La Crosse helps University of Wisconsin celebrate 175th birthday

Riverside Park in La Crosse had the look of a Wisconsin Badgers tailgate party on Wednesday. And it sounded like a Badgers party, too, with an ice cream truck that played the song “On Wisconsin.”

The truck was part of a celebration at the Hatchery for Universities of Wisconsin families, alumni and community partners. La Crosse is among several cities in the state where the UW parties have been held in the last two years, marking the university’s 175th birthday.

Provost Charles Isbell from the Madison campus knows the more precise name for the occasion…the demi-semi-sept-centennial, which he led a party audience in trying to pronounce at the Hatchery event. The official term means one-half of one-half of 700 years, and the very long word decorated shirts and party favors at the celebration.

Isbell and other university officials attended the late afternoon party at the Hatchery, after spent the day visiting institutions in La Crosse which help train UW students in medicine and other fields.

Mike Fahey with the Wisconsin Foundation Alumni Association says some of the La Crosse area partners of the UW are in the medical field, such as Viterbo University and Gundersen. “We’ve had a decades-long partnership with Gundersen,” says Fahey. “We have students, interns, fellowships, medical students who are coming here to La Crosse who are learning, as part of their learning experience.”

More than 2100 alumni of UW-Madison are now living in La Crosse County, and 333 current students at Madison are from the county as well.