When Sue Zaeske (’89, MA’92, PhD’97) was four years old, she wanted to go to school. Badly.
Like, really badly.
So even though this Sheboygan youngster was another full year away from being eligible for kindergarten, one day, she took matters into her own hands: She snuck out and strolled the four blocks between her home and the neighborhood elementary school. A taller student pulled the door handle she was too short to reach and let her in, and school is where her mother found her.
In several senses, that childhood adventure was a harbinger of much bigger things to come. Through a UW–Madison career that spanned three decades, in roles that ranged from graduate student to professor of rhetoric to associate dean of arts and humanities and associate dean for advancement for the College of Letters & Science as well as the interim director of the UW–Madison Division of the Arts, Zaeske has used that same determination and passion for education to elevate the liberal arts and impact the lives of her students and colleagues.
“There’s really no other way to put it: The College of Letters & Science would not be what it is today without Sue Zaeske’s many contributions,” says Eric Wilcots, Dean of the College of Letters & Science and Mary C. Jacoby Professor of Astronomy. “Her efforts have transformed both our scope and our students, and her impact will be felt by future generations.”
A first-generation college student, Zaeske’s first taste of UW–Madison came in 1982 as a member of her high school’s speech and debate team. She came down to Madison for speech tournaments, foreshadowing the rhetoric-based academic career she’d eventually create. By 1997, she had finished her third academic degree at UW and joined the faculty in the Department of Communication Arts.
Zaeske has always appreciated the fact that founders and early leaders of the University of Wisconsin — Eleazor Root, John W. Sterling, and most notably John A. Bascom –were trained in the field of rhetoric.
“I think it’s no coincidence that I would become someone who is a shepherd of the institution,” says Zaeske. “I care deeply about people, and I’ve always tried to use my voice, my gift of speech, to inspire people to do great things.”
It’s a sentiment that meshed with the research threads she pursued as an academic. Zaeske studied social movements aimed at making the world a better place, particularly the antislavery movement. In her award-winning 2004 book, Signatures of Citizenship, Zaeske argued that the antislavery petitions women addressed to Congress made a critical difference in its eventual abolition.
But Zaeske wasn’t just about research; teaching, especially experiential teaching, mattered just as much to her. In 2006, working through the newly formed Chadbourne Residential College, Zaeske collaborated with colleagues in other L&S academic departments to coordinate a student experience focused on the Black Civil Rights Movement. During spring break, she and a team of academic staff and graduate students led the class of students on a bus trip to Memphis, Birmingham, Selma, and other key cities in the movement’s history.
“We met with people who marched across the bridge in Selma, and then we marched across the bridge ourselves,” she recalls. “In Birmingham, we met in the 16th Street Baptist Church that had been bombed. We talked to people who lived in tent cities because they were evicted for exercising their right to vote. It was incredibly powerful. It changed students’ lives.”
A few years later, Zaeske, who is gay, partnered with the now-belated sociology professor Joe Elder and UW–Madison’s Assistant Director of Residence Life Scott Seyforth, to create an LGBTQ+ experiential education trip that taught students about the history of the LGBTQ+ civil rights movement. . The trip went to important sites of early activism including Philadelphia and Washington D.C. meeting movement veterans, and New York, where they studied the 1969 Stonewall Uprising. “The students came away from that course empowered to make change,” she says. “And a number of them have gone on to be activist leaders.”
Connecting with her students was always a key thread of Zaeske’s L&S career. Her comm arts large lecture course, “Great Speakers and Great Speeches,” was always a student favorite, even for students outside the major.
“I connected with the undergrads because I was an undergrad here, and I remember what it was like to be in those classes,” says Zaeske. “Undergraduate teaching was really important to me, because that’s what most immediately changed my life when I came to UW–Madison.”
Zaeske impacted thousands of students over her multi-decade teaching career (see sidebar). One of them was Jill Tyson (’01), with whom she remains friends today. Tyson took several of Zaeske’s courses, including one on women’s rhetoric. She still recalls her professor’s debut entrance.
“She walks in, and she yells, ‘People of the world, spice up your life!,’ which is what the Spice Girls used to say back in the late ’90s, when I was in school. And I was just sort of hooked on her at that moment,” says Tyson, whose career has included stints as an assistant director with the FBI and a crisis communicator with Google. “What I came to learn is how she’s such a serious academic, but she’s also such a fun, good human being.”
Tyson credits Zaeske with improving her skills in writing and critical thinking. But more than that, she credits her with creating a sense of belonging. Tyson wrote one of the student letters of recommendation that landed Zaeske the 2003 Chancellor’s Award for Teaching.
“UW is a big school, and there’s a lot of big classes,” says Tyson. “But she made a big school feel like a small school with very individualized attention and investment in her students.”
Zaeske herself remembers the day that Bucky crashed her large-lecture classroom. UW’s ubiquitous mascot was in a contest with other Big Ten mascots, and the organizers needed video of him interacting with a faculty member. Zaeske was only too happy to oblige.
“It was an auditorium-style classroom,” Zaeske recalls, smiling. “Bucky comes in at the top in the back, and then he comes down the middle aisle. The students in the back see him first, and they’re screaming. And as he goes down, more people noticed and everybody’s screaming.”
It’s a little hard to believe, but before Sue Zaeske, the College of Letters & Science didn’t have an advancement office.
It’s true. Before the mid-2000sthe need for a robust fundraising structure was significantly less keen.
But with decades of decreased state and federal funding of higher education, the university recognized the need to rely on philanthropy and the importance of fundraising. Mike Knetter, the former Dean of the Wisconsin School of Business, had moved to become President and CEO of the UW Foundation, launching in 2015 the massively successful Always Forward Campaign, raising more than $4 billion for UW and changing the university’s mindset about the value of private philanthropy.
At the time, Zaeske, then a professor of rhetoric in the Department of Communication Arts, was interviewing for the position of associate dean for the arts under then-L&S Dean Gary Sandefur. Sandefur gave her the job, but he also asked for something else.
“He said, ‘I need someone to do fundraising. I need someone to do advancement. And I've been told if there’s anyone who can do this, it’s you,” Zaeske recalls.
In her new role, Zaeske filled the types of duties that now routinely fall to deans of the schools and colleges. She travelled around the country with development directors and rubbed shoulders with VIPs in the Chancellor’s box at Badger football games. Her efforts assisted in raising funds to create the L&S Office of Strategic Communications & Advancement, which helped build the College’s role in key annual giving initiatives such as Day of the Badger and also launched Letters & Science, the College’s alumni magazine.
Even though she was successful in the job on multiple fronts, handling two major roles became too taxing. Eventually, Zaeske had to choose.
“Dean Karl Scholz looked at me and said, ‘Well, which one do you want to keep?’” Zaeske chuckles.
Zaeske, who had spent her entire career in the humanities, didn’t have to think about it very long. She remained in her role as associate dean for Arts & Humanities until two years before her retirement.
The key mentors who worked with her during her years in the advancement sphere, like current UW Foundation President Alisa Robertson, now her departure is a significant loss.
“Sue has been an outstanding leader, and her passion for L&S is unmatched,” she says. “She is an expert relationship-builder both internally and externally and has always been first and foremost an advocate for advancing the university's mission. I only wish I had more time to work with her!”
Another part of the legacy Zaeske is leaving behind is far more tangible. She was a key part of the committee that worked with the College’s facility administration and the architectural firms that designed Irving & Dorothy Levy Hall, the building that’s set to become the College of Letters & Science’s new home for the humanities. Beginning in 2026, the 136,000-square-foot Levy Hall will house eight L&S academic departments. Zaeske emceed e at the building’s groundbreaking ceremony in 2024.
It’s that builder role again.
“My goal has always been to create structures that support the mission of the University while making work-life and life better for the people in that institution,” says Zaeske. “Some people say that institutions eat people. I try to set up structures within institutions that do great things, while also creating a positive and empowering environment for the people working in the institution.”
Zaeske is still deploying the skills her UW career taught her in her activities with non-profit organizations, including serving as the current president of the board of trustees of Madison Opera.
“I love learning,” says Zaeske. “The whole goal of the liberal arts is to live a good life and make a good living, and to really be a lifelong learner. And I feel like I’ve been given the opportunity to be a lifelong learner in my various roles at UW–Madison.”
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SIDEBAR: In Their Words
Sue Zaeske built a career around studying and teaching about the words of others. The former students whose lives she touched have a few of their own to offer about her.
Marin Burton (’00)
Senior Faculty, Center for Creative Leadership
As I reflect on the trajectory of my academic and professional life, I can say with complete sincerity that I would not be where I am today without the guidance and mentorship of Dr. Susan Zaeske. She challenged me to think more critically, to write more boldly, and to believe that my voice was not only valid, but essential. She taught me how to examine the world through multiple lenses, to recognize the coexistence of multiple truths and to wrestle with the complexity of the narratives in our history in order to better understand the present.
Melissa Droessler (’02)
Director of Curriculum & Instruction, Isthmus Montessori Academy
Many years ago, I took a few of her courses as an undergraduate student at UW. In fact, I was in one of her classes on the morning of 9/11, and she changed the syllabus that day. I will never forget her presenting new content while simultaneously being wholly present for us students. Her courses had such a positive impact on my learning and development, as well as the way I approached information and knowledge.
Jillian Arnold (’04)
President, Mission Critical Media
I took “Great Speakers and Great Speeches” in 2003 or 2004. I often think of this class and how instrumental it has been for me in this stage of my career. I left Wisconsin and moved to Los Angeles, where I pursued a career in film and live TV. As I climbed the ladder of success, I became increasingly engaged in my union’s politics. After nine years as a member, I became the first woman president of my local union in its 93-year history. Since then, I have led the TV and film industry in adopting and integrating artificial intelligence, negotiating contracts and speaking on this topic around the world. Suffice to say, I create a lot of speeches. I realized I am very intentional about what I say and how I deliver my message because of the lessons learned in this class.
