Cartwright Center
Cartwright Center, opened in 1959, is the home of the practice facilities for UWL gymnastics and wrestling. The wrestling practice facility is located in the Cartwright Center basement while gymnastics practices on the second floor.
Wrestling practices in the basement level.
Cartwright Center served as UWL's student union until January 2017 when UWL's new student union - The U opened for students and staff.
In 1985 the campus community was also feeling the excitement of changes to UWL’s student union. That year an addition was added to Cartwright Center, called Gunning Addition. It was named after Richard J. Gunning, the dean of men at La Crosse from 1947-71.
It helped accommodate UWL’s growing enrollment, which had reached about 9,000 — more than four times larger than the campus population in 1959 when Cartwright opened.
The addition reoriented the building to have the main entrance at the center of campus. It added a huge, new multi-purpose room that seated more than 1,000 people – Valhalla. In addition to adding space, designers updated the interior — in efforts to make it more attractive to future students. Among the changes, each floor was accented with a different color – orange, burgundy, blue and green — from the lower level to floor three.
Gunning Addition was the second Cartwright expansion project. The first happened on the north end of the building in 1964. Just a few years later, the building was named after Edith J. Cartwright, dean of women from 1941 to 1969.
Gymnastics uses the second floor for practice.
Both Gunning and Cartwright spent many hours working to improve UWL student life at a time of societal change related to the lifestyle of students — particularly women. Cartwright was a leader in supporting more modern ideas related to women’s lifestyles, such as a change in university policy that allowed sophomore, junior and senior women under 21 to live off campus.
Gunning started the position when many men were coming to the university after service in World War II. He worked closely with them to help adjust to college lifestyle by obtaining housing for them, according to the 1985 Alumnus magazine.
