University of Wisconsin–Green Bay

The University of Wisconsin–Green Bay (also known as UW–Green Bay or UWGB) is a public university located in Green Bay, Wisconsin, USA. It is part of the University of Wisconsin System and offers both bachelor's and master's degrees.

UW–Green Bay, founded in 1965, originally had an environmental sustainability emphasis, and now offers a wide array of degrees, many of which are organized as problem-focused interdisciplinary units. The university, unofficially, has the nickname "Eco U". The university's mascot is the Phoenix.

History

By 1958, the University of Wisconsin-Extension's Green Bay center had swollen to 500 students, and was the second-largest of UW-Extension's eight freshman-sophomore centers. It grew to become the largest by 1965. Demand soon grew for a full-fledged four-year campus serving northeastern Wisconsin. Rudy Small, a vice president of the Paper Converting Machine Company, and Jake Rose, president of Kellogg Bank, took the lead in pushing for a new university in the region. In 1963, the Coordinating Committee for Higher Education unanimously recommended building a new university in the Fox Valley. However, Governor Warren Knowles was somewhat cool to the idea. Eventually, he compromised by proposing that the freshman-sophomore campuses in Green Bay and Kenosha be expanded to four-year institutions (the Kenosha institution eventually became the University of Wisconsin-Parkside). The bill was signed into law on September 2, 1965.