Roger Guiles
Dr. Roger Guiles (1907-1989) served as the Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh from 1959 to 1973. As a native of La Valle, Dr. Guiles was the University’s first Chancellor from Wisconsin. He graduated from the Platteville State Teachers College in 1930 and began his career as a teacher and administrator in public schools. After receiving his master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin, he was hired as Director of Teacher Education at Platteville State Teachers College.
Despite having a firm foundation in teacher education, Dr. Guiles was a strong advocate for the evolution of the teachers colleges into something much larger and more relevant. In “A Study of Practices, Conditions and Trends in Relation to The Function of the Wisconsin State Teachers Colleges,” Dr. Guiles made the case that quality education in non-professional fields could and should be provided in the teachers colleges. Through that report, the Regents convinced the legislature and governor to permit the expansion of the colleges’ mission in 1949. By 1951, the colleges were ready to offer degrees in liberal arts and were renamed Wisconsin State Colleges.
Dr. Guiles made many changes on campus to help with the expansion of the school, expanding the size of the administration to help guide the increasingly complex school, empowering department chairs, helping bring faculty governance to campus, and encouraging research among his faculty by reducing course loads. Off campus, he engaged business and political leaders in Oshkosh with a community advising committee. Dr. Guiles also established the University’s foundation and alumni offices.
Despite Dr. Guiles’ many progressive and modern approaches to University administration, he didn’t anticipate the need to accommodate a changing student body and a new generation of assertive, young faculty. In one major incident, known as the “Black Thursday” protest, Black Student Union (BSU) members marched to Dempsey Hall and confronted Dr. Guiles, having suspected their requests of courses in history and literature that were relevant to the African-American experience, hiring of Black faculty, and the creation of an African-American cultural center, were not reaching the Chancellor. As a result of the protest, there were mass arrests, the expulsion of 90 students, and the suspension of four others (known as the “Oshkosh 94”). In the ten months that followed, the University committed itself to making a series of improvements for Black students on campus. While the University would later invite back the participants of the “Black Thursday” protest, Dr. Guiles’ record as Chancellor would forever be marked by his lack of urgency in addressing these students’ needs.