The Rebecca M. Blank Center for Campus History held its inaugural reception Oct. 11 at the Pyle Center. Formerly known as the Public History Project, the Center for Campus History was established July 1 and aims to shift the historical narrative of the University of Wisconsin by including and uncovering the stories of prejudice and resistance on campus, according to their website.
“We believe that the work we’re doing at this university with the Center for Campus History is wholly unique in higher education,” Director of the CCH Kacie Lucchini Butcher and former head of the Public History Project said. “There is no one else doing it like we are. We want to ensure that other people know that this reckoning work is possible and that it can happen on their campuses too.”
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The CCH works to expand the historical narrative of UW by making all history, positive and negative, accessible to the public and campus population. While the Public History Project was always meant to be temporary, the CCH will enable the accomplishments of the Public History Project to continue, Butcher said.
The project began in 2019, following a university-wide report to former Chancellor Rebecca Blank about two student organizations that bore the name of the Ku Klux Klan between 1919 and 1926.
“Remembering our history is necessary, even when painful,” Blank said in a 2018 statement. “It gives respect to those who suffered, and it motivates us to do better as we go forward. Our task is to create a campus that encourages individual and institutional openness and inclusion for all its members.”
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Sifting and Reckoning, an exhibit at the Chazen Museum of Art in the fall of 2022, displayed the history of discrimination and resistance at UW and culminated in the Public History Project. The exhibit attracted over 23,000 in-person visitors and 150,000 online viewers, according to current UW Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin. The online exhibition is available today and represents student activism’s integral role in cultural change throughout campus history.
“While the Center does have office space, it doesn’t yet have a permanent exhibit space to showcase its work, but our space management office is actively working on precisely that,” Mnookin said.
The CCH was relocated under the Division for Teaching and Learning, which Assistant Director of the CCH Taylor Bailey hopes will drive more traction for campus history through the entire campus. Working with various departments on campus, the CCH is centered around four pillars — a continued exploration of UW-Madison’s past, sharing research findings broadly, consulting and modeling reckoning in higher education.
Beyond digital exhibitions and presentations, the CCH has worked with community members, alumni and faculty to engage in difficult conversations about the university’s past.
“We do lots of community-based events that have to do with just the whole of Madison,” Butcher said. “And some of the histories we have here that are campus-specific, like housing discrimination, is also a problem outside of campus. So we really do view us as obviously having our central focus on campus but thinking really deeply about all of the complexities and the connections that exist outside of campus too.”
