of each students
education through its emphasis on the cultural heritage of a free
and responsible citizenry and on the development of creative
imagination, critical judgment, and skill in the interchange of
ideas. Students are afforded opportunities to collaborate with
faculty on research and other scholarly and creative projects.
UW-Eau Claire is recognized as a Center of Excellence for Faculty
and Undergraduate Student Research Collaboration.
Upon this
foundation the University builds its programs in liberal arts and
sciences and in professionally-oriented fields. In keeping with
the goals of the baccalaureate degree, each program is designed to
impart the specialized knowledge and competencies appropriate to
the particular degree, while providing also for a broad overview
of the entire area and an appreciation of its relationship to
other fields of learning.
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