Judith Ann Faber, a University of Wisconsin student leader during the early 1960's, was born April 20, 1945 in Spring Lake Township, Pierce County, Wisconsin, the daughter of Walter Marvin Faber, a dairyman, and Sylvia Adams Faber. The eldest of nine children, Faber received her elementary education at Cady Lane School, Town of Cady, and her secondary school education at Spring Valley, Wisconsin. After graduating as valedictorian in 1963, she attended the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
While a student at the University, Faber was active in many local and campus political organizations directed toward problems and issues. She belonged to the UW Young Republican Club, the Madison Young Republicans and Dane County Young Republicans, the UW Committee to Support the People of South Vietnam, the UW Conservative Club, the Wisconsin Student Association, and the Student Rights Party.
Because the UW Young Republican Club was active in the Goldwater presidential campaign of 1964, the club experienced a large growth in membership in 1965. The organization sponsored a speakers program which brought prominent local, state and national Republican leaders to the University campus. Faber was corresponding secretary from 1964 to 1966, when she was elected a director, an advisory position held by former officers.
The Madison Young Republicans and the Dane County Young Republicans are organizations similar to the UW Young Republican Club, but not limited to activities among university students. The membership in the three clubs overlapped, but the Madison and Dane County clubs included members from high school through age thirty-five. These clubs were also active in campaigning for Republicans seeking local offices. In February 1967, Faber was elected program chairman of the Dane County Young Republicans.
The UW Committee to Support the People of South Vietnam was formed as a conservative alternative to the Committee to End the War in Vietnam. The chief organizer behind the Committee was Lyndon K. “Mort” Allin, a UW student. The Committee sponsored an educational campaign to inform students of arguments supporting Administration policy in Vietnam, both publishing booklets on Vietnam as background material, and bringing speakers to the campus. Among the speakers was Dickey Chapelle, a news correspondent who was killed later in 1965 while covering the Vietnam War. As a memorial to Chapelle, the Committee founded a fund for the relief of war refugees in Vietnam. The Committee also circulated petitions in support of the war and instituted classes on United States foreign policy. The Committee became inactive in late 1966. Allin left the campus to work toward the nomination of Richard Nixon for the presidency in 1967.
The Conservative Club was a loose organization of people of conservative outlook on the Madison campus. Although never an activist organization, the club was involved in the Goldwater presidential campaign of 1964. It began the publication of a magazine, Inside and Outlook, to which students from many campuses contributed, and which was supported by private donors. During the 1964-1965 academic year, a rift developed between the more politically conscious members and those whose approach was oriented toward more individualistic principles and objectives. In 1965, the club began publication of a newsletter, The Renaissance. Faber served the Conservative Club as secretary, 1964-1965.
The Wisconsin Student Association (WSA) is the student government organization at the University of Wisconsin. Faber was appointed assistant treasurer of the WSA under treasurer Bruce Lehman in 1965.
The Student Rights Party was a campus political party organized in 1964 to campaign for WSA officers. At that time the WSA was controlled mainly by the large fraternal societies, and the independent students and members of lesser known fraternities had little representation. The Student Rights Party offered the latter groups a vehicle to gain a greater voice in student government. In the Spring 1965 WSA elections, the Student Rights Party ran a slate of candidates on a vigorous platform for more student privileges and responsibilities. The Party advocated more students on faculty committees, more visitation privileges for dormitory students, “key” privileges for upperclasswomen thus eliminating curfew for these students, longer library hours, and other similar non-restrictive policies. The Student Rights Party won every office in this election. Faber served as secretary of the party.
Other activities in which Faber participated included a mock Republican convention sponsored by the University of Wisconsin Memorial Union Forum Committee, Spring 1964; a Young Republicans - Young Democrats mock Wisconsin Legislature, September 1965; and a mock United States Senate, Spring 1965; the last-named two were sponsored by the Wisconsin Student Association.
