The first, and still, president
‘We ended up making a lot of good decisions as a result’
Editor’s note: A version of this article, offering reflections from the University’s first student government leader, was the lead story in the November 2008 edition of the Inside UW-Green Bay print magazine.
On a cold, windy day in November 1967, Scott Knapp was there at the beginning of the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. As president of what would become the UW-Green Bay Student Government Association, he was given the honor of saying a few words at the first groundbreaking for the new campus.
Forty years later, the memories are still vivid.
“When you walk the UWGB campus now, especially those first buildings in the Environmental Sciences complex, it’s impossible not to remember the early days and be proud to have been there,” he says.
Knapp is today the president of Central Maine Community College. He has spent most of his adult life in higher education, with time as a student, teacher and administrator at institutions across the nation.
He remembers the conversation — which took place during his UW-Green Bay days, of course — that started him thinking about a life in academe.
It was the close of the 1960s. He was in his young 20s and about to stop out of college for duty as a military intelligence agent. He met up with a favorite UW-Green Bay mentor, Prof. William Kuepper.
They knew each other well. Kuepper had been interim dean in charge of the two-year Green Bay center as it ramped up to become a four-year university. Knapp was president of student government. He and his fellow leaders enjoyed a fair amount of influence thanks to the way UWGB enlisted students in shaping its innovative approach.
The two exchanged best wishes. Kuepper encouraged Knapp to return to finish his degree when his three-year tour was up, and also put in a plug for an eventual academic career. What’s more, he even predicted it. “Once you’ve tasted blood,” Kuepper said, in mock seriousness, “you’ll be back for more.”
Even then it was an old joke, an inside crack on the supposed low-stakes nature of campus politics. Almost 40 years later, though, both men recall the exchange, and smile that it proved accurate.
Knapp says he continues to admire the governance model set by Kuepper and, particularly, Founding Chancellor Edward Weidner.
“Weidner committed to student input. He told us, ‘I’m going to always ask you what you think. And if I ever forget, call me up and tell me,’” Knapp says. “The institution ended up making a lot of good decisions as a result.”
Short-staffed, operating out of makeshift offices and scrambling to prepare for the fall 1969 opening of the Shorewood campus, the University delegated plenty of work to students like Knapp. He became an aide to the student affairs director, Donald Makuen, and helped write and edit early promotional material.
In the classroom, Knapp was energized, and in his favorite subject of political science he “lucked into something special.” (Since it was Weidner’s own field, Knapp suggests today, top talent and resources just naturally followed.) He remembers Richard Fontera, the institution’s first faculty hire, and Al Swinerton as standouts. Knapp received his bachelor’s in Urban and Regional Analysis in 1974.
Not too many months later his old boss Makuen, since moved on, gave him a call. “Would you still be interested in college administration?” he asked, inviting Knapp to apply for a staff position at a community college in Pennsylvania.
Knapp got the job, and others to follow. He earned a master’s, and then a doctorate from Temple University in higher education administration. His first presidency was at the two-year campus in Terra Haute, Indiana. He accepted the position with Central Maine 11 years ago.
He still remembers his roots in student involvement.
“It’s a little bit more difficult at a community college because by the time they get up and running, involved and informed, their two years are over,” Knapp says. “As president, I take it pretty seriously, though. And we do make better decisions.”
Kuepper, who wasn’t all that much older than Knapp at the time he offered his counsel, went on to a long academic career that included service as UW-Green Bay’s vice chancellor for academic affairs. Now retired in Colorado, he says he’s not surprised by Knapp’s success.
“Scott was a very talented individual,” he says, “and for a fledgling institution our student government was quite remarkable. There is also something to be said for taking advantage of what was a unique opportunity, for all of us. We were in on the ground floor of a brand-new institution making decisions and doing things with curriculum and governance and day-to-day operations. It was a tremendous experience.”
(Photo below: Knapp, at far left, meets with students at Central Maine Community College.)
