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Now that UW-Madison has secured $347 million for a new engineering building, campus administration can focus on making the building a reality.

On Wednesday, Gov. Tony Evers signed a measure that gives about $740 million in funding for capital investments to the Universities of Wisconsin, including funds for the new engineering building that rallied massive industry support.

The funding is part of a sprawling, controversial deal UW system President Jay Rothman and Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, struck late last year that gives about $800 million in funding to the UW system in exchange for changes to the public university systems diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, programming.

UW-Madison's new engineering building design, as it would seen from the northwest angle along Campus Drive.

Evers said in a statement the approved funding is critical for doing whats best for our kids and helping us recruit, train, and retain talented students to help address the workforce challenges that have plagued our state for generations.

Im glad to see this first step move forward today despite unnecessary delays largely driven by partisan politics, but much work remains, Evers continued. I will continue to fight to make the substantial investments in higher education that we need across our state, and I remain hopeful members of the Legislature will decide to join me in this important work.

Rothman told the Wisconsin State Journal he was pleased to see funding approved for the capital projects and a new reciprocity agreement.

Its an exciting day on a bipartisan basis, he said. A lot of really good things (were approved), and Im just very pleased with where we are today.

The funding approved Wednesday amends Wisconsins capital budget plan to allow the state to borrow for a new $347 million engineering building and renovations for three decades-old residence halls at UW-Madison.

Both the UW system and UW-Madison listed the new engineering building as the top priority going into the last state budget session, as industry leaders have clamored for more engineering graduates but UW-Madisons College of Engineering hasnt had space for more students.

The college currently can only accept 1,200 new students out of 8,000 yearly applicants. Lab-stealing and physical space constraints are persistent problems. In the basement of Engineering Hall, space to store high-power magnetic motors is nearly maxed out. With the new building, the College of Engineering could admit another 1,000 students, bringing its population closer to 5,500 students.

The new 340,000-square-foot building on the Engineering campus will offer flexible lab space adaptable to future technology, College of Engineering Dean Ian Robertson told the State Journal in February 2023.

The College of Engineering has a long tradition of profound impact on generations of engineering students and on citizens in Wisconsin and around the globe, Robertson said in a statement Wednesday. Through pioneering research and scores of additional graduates to meet a critical engineering workforce need, our new building will position the college to magnify this impact.

The college expects the study areas of clean energy technologies, autonomous transportation, robotics and civil engineering to move into the new building.

Its been a long road to get here today, and the path we took isnt the path that any of us would have wished for, UW-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin told the Wisconsin State Journal. But I truly believe weve gotten to a good place for the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a good place for the Universities of Wisconsin, and perhaps most importantly, a good place for the state of Wisconsin. And so, Im feeling pretty good about that today.

UW-Madison's new engineering building design, as it would seen from the southwest angle along Engineering Drive.

UW-Madison's new engineering building design, as it would seen from the northeast angle along Campus Drive.

Mnookin said UW-Madison plans to move forward on the engineering building as quickly as possible, although theres no set timeline. The buildings design process continued despite uncertainty from the state Legislature but isnt completed. The university also plans to tear down one of the colleges oldest buildings, at the corner of Campus Drive and North Randall Avenue, to make way for the new building.

Theres more fundraising to do as well, with about $50 million left to meet the universitys goal.

Mnookin is hopeful that all of the $100 million private donors have already pledged will come through, much of which was contingent on the building being approved during this budget cycle. But its also possible that the nine-month delay in securing public funding, since the biennial budget was approved last summer without the UW system capital funds, will affect the final cost of the building.

Time is not our friend when it comes to building costs and infrastructure estimates, Mnookin said. Were committed to doing whatever it takes to make this building go forward. But obviously, the delay is not ideal.

Other UW-Madison projects approved include renovations for three dorms on the Lakeshore side of campus and a steam utility replacement.

The capital funding bill also provides $78.4 million to repair the faades on two of UW-Whitewaters aging academic buildings and $45.4 million to demolish uninhabitable buildings, including facilities at UW-Madison, UW-Platteville, UW-Eau Claire and UW-Green Bay.

At UW-Whitewater, the majority of the funding will go toward a full renovation of Winther Hall, which houses the universitys education and professional studies programs. Renovations of the building will allow UW-Whitewater to better meet the states teacher shortage, Chancellor Corey King said in a statement.

UW-Whitewater proudly licenses more teachers than any other university or college in Wisconsin, King said. This project gives us room to grow. It is an investment in Wisconsins future.

Evers also signed into law another provision of the DEI agreement that changes the Minnesota-Wisconsin tuition reciprocity agreement to give the UW system more of the tuition money paid by Minnesota students who attend UW schools, which was previously deposited in the states general fund. UW-Madison and some of the farthest-west campuses in the UW system, where most Minnesota students attend, likely stand to gain millions of dollars in tuition.

In the 2021-22 academic year, Minnesota students attending UW schools paid more than $26 million in tuition over Wisconsins in-state rate. Of that, $13.6 million was collected by UW-Madison.

UW-River Falls in northwestern Wisconsin, about a 20-minute drive from the Minnesota border, has the highest proportion of Minnesota students among the UW campuses at 43%. In 2021-22, it forked over the second-highest amount of Minnesota student tuition, $4.3 million.

That is revenue that could have been reinvested in UW-RF, meeting student demands and filling regional employer needs, Chancellor Maria Gallo said in a statement Wednesday. That revenue would allow us to offer more innovative, high-quality programming for our students, add advisers and support student success, including as it relates to mental health.

Its unknown how much tuition revenue the new reciprocity agreement will bring to UW system schools, as Minnesota is launching a tuition-waiver program for its universities this fall for students whose families make $80,000 a year or less. Enrollment of Minnesota students in the UW system is expected to drop as a result.

The DEI deal required the Legislature to approve the capital funding and tuition revenue provisions by the end of the current legislative session. In return for $800 million in UW system investment, Republicans are requiring UW system administrators to reclassify a third of DEI employees, or 43 positions, as student success employees over the next two academic years.

Other provisions in the agreement include a bill approved last month that guarantees admission to UW system schools for Wisconsin high school students in the top percentages of their high school class and the release of pay raises for nearly 35,000 UW system employees that had been withheld.

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UW-Madison is getting its new engineering building. What happens now? - Madison.com