The Newman Center is not a parish, but a ministry to the students and faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. The mission of campus ministry is to help students develop a faith that is the center of their lives. While involved in campus ministry, students are given opportunities to learn more about their faith, to become involved in ministry and service, and to worship with and form community with other Catholic students. Campus Ministry seeks to create a space in which students can become people whose lives are guided by their faith in Jesus Christ. Today’s Catholic students are tomorrow’s leaders in the Church, community, and world. The Newman Center provides college students with much needed support during their time at UWO. As freshman, students come to college with the faith taught to them by their parents, an adolescent faith. Throughout their college years, the typical student will question much of what they have been taught in their childhood, in addition to integrating new experiences that come with encountering the world as a young adult. Students need the support of the Church as they develop their own relationships to the world and to the church of their childhood. The Newman Center is there to help them sort out issues of faith, morality, and vocation. The Newman Center provides opportunities for students to learn about the Catholic faith and grow in relationship with God in an environment of their peers. Through their involvement at the Newman Center, students make their faith their own, and upon graduation are ready to take their places in parishes as adult Catholics.

A Long History of Faith

Catholic ministry began on the Oshkosh campus in 1907 with the establishment of the Marquette Club at what was then the Oshkosh State Normal School.  The Marquette Club first appears in the yearbook in 1912. The 1916 yearbook reports the Marquette Club “was organized to bring the students of the Catholic faith into a closer intellectual and social relation with one another and at the same time to give them the opportunity to inform themselves on important religious questions.”  Debate, oratory, “parliamentary drill,” music, and socials were important aspects of the clubs meetings.  The Marquette Club met at St. Peter’s church and high school until 1921, when they moved their meetings to the Normal School campus.  It seems this was either a temporary move or that the club kept close ties with the parish, as the 1924 yearbook reports that social gatherings were held at St. Peter’s.  Events were sometimes held after Sunday morning mass at St. Peter’s and mass was a part of the groups meetings multiple times during the school year.

In 1949, the Marquette Club changed its name to the Newman Club, joining the burgeoning Newman movement on secular college campuses.  Catholic Campus ministry began in Madison as University of Wisconsin students met at the home of the Melvins to discuss religion and form community.  They called themselves the Melvin Club.  Dr. T. L. Harrington, a former member of the Melvin club and one-time resident of Oshkosh, started a similar organization at the University of Pennsylvania, naming it after Cardinal John Henry Newman, who wrote The Idea of a University.   Soon Catholic students at other universities were forming Newman Clubs and a movement was born. 

The Newman Club continued to meet at St. Peter’s until the early 60’s when it relocated to a house on Algoma.  Newman Hall included lounge and meeting areas, a library and a chapel.  The house provided students with a place to hold activities, as well as providing, for the first time, a chapel for students to have mass together on campus. 

In 1965, the Newman Club became the Newman Catholic Student Association.  The next year, construction began on a center to house the Newman Association.  The chapel seated 750 people and included a library, offices, meeting areas, a kitchen and serving area, an auditorium, and chaplain’s residence. The center opened in 1967. 

In 2003, the Newman Center on Irving Ave. was sold to the university due to rising utility costs and declined student attendance.  The Newman Center moved to Elmwood Commons, an old university dining hall, renting part of the first floor and part of the second.  Elmwood has provided the Newman Center with a large and versatile space for its offices, to hold meetings, and to celebrate mass. 

In 2006, the diocese purchased three houses on the corner of Lincoln and Elmwood.  Currently, the diocese is in the process of planning for a new center.  The new center is scheduled to be built in 2008, beginning a new century of Catholic presence on the Oshkosh campus.