Wisconsin Union officials have begun planning a new union facility to be built on the west side of the UW-Madison campus.
According to Union Director Mark Guthier, he and fellow administrators decided to establish a presence on the west side of campus in anticipation of future additions to the nursing, medical and pharmacy schools, all located in that area.
\Once all of these health sciences buildings are built, there will be quite a concentration of students taking classes on the west end of campus,"" he said.
Guthier said he predicts the new union will cater primarily to professional graduate students, many of whom attend classes in west campus buildings and live nearby in Eagle Heights.
""If we do our surveying on campus about what students like and want, then we might be more attuned to the responses we get from graduate students as far as their food choices or their entertainment choices,"" he said.
Although it will attract a different crowd, the new union will fill a role similar to that of existing facilities, the Memorial Union and Union South. It will offer recreational opportunities, meeting space, lounge space, restaurants and possibly a venue for live music.
Overall, the new union will include half as much space as Union South, Guthier said.
However, Margaret Tennessen, Wisconsin Union assistant director for marketing and external relations, said the west side of campus lacks the space to accommodate the new union as a freestanding structure. Instead, the union will most likely be built as a section of the Interdisciplinary Research Center, which is slated to begin construction in 2005.
""What we're doing ... is working with the folks who are involved with the development of the IRC and some of the other buildings on that end of campus,"" she said.
Guthier said if the plan proceeds smoothly, he expects the new union to open in roughly five years.
