Director works to maintain Wisconsin Union’s relevance in changing times

If you’ve recently spotted Mark Guthier wandering around Memorial Union, staring intently at the walls, don’t be alarmed. The pressures of his new job haven’t gotten to his head.

Guthier, who last November succeeded Theodore (Ted) Crabb to become the third director in Wisconsin Union history, has spent hours familiarizing himself with the job, right down to the historical significance of each room, picture and wall covering.

“My favorite spaces are the ones with the old fireplaces and furnishings that remind you of an earlier time,” says Guthier. “The ones where you can just sit, read, talk or fall asleep.”

And if there have been any surprises during those tours, they’ve been the sheer size and number of the facilities he now directs. Guthier, who came from the Indiana Memorial Union, another large and nationally known union, says he’s still a little amazed by the vast menu of offerings at UW–Madison.

“With all of the entities attached to the union, such as the Hoofers Club, the Morgridge Center or the Mini Courses, the scope here is much larger than at Indiana University,” he says. “I mean, we own a stable, horses and sailboats. That’s just unheard of.”

If Guthier sounds as passionate about the union as any student or graduate, it’s because he isn’t too far removed from his own days of sitting and reading in elegant rooms with old fireplaces. A native of Fort Wayne, Ind., he holds an undergraduate degree in accounting and a law degree, both from IU.

Guthier says he rarely used the Indiana union as an undergrad, mainly due to his time-consuming duties as a resident hall adviser. But after landing an internship with the Bloomington-based Association of College Unions International, he decided to forgo a potentially lucrative law career, working instead as a union program adviser, and eventually, as assistant director for program services.

“That internship got me excited about the idea of unions and their role in community building,” he says.

“When Mark decided he’d really rather not practice law, that got our attention,” says Winston Shindell, Indiana Memorial Union executive director and a long-time friend. “When you could be a lawyer and you think, “Gee, there’s something else I’d really rather do,’ well, that’s a pretty bold career move.”

During his tenure at the IMU, Guthier helped coordinate programming and activities that included speakers and performers such as Arthur Ashe, Bob Dylan, Mikhail Gorbachev, John Mellencamp and the Smashing Pumpkins. Beyond that, Guthier says he wanted to make the Indiana union a place that unified and reflected the campus, a philosophy he’s brought to UW–Madison.

“Certain people have a gut feeling for what a college union should be,” Shindell adds. “And Mark really feels it.”

As to why he’d leave behind IU after 18 years as a student and staffer, Guthier says the decision was simple: Nationally, the Wisconsin Union is viewed as one of the premier facilities in the country. Plus, it helped that his wife, Amy, is a Janesville native, has an undergraduate degree from UW-Stevens Point, and has family in Janesville and Kenosha.

Guthier says he has no plans to begin tinkering with what has been a successful formula, but he plans to address major projects and areas of improvement in the near future.

Chief among them is the development of the union’s 75th anniversary celebration in 2003-04. Guthier adds that plans are in the works to transform the now-closed Lakefront Café into a market-style restaurant in time for the beginning of the festivities.

Down the road, the building’s infrastructure should be renovated, Guthier says. He also hopes to update meeting rooms with advanced technology for conferences and student groups. Another goal is to improve the perception of quality in the union’s food and retail offerings.

A member of the IU marching band during the 1980s, Guthier says the crackling game-day atmosphere at Union South was one of his first memories of the Madison campus. But one particularly difficult question is how to maintain a lively feeling there year-round, especially when many in the community unflatteringly compare the building to Memorial Union.

The décor and building style, which is neither futuristic nor retro, may be part of the problem.

“It’s really not any fault of our programming or services,” he says. “But something needs to be done.”

Crabb, who recently settled into retirement after more than 33 years as director, says that the biggest challenges in the union’s future lie not in dealing with protests or social unrest as it was during parts of his career. Instead, it will be harder to connect a student body that can watch television, surf the Internet and play DVDs from the comfort of home.

“We used to serve as the living room of campus,” says Crabb, who accompanied Guthier on many of his long walks around Memorial Union. “The challenge, and opportunity, is to be as relevant today as we used to be. How do you inspire students to be a part of a community?”

Crabb says Guthier will be successful because he understands that new forms of communication, from e-mail to the My UW–Madison portal, will be key methods of connecting students to the union.

Guthier says he still feels a certain amount of awe knowing that he’s following in the footsteps of Crabb and the legendary Porter Butts, who opened Memorial Union in 1928.

“It certainly gives you a sense of responsibility,” Guthier says. “You don’t want to be the person that lets it fall apart on your watch.”