College life on the lake: how Mendota impacts students
An inflatable, to-scale replica of Lady Liberty’s head, arm, and torch rests on the ice. Crowds of students pose in front and snap a photo. More people gather around games of ice hockey and snowboarders and skiers doing tricks off makeshift ramps. There’s music, laughter and a general air of care-free joy despite the sub-30-degree weather—University of Wisconsin-Madison’s winter carnival on a frozen Lake Mendota is in full swing.
The annual winter carnival hosted by UW-Madison’s Memorial Union connects students here every year to the enjoyment of Lake Mendota and lake-life fun, in general. The lake has a long, impactful history with UW-Madison and affects the students here in multitude of ways.
Lake Mendota is able to have the effect it does on Madison and the students here because the lake is uniquely accessible to the public. Prior to the 1980s, UW-Madison owned a large portion of Mendota’s lakeshore and in 1989, the purchase of Frautschi Point expanded the property to what it is today. According to “On Fourth Lake: A Social History of Lake Mendota” by Donald Sanford, 64% of the 26-mile shoreline is publicly owned by the university, the city of Madison, the state, etc.
“[There’s a] piece of property that the university calls the Lakeshore Nature Preserve,” said Sanford, an author, researcher and lifetime lake enthusiast. “We’re talking about four miles of lakeshore that the university manages as a natural area, and they promised not to develop buildings or anything on the lakeshore but manage it in its natural state.”
The students here can take advantage of the lake because so much of it is publicly owned, which is, in part, unique to Lake Mendota. “If you go to Lake Geneva, you know that every foot of that lakeshore is pretty much covered with houses… [Here,] you can just walk down to the lake, sit there and watch the world go by,” said Sanford.
Students love to take advantage of Lake Mendota and the accompanying lakeshore through outdoor activities; doing homework or having a meal at Memorial Union; or just to sit, relax, and take it all in. “It’s just a really good place where people happen to convene and gather,” said senior Lily Miller, the president of the Wisconsin Union. “And I think it’s because it is such a calming place—it feels like home and it’s just beautiful.”
Hoofers, a longtime UW-Madison organization that contains six clubs—skiing, snowboarding, mountaineering, scuba, riding and sailing—has a long relationship with utilizing Lake Mendota, said Miller.
“And I think it’s because it is such a calming place—it feels like home and it’s just beautiful.”
-Lily miller, Union President
The lake, its accompanying activities and Memorial Union provides students with the opportunity to easily connect with the outdoors and create longstanding memories. “I think that many people make memories on the lake,” said Miller. “It’s just a setting and a medium for those memories and to have that wonderful experience.”
The historical purchase of the lakeshore continues to impact students here every day, not just in their activities outside the classroom, but inside our academic buildings as well. In 1909, the first limnology course ever taught began at UW-Madison, according to UW’s Center for Limnology website. Limnology is the study of fresh water sources and aquatic ecosystems.
Ask Google what the most studied lake in the world is and Lake Mendota comes up as the first result due to its role as a primary source for the beginnings of limnology in the U.S.
“The topics we talk about have changed… We spend about half of the course, now, teaching the fundamentals of the physics, chemistry and biology of the lakes and then the other half of the course we have real-world examples of issues that we’re now trying to deal with,” said Magnuson. As Lake Mendota changes and adapts with the times, the courses here at UW-Madison do, too—directly impacting what topics students learn.
Outside of the classroom, however, UW students use Lake Mendota as a tranquil escape—away from schoolwork, the pressures of college and everyday stresses. “Being near water, seeing water—vast expanses of water like this has an effect on our brains that we don’t understand,” said Sanford.
The beauty of Lake Mendota, according to many, elevates Madison’s aesthetic appeal. “People are walking along the shoreline and looking out at the lake,” said Magnuson. “It adds very much, the sunsets on the lake are just absolutely beautiful.”
Lake Mendota connects to UW-Madison students’ experiences not just every day, but its impact continues for years to come, according to Miller. “[The students are] creating memories that connect to that lake and in a space that is undeniably in the background and apart of every experience here.” Mendota lives on in the memories of UW-Madison students even when the students no longer live here themselves.
Click on the image to explore a timeline of UW-Madison student events that center around Lake Mendota from 1874-2010!
Mendota Matters 