Let me get this straight. We just had our tuition raised 18.6 percent, lost 200 courses, laid off or cut the wages of faculty and faced other major cuts across the board because of fiscal limitations-and Chancellor Wiley wants to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on replacing 30-year-old buildings? It seems priorities up on Bascom Hill have gotten a little out of touch.
Around 62 percent of the financing for this project is expected to come from donors and program revenues. However, that still leaves hundreds of millions to be paid by the state and university. Just for reference, the University Square project alone would take $109 million from the state and the university, which would be enough to lower a semester's tuition for every student by almost $3,000 if it were used for tuition relief instead. That would equal an entire semester's tuition plus books for in-state students and cut non-resident tuition by almost a third.
Wiley's vision is certainly commendable, since some buildings need improvement and providing adequate space for housing students should be an important priority for the university. However, the thin air up there must be affecting the chancellor's sight since we obviously cannot implement such expensive plans at precisely the same time the university is suffering deep cuts everywhere else. Tearing down and replacing the Ogg Hall residence towers, along with the Peterson, Humanities and UW-Extension buildings, may make campus prettier, but we simply cannot afford it.
Do not get me wrong-I love the arts and humanities, and agree they should be a priority on this campus. But despite the repairs needed in some areas, UW-Madison has fantastic facilities. Therefore, the first priority for additional expenditures needs to be rehabilitating slashed academic programs and making tuition more affordable. What good will brand new buildings do if our academics are falling apart and only rich students can attend? Wiley's dream needs to remain a dream for now.
Finances are not the only problem. The demolition and construction work would force programs and faculty to relocate, causing untold havoc for all. The project would also turn our beautiful campus into a permanent construction zone for 15 years. With that would come ridiculous levels of noise, vast eyesores and a campus layered in dust just waiting to turn into sludge at the first drop of rain. At least we have something to look forward to.
When asked by The Capital Times about reactions to his plan, Wiley proclaimed, \Everybody I've spoken to so far-the heads of the Elvehjem Museum, the School of Music and the art department as well as officials with the city and the state-has been overjoyed. I expect the regents will love it."" Well of course they love it. They have everything to gain and nothing to lose. Perhaps if Wiley bothered to ask the students, TAs, professors and others left out of his plan, he might have gotten a different response.
Perhaps we could find less expensive ways to improve our existing facilities through remodeling, rather than razing and rebuilding. The money saved in that process would allow our class sizes to drop, our programs to be better funded, our faculty and staff to be paid what they deserve and our tuition lowered. That constitutes real progress, rather than superficial aesthetic improvement.
Chancellor Wiley needs to get his head out of the clouds and fight for some real relief for students, faculty and programs instead of promoting grand schemes to impress the regents, alumni and city leaders. While his ideas may be beneficial to the campus at some point in the future, beginning to implement them now would hurt our UW instead. But if much of this project does go forward, let us hope the planners have the foresight to avoid doing this all over again 30 years from now.
