Department History Project: 1978-1987

Abstract

The era of 1978 through 1987 was considered to be “cool” and “heinous”, with important events ranging from record low unemployment rates in 1978 to the drinking age changing to 21 in 1986 (Pearson, 2024a; Pearson, 2024c). There were many positive and negative things that took place in this decade that had major effects on students studying psychology at the University of Wisconsin - Stout. This paper is our group's interpretation of the effects these events had on the alumni researched throughout this time period. We researched ten different Stout alumni who had completely different backgrounds, but their common characteristic was being a psychology major. Two of said students graduated in 1978, named Esther Springer-Godfrey and Douglas Kules. Then, in 1979, Wendy Zell and Mark Hyllested graduated, followed by Craig Amoth in 1982. Three students were from the class of 1986, which included Cheryl LaFountain, Rhonda Martinson, and Michele Pufahl. Kenton Davis and Faith Hill were the most recent graduates from 1987. These people had various experiences during their time at Stout due to their involvement on campus as news reporters, athletes, tutors, or other occupations. They all accomplished great things during their time at the University and after.