08/31/2026
60 years of education...First as Stout State University...then UW Barron County Center...then UW Colleges-Barron County...and finally now UW-Eau Claire-Barron County.
2026 marks 60 years of the Barron County campus serving our community. Join Paul Chase, Mary Hoeft, Terry Wiesner, and Troy Kozma to learn more about the past, present, and future of the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire-Barron County campus.
Paul Chase will discuss, “Keeping the Focus on our Students’ Future.”
Paul Chase was Dean and Campus Executive Officer at UWBC from 1997 through 2013. He taught numerous history classes while dean and after his retirement, and he offers a continuing education course on a historical topic each year.
Mary Hoeft will discuss, “Sixty Years of Teaching Excellence.”
Mary Hoeft taught at the campus for 50 years. She was a Wisconsin Teaching Scholar, Fulbright Scholar, and the recipient of the Chancellor’s Career Award for Teaching Excellence. Her daughter Kelly and granddaughter Hannah received their degrees from the campus, knowing it would be their BEST start for a university education.
Terry Wiesner will discuss, “From Desk to Lectern: My student path to a career”.
Terry’s connection to the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire- Barron County started with a completely different name altogether: The University of Wisconsin-Stout State University- Barron County Branch Campus. As this campus has had a interesting journey to its present state, so has he.
In the Fall of 1970 Terry entered these doors for the first time, not knowing what his major would be, or even if he was cut out for college or who he was as a person.
This place would soon become home. The faculty, staff, students and campus foundation supplied the necessary leadership and guidance that Terry needed as a lost freshman. He was allowed to search different majors and was also encouraged to join and participate in student activities. Some new to him and some familiar. A long background in Barron county 4-H drama lead Terry to try out for the fall production of Romeo and Juliet. With that production, he became a member of a very unique group of students, many of whom he still connects with to this very day.
When Terry transferred to UW- Whitewater in the Fall of 1972, he was fully prepared to seek a Bachelor’s degree in Theatre Education with a teacher certification. It was totally a surprise that Campus Dean, Dr. John Meggers called Terry to teach theatre courses in the fall of 1981. The Communications Department allowed him to teach with his Bachelor’s degree, as he pursued his Master’s degree at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. The next 30 years or so just flew by, part time employment here, then a year or two teaching at the University of Wisconsin-Superior and University of Minnesota- Duluth and finally coming home again to Barron County.
Here is where he stayed until his retirement in 2018. He realizes after all these years with hundreds of theatre productions and student speeches evaluated, that he connected with so many young people and those connections still exist today.
Terry is currently directing a play at the Red Barn Theatre which includes a former student of his summer middle school theatre program, and the lighting and sound were set up by one of his former students. The Barron County Campus Connection lives on and on. What a remarkable place to have available for our northwest Wisconsin region.
Troy Kozma has taught at UWEC-BC for 20 years and is currently UWEC-BC’s Academic Chair. He has a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Chicago in Philosophy with an interest in political theory. He has cowritten several articles and two books (Machiavelli Goes to the Movies and The Supreme Court and the Philosopher: How J.S. Mill’s shaped U.S. free speech protection) on free speech.
The Thursdays at the U weekly series is free and open to the public thanks to support from the UW-Eau Claire – Barron County Foundation. Neither seating reservations nor parking permits are needed for in-person attendees.
Although in-person attendance is encouraged, most talks in the series are livestreamed. They also are archived and can be watched later on the Thursdays at the U webpage.
