University of Wisconsin-Parkside

materials. The next month ground was broken for the first two buildings of the new campus. Thirty-one parcels of land were acquired for the $6.5 million first phase of the construction project, mostly through condemnation. The first building was finished in time to hold classes in the fall of 1969. The rest of the campus was finished in 1976 with the opening of the Union. Also in 1967, the historic Chiwaukee Prairie in the south of Kenosha County was named a state natural area as The Nature Conservancy Inc., and began donating the land to UW–Parkside.
In June 1968, the university's library opened with 70,000 volumes. A part of the library's collection was stored in a barn on one of the former farms purchased for the university. The University of Wisconsin–Parkside was officially founded the following month, taking administrative control of the two-year UW centers in Racine and Kenosha. Classes were held on the two-year centers, which were later disbanded. In December, the Board of Regents named the administration …