100 reasons to celebrate: week 17

Story by Kelsey O'Connor, Staff Writer

Each week The Spectator will showcase organizations, departments, majors or other aspects of UW-Eau Claire as a part of the centennial celebrations event known as “100 Reasons to Celebrate.”

All photos courtesy of Special Collections and Archives, W.D. McIntyre Library, UW-Eau Claire.

# 60 Housing and Residence Life

UW-Eau Claire has 11 residence halls that house nearly 4,000 students a year. Housing and Residence Life not only manages and maintains these dorms, but also offers students ways to get involved in their residence hall community. These include hall government or any of the social, educational and multicultural programs offered to students living on-campus.

According to its webpage, the department’s mission is, “University Housing and Residence Life promotes student learning and success through engagement in diverse educational and social experiences, and supports residents by providing well-maintained, safe, and affordable communities.”

Focusing on inclusion for all students, the department wants everyone to feel welcomed and valued regardless of their background.

The Housing and Residence Life department has also created learning communities for on-campus students. A learning community is a group of students who live near each other and share a common love for a certain topic. Some of these groups include Healthy LLC, Hmong Culture LLC, Outdoor Adventure LLC, Honors LLC and many more. Some learning communities have academic requirements, while others are open to all students.

Students interested in learning communities or looking to get involved in programs through Housing and Residence Life can visit the department’s office, located at Towers 112.

These UW-Eau Claire students are pictured in 1980, relaxing in between their move into the residence halls on upper campus.
The students pictured above are playing foosball in one of the residence halls during the 1970s.

#61 TV-10

TV-10 was one of the first completely student-run television stations in the country, according to its webpage. They were founded in 1975 after the cable system was installed on-campus. Their goal was to give students an opportunity to explore and work with TV production.

Today TV-10 is still completely run by students. They air original programs, popular movies and create web specials. The station also offers a video service where students make custom professional videos or Public Service Announcements for clubs, organizations or individual students. The cost of the video varies depending on how complex the project is.

Student employees are hired once a semester at TV-10’s open house event. Positions are in areas such as programming, news and creative. Anyone interested in a working for TV-10 can visit their office located in Towers Hall, room 22D or contact the station manager, Anna Wischmann.

This 1967 Mobile Television Unit is being used by Mr. Van Cartwright in the photo above.
This student is working the control board in the TV10 campus television control room in 1980.

#62 Women’s and LGBTQ Resource Center

According to their webpage, the Women’s & LGBTQ Resource Center is “dedicated to creating a safe and inclusive campus for all students, while advocating for and celebrating those identities that have historically been and continue to be marginalized.” They are made up of two components; the Women’s Resource Center located in Hibbard Hall, room 311C, and the LGBTQIA+ Resource Center located on the second floor of Davies, room 229.

The Women’s Resource Center is a lounge area which is used not only as a place to study, but also as a safe space for women. It is staffed by Women’s & LGBTQ Resource Center interns. Their goal is to “help shape the campus environment in a way that honors women’s past, present, and future,” according to their website. A variety of resources are also readily available for students in need of support or direction.

The LGBTQIA+ Resource Center or The Bridge offers support and resources for LGBTQIA+ students. They not only support LGBTQIA+ students, but also look to educate all students about social justice and equality. They hold events, workshops, programs and activities to raise awareness. Some of these events include The Fire Ball, where drag queens help raise money for LGBTQIA+ scholarships and National Coming Out Day where students and staff get together to share stories about their experiences.

The LGBTQIA+ Resource Center also offers a program called Q’nnect. This program is meant to be an involvement and mentorship program for new students attending college. Their mission is to bring together LGBTQIA+ people at UW-Eau Claire to provide a sense of community. They meet once a month at the Dulany Inn in Davies Student Center for a free lunch where they can talk, develop connections and ask the mentors questions.

Any student needing support or interested in getting involved in the Women’s and LGBTQ Resource Center can stop by either office, call them at 715-836-2693 or email the center at [email protected].

This page of the 1930 Eau Claire Yearbook promotes equality in women’s Sports. The caption on the page read, “Equality – in sports, and play, and health – with vigor to ‘play the game’.”