3 days Ago By KIMBERLY WETHAL [email protected]
The future of UW-Madison’s new engineering building, as well as other Universities of Wisconsin building priorities, is again in limbo after Republicans on the state’s Building Commission refused to reallocate nearly $70 million in state funds. The commission, which oversees and approves building projects for all state agencies and the UW system, denied the transfer of $70 million from a UW-Eau Claire health and sciences building that didn’t need it to numerous other building projects around the UW system. The denial puts many of the projects’ progress in peril, after UW officials fought hard to have them included in the current state budget.
The vote was deadlocked at 4-4, with votes falling along party lines after Republicans said they were especially feeling “heartburn” over changes to UW-Madison’s engineering building. The transfers up for approval include $29 million for UW-Madison’s Phillip A. Levy Engineering Center building, $10.
5 million for renovations for two UW-Whitewater classroom buildings, $5.4 million for UW-Stout’s Heritage Hall addition and renovation, and $25 million for the UW system’s small projects fund, which covers smaller repairs. The reallocation of funds is routine, Capital Planning Vice President Alex Roe told Regents during a committee meeting.
If the new allocations are not approved, the UW system would likely need to revise and possibly reduce the scope of the projects to meet previous cost estimates. Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu said in a letter to UW system President Jay Rothman on Wednesday the vote against approving the transfers came because of a perceived lack of transparency from the UW system. In that letter, LeMahieu said UW-Madison’s engineering building was still “a long-time priority” for Senate Republicans.
UW-Madison expands engineering project to put businesses right on campus “Refusing to answer questions creates an adversarial relationship between the UW and the Legislature that benefits neither us, nor the taxpayers who invest billions of their hard-earned dollars in your system each year,” LeMahieu wrote. “Once the UW system has provided building commission members with adequate answers, I am hopeful that a motion to approve the engineering building at UW-Madison can be approved at a later date.” LeMahieu did not elaborate further in his letter about questions the UW system failed to answer.
Any prolonged delays risk adding more cost to the project, UW-Madison Vice Chancellor of University Relations Craig Thompson said, adding the university is ready to sit down with legislators to answer questions and resolve issues. “At least one member of the Building Commission who voted not to move forward today also said that he ‘desperately’ wants to get the Engineering Building done,” Thompson said in a statement. “So do we.
This building is good for our students, good for industry, good for research, and good for the state of Wisconsin.” The UW system is also committed to resolving those questions, UW system spokesperson Mark Pitsch said in a statement. “We will continue to work with the legislature to address concerns that might remain regarding this project that is so critical to developing engineering talent for Wisconsin,” Pitsch said.
Gov. Tony Evers urged Republicans to approve the projects when they are brought back before the commission after the New Year. “I am deeply disappointed that Republican lawmakers are once again pulling the rug out from under UW in the eleventh hour and putting politics ahead of doing what’s best for our kids, our workforce and economy, and our state,” Evers said in a statement.
Both UW-Madison’s engineering building and UW-Whitewater’s renovations were included in the current state budget after Rothman and Assembly Speaker Rep. Robin Vos, R-Rochester, struck a deal to reclassify some of the UW system’s diversity, equity and inclusion employees, and put a freeze on hiring additional DEI employees and administrators, among other things. Prior to that, Republicans controlling the state’s budget-writing committee had left UW-Madison’s engineering building out of the two-year state budget entirely, a move that shocked university leaders, a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers and industries who had advocated for it.
UW-Madison announces $75 million donation for new engineering building The state Building Commission needs to meet again this spring to give final approvals to the building. If all stays on track, UW-Madison hopes to break ground on the building in spring after receiving approval, with an opening set for fall 2028. The engineering building had been projected to cost $347 million, but the price rose to $419 million, partly due to increased costs but also due to a adding another floor, a $43 million project paid for by industry partners to locate engineering businesses on campus.
That addition would allow engineering businesses that rent space on the seventh floor to have better access to collaboration with university researchers and labs, and allow students to complete internships on campus. Sen. Andre Jacque, R-DePere, accused the UW system and Gov.
Tony Evers of a bait-and-switch in a statement Wednesday, saying the UW system and the Department of Administration had been creating plans to reallocate the remaining $70 million without informing the Legislature. Jacque also said he was “troubled” that the UW system had burned through its small projects fund and by UW-Madison’s decision to add the business partnership floor. “What need is there for the Building Commission to even meet if the expectation is there for a rubber stamp whenever requested?” Jacque said.
“The $43.4 (million) in proposed additional gifts and grants, on top of those that have not even been committed yet for the underlying project, do not yet exist, and the more money that taxpayers give to the project, the less pressure there is for increased industry support or for those planning the project to sharpen their pencils.” "What need is there for the Building Commission to even meet if the expectation is there for a rubber stamp whenever requested?" State Sen.
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