Troy Richter

Richter: Back then, Hall Councils were…they were a strong activity, very involved. Besides the staff, the RAs in the building, Hall Council was, powerful is not the right word— active, involved. They would do weekly hall council meetings, they would plan programs. And they had also some other things like Energy Watchdog was one of the little positions that I had… Each wing had a rep, there was an Exec[utive] Committee. So there was opportunities to get involved, to make sure student voice was always very important for Res Life and it still is. But the Energy Watchdog, students who are interested in sustainability now are probably going “what the heck was an Energy Watchdog?” I would actually walk around with a little notepad and give people kind reminders of turning off lights, maybe in the wintertime closing their window. And there was a big contest or competition going on in Res Life so that the central office would monitor energy usage in the halls. And so if you were the lower use of energy, you got extra money for Hall Council which meant extra food at programs or, hey we can now take a bus trip and go roller skating, or something like that, something that costs money… I stepped into leadership slowly. But I remember, nearing the end of my freshman year, they had advertised elections for the Hall Council Exec[utive]s for the upcoming year and I was returning to Wentz [Hall]. At that time I was an Accounting major. So I remember sitting out in the lobby cause that's what all the cool kids did [laughs]. I was sitting there and my Hall Director, who their apartments are still right in the lobby. And actually, they had a desk in their apartment, which if you got in trouble you had to go into their apartment. Which is just gross thinking now, like you know I’m going to go into someone's private living space to do work. But I remember Kevin Helmkamp was my Hall Director and he said “hey Troy, are you thinking about running for a position?” And I said “yeah, I think I’m going to go for Treasurer” cause again I was going for Accounting. And he goes “think bigger Troy. I think you would be a good President.” And again, that powerful impact of that Hall Director to light a fire, or even having that belief to say, “I think you have something to offer the students who will live here next year.” I ran, and there were a couple people running and I remember making signs. We didn’t campaign or anything, but I still vividly remember the evening of the election. The current president Joe Zinke coming to my door and he said, “this room is lucky.”' And I said, “why is that?” And he goes, “well, last year I lived in this room and now I’m President. You live in this room, next year you’re President.” And so that was I mean just really fun and just an opportunity to get involved in developing leadership skills and work with not only students in the hall, but administrators from the Office of Residence Life. The orientation co-chair really stemmed from being involved in Hall Council, but again that was planning activities for that whole week prior to classes starting when the new students would move in. And we even had, we were called the WEIRDOS (Wentz Entertainment Information Recreation Delegation of Orientation Staff), something weird. But we had these weird hats. And again, it was like being a cheerleader to say “hey, welcome! Get out of your room. Come to these events. You’re gonna have a much better year if you do it.” …Think about new student orientation now, it's a campus wide event. And yes, the RAs and the halls are important in that mix, but it's really organized by a professional office.

Trimmer: Do you remember any of the activities that you were part of planning for orientation that lived up to the WEIRDO nickname? Did you do anything really wild or fun?

Richter: Well, we redid the Rudy's bus trip with the chairs, because that had just kind of gotten a life of its own and people always talked about it. I’m trying to think, some of the other ones that we did. We would do like night bluff hikes, and then campfires. I don’t know if that's really allowed anymore…we did movie nights. You know, the midnight run to D’s Donuts. Where Moka [coffee shop] is now, it used to be D’s Donuts. Starting at midnight they would sell all their day-old donuts at this walk-up window for like a nickel. It was the place that you would stop on the way back from the bars. It was the place you would go if you needed a study break…that was a whole different culture in it itself. It had a big glass window in front, so you were watching them make the fresh donuts and then you were buying the cheap ones off the day-old rack. But if you were really, really, like wanting a fresh blueberry donut or fresh apple fritter, they had the times when those donuts would come out, so then you could time your arrival appropriately.

Trimmer: So, a nickel for the day-olds. Do you remember how much it cost to get a good new one that was fresh out of the oven?

Richter: I think a dime. Big spenders we were. [Both laugh]

Trimmer: …you mentioned this a minute ago. Can you explain the bus run thing?

Richter: So, what we did at the time, every student in the dorm brought their desk chairs. And back then they were just the regular four-legged chairs. And we’d line it up on the sidewalk out in front of Wentz [Hall] and one of the orientation people served as the bus driver, and like a train conductor he’d make commands. We had people carrying paper tires. We had …like a big butcher block paper bumper sticker on the back that said, “Slow down! Bus coming through!” and whatever. And you’d pick up these chairs and walk down Pine Street and even across West Avenue and go the back way to Rudy’s Drive-In. Then we would pull into a couple of those stalls and push the button and order. You know, and so everyone got whatever they wanted. It was really a trip. Inappropriate to say now, but back then we would do the even like Chinese Fire Drills that the bus conductor would say “Stop! Get out the bus!” And we would all run around, and this is in the middle of the street. So, we did the things our parents told us not to do, we played in the street. [Trimmer laughs] But it was all done, like that was all done no alcohol. It was just fun.

Trimmer: And these were part of orientation?

Richter: Mhmm.

Richter: Yes. It was interesting, ‘cause my dad was head of purchasing at Mayo [Clinic]. And I came over to UWL for Business. [I] had taken several business classes in high school, had a Business teacher that had included me in some activities of going to shareholders meetings. In the summer before I went to UWL, I got to go to St. Olaf College for a week-long [it was] called business venture. And it was corporate people from the Twin Cities and all over, and we kind of ran our own little businesses. Maybe kind of something like a Junior Achievement, but I remember doing that. And I always kind of thought because of the business classes that I took in high school, that Business was for me. Also, this was also the early [19]80s where there was a lot of greed and money was so important. And I remember looking through the little brochure that UWL had, and they had like starting salaries in the CBA (College of Business), and one of the highest ones was Accounting. So, I thought “oh, I really like my Accounting classes. I’m good at Math. I’m gonna do this.” So, I had always come to La Crosse thinking that I would probably only be here two years. And I wanted to go to a big Business school. So, during my sophomore year, I started applying to big Business programs. I applied to Madison, University of Minnesota, and my dad had graduated from Arizona State. And we had taken a family trip. I think it was my junior or senior year of high school and we had toured the campus. And I’m like, “oh, this is like a resort. This would be cool to go to.” I applied and got admitted to all of them. And then it was time for the review of my transcript. And Minnesota at the time were on quarters, so semesters didn't translate very well, and I’d be fairly far behind. Madison required some additional classes, and I was like going “ehhh.” Actually, it was Arizona State that had the best transfer. My credits transferred the most, I would be the least behind if you’d say. So I decided, “hey, I'm going.” And I remember that summer before I went like, “wow, I’m having fun with my friends at Summerfest. We’re going to these concerts. We’re hanging out.” I just remembered like, “wow okay, this chapter is ending, a new one is beginning.” So, in August I loaded up my ‘76 Ford Granada that I got when my grandfather had died and drove alone all the way to Arizona. This was before GPS, before cell phones. I remember I wrote down on index cards which highways I was supposed to turn at. I don’t know how I got there. I did. And again, thinking about that was back when the speed limit was 55 [MPH] as well, so it was a long trip. And got down there and Arizona State was very different. Obviously, a big campus but also a lot of wealth from especially kind of the California two-year colleges that were feeding in. I remember the parking lot had a lot of BMWs and Porsches and a lot of wealth. And I remember going down there going “oh gosh, this isn’t like UWL.” And I was expecting to be, like where like I was going to be active in the residence hall, I was going to know all these people. I would walk to class and say be able to “hi” to 30 people, 40 people, know people in my class, and I got down there it was so isolating. The one good thing was I started working in the Admissions Office and made some connections there. But I was also dating someone back in La Crosse, and I remember [thinking], “oh, why did we start dating before I left?” Maybe some students can relate to that. But part way through the semester, I remember going, “I don’t know if this is right for me.” I talked with my parents and I said, “I want to fly back to La Crosse and visit friends.” They said, “do you think that is a good idea?” and I said, “I need it.” So I flew back. And I remember I flew into Rochester, said “hi” to my parents for 5 minutes, and then booked it over to La Crosse. I had friends who still lived in Wentz [Hall] and they had a big “Welcome Home Troy” sign. The girl I was dating—or the woman I was dating—she lived off-campus at that time, we had such a good connection. And at that point, down in Arizona State it was, Business being taught like a big university would, it is cutthroat, it is dog-eat-dog and I kind of started realizing “I don’t think this is what I want.” And I had an impactful professor here, Jim Parker, who I mentioned earlier. And I just thought he had opened my eyes to a whole different view of history. And I thought “oh, if I can come back and do History and teaching with it, this would be great.” Kind of forgot that Social Studies teachers were a dime a dozen back in the [19]80s, so the job prospects weren’t good. But anyways, I came and met with Lois Wirkus in the College of Education and figured out that I could come back. It was going to take me a total of five years to get done, but I talked with my parents and said, “you know, I’m just not happy down here” [at Arizona State] and they said, “we’ll support you if you wanna come back.” It was also cheaper to go to La Crosse than it was Arizona State. So after one semester, I transferred back. And you know, it’s kind of like I think if I would have stayed, I would’ve given myself more opportunity to acclimate to Arizona, maybe had a little bit more confidence in my abilities, I think “Oh my god, where would my life be right now?” Now, I’m extremely happy where I am, and it was the decision that was right. But, and [I] don’t regret it. But I also think like “where would my trajectory be”? I will guarantee you I would not be sitting as Director of Parking Services at UWL if I would have stayed at Arizona for the extra semester or two. And then came back, talked to my good buddies who I lived in Wentz [Hall with]. They had stayed a third year, which wasn’t good, they were getting in trouble in the hall. And so when I came back… making the decision in like November, coming back, having to find an off-campus apartment…but Ted and Loren said, “yeah, we need to get out.” I said, “will they let you out?” “Oh, they’re encouraging us to get out.” [laughs] So we went and got a place just down on Sixteenth and King [Streets], the house isn’t there anymore. But that started my off-campus experience. And coming back and going for History and Broadfield Social Studies so I could teach.

Richter: Sure. My first involvement was serving as a summer tutor counselor. And the Upward Bound program had been on campus since 1979. And it was defunded last August, August of [20]22. So it’s no longer on campus, but it was here for almost, what? 45, 40 some years. And it's a program that serves, the main criteria is low-income, first-generation, students. And, it’s an academic support program that helps students from those populations realize the goal of attaining post-secondary education. So the role of the summer tutor counselor was living in the dorm for six weeks with the students, doing small group activities, serving as a teacher aid in the classroom for a subject area, because the students would take classes all day. And then we were responsible for also doing activities, running recreation stuff, field trips, and then supervising high school kids [Trimmer laughs] at night. And it was very impactful. Many of the students in the program were Hmong. And again, mid-[19]80s, was a lot of students had only been in the United States for a year or two. A lot of students from Black River Falls, Native American Students from Black River Falls, and just a lot of low-income students. But it was one of those situations that I can remember feeling as a white person, “wow, I’m one of the few white people around.” Interesting enough, all the tutors were white, many of the students were students of color. But always at the end of summer, we would take a big trip and would go up to Minneapolis, Milwaukee. And we’d go on campus visits. We would do business visits as well based on what the students were most interested in, and that could be the corporate world, medical world, firefighting, police work, whatever. The Director back at the time would really work hard to arrange so many different job-shadow activities. And then there were always cultural events. And we’d go to big theaters, go to the symphony in the big city, and always stay at whether the University of Milwaukee or University of Minnesota. But that was really impactful…this was so tied to why I was passionate about education. The high flyers are always gonna soar. The students who are forgotten, or who are struggling, are the ones that really need the teacher’s help, and so I’ve always gravitated towards that student maybe who’s disenfranchised, or not popular, or just struggling. And so, it was just really a good opportunity. I ended up doing a couple summers of that. And then also during the academic year being a tutor where they’d come to campus once a week. And we would do goal sheets with them, we would keep up with their progress, we’d do study sessions. And then once a month we would do a Saturday activity. And sometimes it was cultural, sometimes it was educational, sometimes it was more entertainment. But that was really good. And that so helped me, especially when I was going into my field experiences. And it’d be fun too because I would have students who I had in Upward Bound out in my classrooms. And I just remember, when I got my student teaching placement, I got [placed] at Central High School, and being so thankful one that I was in town, that I wasn’t driving to Sparta, [Wisconsin] or anything. But then when I saw my placement, two of my courses were ESL History, English as [a] Second Language, and so working with students whose language skills, they hadn’t acquired English to the level that they could be proficient enough in the regular classes, so getting to try to figure out how do I adapt lessons I was doing into the 9th grade History class to this ESL. But I remember we were talking about World War II and Japanese internment camps and the concentration camps. And for the students in ESL, many of them had been in refugee camps in Ban Vinai [Thailand], and so it was very, very, powerful. I remember my cooperating teacher said, “wow, you got them to talk about experiences they probably have never been asked to explain.” And to tie it to something else, like the impactful learning again is so cool. Yeah, Upward Bound holds such a special place for me. I was able to work with the program here, up at [UW-]Stevens Point. And then after I was Hall Director here, I worked 3 years as the advisor in the program. So again, almost that full circle that you get to be involved as a student and then come back as a professional. Which I feel almost like everyday for me at UWL is like that because I see what students are experiencing and I always go back, oh I can remember being like that. Or when I see students walking to Whitney [dining center] I’m like going “I wonder if they are having scalloped potatoes on Tuesday?” [laughs].

Richter: Well I’m looking over your shoulder and I see George Gilkey’s book The First Seventy Years and I used that extensively when I was writing my seminar paper when I was a senior on the campus school, which is Morris Hall, cause that used to be an operating laboratory school for the teacher education program. But in really looking at this campus, I mean buildings have changed, this campus footprint has gotten bigger. A lot of these buildings especially on the west side, no excuse me, the north side of campus were neighborhoods. And I think students would be kind of baffled to say, “oh, if you were living in Drake [Hall] in the early [19]80s, you’d be looking across and seeing a neighborhood, not the Rec[reation Center], not a parking lot, not anything like that.” Whitney [dining center] was still there. I think campus has gotten very beautiful. It used to also be that where Centennial [Hall] was, there was three other buildings. Baird and Trowbridge were operating residence halls, and then Wilder Hall had been a residence hall that had been switched into an administrative building. But there was also streets running through campus. 16th Street…where you have at the circle of Centennial [Hall] that would go all the way to the Rec[reation] Center, that road was open. And then Badger Street, which we now known as the Badger Street Mall, was an operating street as well. And so it was a little easier maybe to get around campus. You know, campus is pretty much an island. But I think one of the things that probably draws a lot of students to this campus is the compactness, the park-like atmosphere, and just how well the buildings are maintained. I mean I just think even since I’ve gotten back since [19]94, Cleary is new, Reuter Hall is new, the Rec[reation Center] is new, Eagle Hall is new, Wittich [Hall]’s been redone, Wing has been redone, the Stadium is new, Prairie Springs is new, the [Murphy] Library has been expanded. I mean it’s a totally different place. I think also back in the early [19]80s, campus was less affluent than what it is now, and I also will say less smart. And I don’t mean that in a disparaging way. But the academic attainment level with ACT scores and grades that you have to earn now to be admitted to UWL, that wasn’t always the case. I mean UWL used to be known as the PE [Physical Education] School and so there was a lot of athletes, a lot of people who were interested in PE. The PA—excuse me not the PA, the PT program—Physical Therapy was big, and that was an undergraduate program. And that always, that was highly competitive and brought the smarty-smartest of the smarts. But also there was, the big draw was education here, not only teacher education but physical education. And the level of wealth wasn’t as there, and again maybe it was very different like I said in the beginning there were farmers that were first-time, first-generation [students]. I think and that’s maybe something that has continued to evolve. I don’t remember what the number of first-generation students are in this given class [2022 first-years]. But I would say back in the [19]80s it was probably more than half, were first generation students. Also, although we haven’t done a whole lot with diversifying campus, even back in the [19]80s it was less than what it is today. So much more homogenous as far as race goes. And, you know what, people didn’t bring a lot to school. Now when I see move-in day and people are bringing U-hauls, and couches, and flat screen TVs, and computers, we didn’t have any of that… I thought I was so lucky because my roommate had a little 13-inch color tv. I remember we were one of the only rooms that had a color tv. Most rooms had their little black and whites. But one thing, Tiffany, that hasn't changed is I think people really like it here. And it’s fun, it’s mostly easy to meet people, make connections, find your people. And whether that’s you’re getting involved in marching band, or getting involved in your residence hall, or getting involved in Cru or inter-varsity [sports], there’s so many opportunities for students to get involved.

Richter: I do remember during orientation week, in addition to all the fun social activities, there were different sessions on how to take notes. There was tours of campus because again, although I went to a large high school all in one building, this was the first time we’d have to go to this building for a Math class, this building for an English class. So I can remember having my schedule and walking like okay, “Monday is going to be class and trying to figure out…Oh my god, there is only ten minutes between classes, how are you going to get there?” And then I remember writing English 110 on a notebook and folder to be all prepared. And then going those first days, your English class was small, it was only like 25 students. And I had Dr. [Thomas] Pribek for that, still see him on campus every once in a while. And then I also had some larger classes, that I can’t remember if it was first semester or not, but like Psychology was in the [Graff] Main Hall auditorium so that was a large class. I remember having Pre-Calc[ulus] and that was in Cowley [Hall], and my least favorite class ever, but had a good teacher. But just thinking about how you sat in class and you just took notes, you took notes, and you were lucky if you had a faculty who wrote on the chalk boards. There weren’t powerpoints slides, there weren’t online notes that were distributed. It was your responsibility to sit in class, feverishly writing in your notebook because you had some faculty who didn’t take a breath for 55 minutes... I can also remember, I don’t know if this was my first semester or if it was my second semester, I had Dr. [James] Parker for history. And it was in the big lecture room in Wimberly [Hall]. And class started, I think it was a Tuesday Thursday class so maybe like at 8:45 or 9:15, no at 8 o’clock—that was it. He came walking down, and if you know Jim Parker, he looks like a cross between the Marlboro man and Robert Redford. And he comes down, he plops down on the front desk, lights a cigarette, takes a huge drag, blows out the smoke, and says “where the fuck should we start?” And I’m like going, “oh my god, this is college, a professor just swore, said the F-bomb in class!” And I’m like going “oh boy, this will be a trip of a class!” And maybe we will get to this later on in the interview, but I just remember how profound that experience was to say, “hey, this isn’t high school. This is something completely different”… And I think that was maybe, you know, just that reality of like you’re not gonna have a teacher that—you don’t do daily homework. I mean there was homework assigned, especially for math class, you didn’t turn it in, it wasn't graded, you were only, only, graded on your exams... Probably students today can still relate to this is that first day when the faculty goes over the syllabus and you sit there and you go “holy hell, how am I going to get done all of this in a semester? I have four other classes. I just don’t have this one.” And I remember being very overwhelmed at that point. And then you get into the semester, and you go “okay,” you figure it out, but I think learning…well, understanding that so much of the learning was your responsibility and no longer the instructor or teacher's responsibility.