William Lang

Some educators leave their mark in the classroom, and others shape the institutions as a whole. William Lang did both.

For three decades, Lang served the University of Northern Iowa as a professor, administrator and historian, helping to write the university's history while never losing sight of his students, who mattered most.

As an administrator, a respected history professor and the author of the first two volumes of UNI’s institutional history, “A Century of Leadership and Service,” Lang helped preserve the university’s past while also shaping its future. 

Lang joined the faculty in 1949 and would spend the next 29 years at UNI. During that time, he held a series of leadership positions, including head of the Department of Social Science and dean of the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences. In 1967, he became the university’s first vice president of academic affairs, where he played a key role in ensuring education remained at the forefront of UNI’s mission. 

In 1970, after years in university leadership, Lang returned to the classroom to teach history until his retirement.

“I find the greatest personal reward in teaching,” said Lang in a 1966 issue of the “College Eye.” “The major satisfaction is in seeing what happens to the students. As educators, we must always ask ourselves, ‘Are we achieving what we hope to achieve?’”

That student-centered approach earned him widespread recognition, including the Freedom Foundation Award, an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from UNI, the university’s Honorary Alumnus Service Award and the Distinguished Teaching Award from UNI’s College of Social and Behavioral Sciences. 

Despite his administrative accomplishments, colleagues remembered him most for his devotion to learning and the humanities.

“More than any other person at UNI, the humanities program is identified with Bill Lang, and it is a lasting monument to his educational philosophy,” said former provost James Martin.

Lang’s philosophy was that universities should challenge students to think independently rather than simply conform. He argued that higher education should foster originality and intellectual freedom. 

“We must encourage diversity of thought, inspire eccentricity of behavior, give freedom to the annoying differences of genius,” he said in his 1961 commencement address. 

Lang’s influence endured long after his retirement in 1978, not only for his books that preserve UNI’s memory, but for his teaching that has shaped generations of students. 

Today, his legacy is still visible across campus. Lang Hall bears his name, honoring a campus leader whose influence reached beyond the history department.