The major campus renovation plan announced earlier this month will not consume a chunk of the university budget at the expense of tuition and instruction, UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley stressed in a presentation Thursday.
Wiley told a group from Capitol Neighborhoods, Inc. one of only two complaints he has received about the construction project was from a student asking how the university could spend so much money on the project when tuition has shot up in recent years.
But most of the money funding the construction plan will come from private donors and program funding, Wiley said. That money could not be put toward tuition anyway, much like money generated by the athletic department stays within that department.
\I can't sell football tickets and then tell people 'sorry, there won't be a football game after all, we're going to use that money to hire Spanish instructors,'"" Wiley said.
Likewise, he could not put money collected for the construction project toward instruction, he said.
The proposed construction would span the next 16 years and follow a domino approach, with only specific areas under construction at a time. The plan includes knocking down Humanities, Ogg Residence Halls, the Peterson Building and the UW-Extension building.
Many of the buildings slated for demolition or improvements are structurally unsound and even dangerous. Wiley said Humanities has such poor ventilation it has made some professors in the building sick.
Michael Bridgeman, who works in Vilas Hall for Wisconsin Public Television, said he agreed construction is as important as the university's mission of instruction, because ""you don't want to go to a dump"" either, Bridgeman said.
""You have to have decent facilities for art and music, and even just decent classrooms,"" he said.
The first step in the project needs to be rebuilding University Square into a facility housing parking, administration, dormitories and student organizations, Wiley said. This would pave the way to empty and reconstruct other buildings. The university is in negotiations with Executive Management, Inc., which currently owns the square.
Many at the meeting, held at the Concourse Hotel, 1 W. Dayton St., voiced concerns about how neighborhoods surrounding the university could get involved in the construction process. Simon Anderson, a Carroll Street resident, said he appreciated Wiley's reaching out to the outlying neighbors.
""A lot of people within the community sort of feel like the university will do it whether we like it or not,"" Anderson said.
The next opportunity for public input on the process will be at the Joint Southeast Campus Area Committee meeting in January.
