"The Challenge of Constantly Changing Times"
A history of the School of Human Ecology at the
Parallel Press
University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries
In 1903, with an appropriation from the legislature for a department
of domestic science, home economics arrived at the University of
Wisconsin. Its first director, Caroline L. Hunt, developed a sciencebased,
liberal arts program to prepare women for their roles as wives,
mothers, and citizens of the state. But her vision was much broader
than that: to disseminate useful knowledge to Wisconsin farm women,
the epitome of the Wisconsin Idea.
This small beginning of two faculty, fifty-two students, all women,
and seven on-campus classes has grown into today's School of Human
Ecology with a faculty of more than fifty-five who teach in five
departments encompassing nine majors and enrolling more than 1,000
students, both women and men preparing for academic and
professional careers in areas as diverse as education, communications,
the arts, consumer protection, consumer affairs, child development,
and family policy. These developments reflect the changing scope and
content of home economics, now termed human ecology, on the
national as well as the state level.
This book tells the story of the people and events that, in the words of
Dean Frances Zuill, faced "the challenge of constantly changing
times"
to make the School the vibrant educational and research institution it
is today.
by Rima D. Apple
with Joyce Coleman
Susan R. King
Andrea Kolasinski
Marcinkus
Judith E. Pasch