Gov. Tony Evers visited the University of Wisconsin-Madison Thursday, touring Chadbourne Residence Hall and the Mosse Humanities Building to hear student concerns about the building and to highlight his 2025-27 Executive and Capital Budget investments.
Evers unveiled his Capital Budget Feb. 18, outlining funding recommendations for infrastructure projects focused on modernization, sustainability and functionality. Key priorities include upgrading public spaces, enhancing higher education facilities and addressing Wisconsin’s evolving infrastructure needs.
UW-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin joined Evers to tour Chadbourne Residence Hall, stopping at a student’s room, Rheta’s Market and one of the student lounges. One student asked, “How does one get the governor in his bedroom?” while Evers was given a tour of a larger-than-normal and strangely-placed dorm room located off of the lounge. The dorm room was once a study room but was converted due to an on-campus housing shortage.
“The needs here are significant,” Evers said. “Not only bringing this building [Mosse] to a close and hopefully torn down, but we absolutely need to make sure that especially our freshmen have a chance to live in dorms and don’t have to jump together with three or four other people in a room that’s not made to be a bedroom.”
A key project in the Capital Budget is the demolition and replacement of the Mosse Humanities Building, with plans to relocate the Art and Music Departments into replacement facilities.
After Chadbourne, Evers and Mnookin toured Mosse alongside Eric Wilcots, the Dean of the College of Letters and Science at UW-Madison. The governor visited rooms with visible water damage, spoke with students — including one in the middle of a midterm exam — and heard concerns about accessibility, unreliable elevators, insect issues and poor temperature control.
“This was a bad building back in 1970 when I was in it,” Evers said. “It was a building that was cold with lots of water, and it still is today. Bathrooms are bad, rooms that students are performing in are bad and frankly, I think safety is an issue.”
Mnookin noted the students’ and staff’s efforts to utilize the building, but with increased challenges every year, she said that it’s time for some change.
“Our dorms are at 116% capacity right now. That doesn't actually take taxpayer dollars to fix, we just need permission from the Legislature to be able to add some beds,” Mnookin said.
Republican lawmakers have previously criticized Evers’ Capital Budgets as being “unrealistic.” During a pre-session press conference Thursday, Rep. Mark Borne, R-Beaver Dam, reiterated that statement.
“I think clearly it's just like the last couple of capital budgets, where it's completely unrealistic, just like his operating budget realistic,” Borne said.
Evers, however, emphasized the need for cooperation.
“We'll work with our Legislature to get as many things done,” Evers said. “This building [Mosse] has to go — there's just no way we can deal with this building anymore — but we'll do what we can.”
In addition to touting the Capital Budget, Evers discussed the impact of cuts to the U.S. Department of Education will have on Wisconsinites and potential UW-Madison students.
“If people in the state of Wisconsin are tired of having to go to referendum every couple of years because there's not enough resources, you can double that — they'll be doing it every year because of what's happening in Washington, D.C.,” Evers said. “It's going to make it more difficult and more expensive for our young people to come to campus.”
Evers also highlighted what steps, and potential steps, the state will take if National Institutes of Health (NIH) cuts are implemented at UW-Madison or other universities.
He noted there has been $500 million set aside in a response fund in case anything significant happened in Washington, but Evers said that those funds would not take care of all the cuts if implemented.
“It's a Washington, D.C. problem,” Evers said. “We have to invest in our education system, and that's our future, and frankly, it's our present.”
