Founders' Day

Founders' Day is celebrated each year on campus and around the world through local alumni chapters as a commemoration of the first class held at UW-Madison on February 5, 1849.

Today, Founders' Day events bring UW faculty experts out to alumni to celebrate a world-class education, cutting-edge research and the Wisconsin Idea.

On Campus On Campus On Campus

This year's theme: The Wisconsin Idea

This year the University of Wisconsin is proud to celebrate the Year of the Wisconsin Idea. Coined in 1912, the term Wisconsin Idea refers to applying university knowledge to help solve problems and address issues throughout the state of Wisconsin and around the world.

The Wisconsin Alumni Association honors the modern-day Wisconsin Idea at Founders’ Day 2012 celebrations nationwide. Demonstrating outreach in the spirit of the Wisconsin Idea, each celebration lends a platform to prominent UW-Madison faculty members to share how their teaching, research and public service impacts numerous families, communities and businesses beyond campus.
Bascom Hall in 1859, just ten years after the first day of class at UW. (Photo courtesy University of Wisconsin Digital Collections)
Bascom Hall in 1859, just ten years after the first day of class at UW. (Photo courtesy University of Wisconsin Digital Collections)

Founders' Day History

Taught by Professor John Sterling, the first class at UW inspired the Wisconsin Alumni Association to create Founders' Day in 1924 as a commemoration of this historic moment in the university's history.

Over the last 20 years, Founders’ Day events have featured a sharpened focus on the university’s core mission of academics, research and public service.

Today, approximately 70 Founders’ Day celebrations are held in cities across the United States and in other countries each year. At a Founders’ Day event, local alumni typically gather for food and conversation, with an address from a university faculty, administrator or staff member as the focal point of the program.

Click here to discover more about the first Founders' Day!  


 

PLUS:

Students of Today Celebrate Badgers of the Past
See how alumni, faculty, staff and students helped kick off the 2011 Founders' Day season on the UW-Madison campus.

"Take It Away!"
The Wisconsin Alumni Association made history on February 6, 1937, when thousands of people across the country tuned in to hear the first-ever broadcast of University of Wisconsin Founders’ Day celebrations.

Six Suggestions for Founders' Day
This excerpt from the January 1950 edition of Wisconsin Alumnus shares gave chapter leaders some ideas for how to best engage alumni in that year's celebration. As you can see, not much has changed!