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UWGB finalizes master plan

The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay is in the process of finalizing a master plan that officials hope will make it easier for students and visitors to get around campus.

The master plan, which has been under development since 2004, seeks to improve the layout of the campus and to increase student capacity.

"Some of [the streets] are kind of windy and they seem to take you way out of the way to where you need to be," UW-Green Bay student Candice Dalske said. "The signs are kind of weird in places, too. … When you need to turn somewhere to find a parking lot to park in or when you're looking for a certain building, the signs are right when you need to turn. There's no warning."

The initial stages of the plan include the construction of an inner loop road that would run between academic buildings and parking lots on campus. The first leg of this road would be built as part of a project already underway to expand and renovate UW-Green Bay's sports center.

Dean Rodeheaver, assistant chancellor for planning and budget, believes the inner-loop road construction could be completed sometime in the next couple of years.

"A lot of the master plan simply has to do with trying to deal with making it easier for members of the community," Rodeheaver said. "Visitors in particular — once they get to campus, [they will be able to] find their way around and have a sense of where exactly they are."

The master plan will look to encourage retail development within campus to provide students access to grocery stores and other services currently only accessible by car or bus.

UW-Green Bay also aims to increase the student-enrollment capacity with its master plan. The campus' original design was intended to accommodate 20,000 students, but Rodeheaver said enrollment has been limited to only a fraction of that, with a cap of 5,300 students.

The master plan, according to Rodeheaver, would increase the student capacity to a short-term goal of 7,500 students.

"The master plan does include those components that would have to be in place to support growth," he said.

Another component of the plan includes an emphasis on creating a sustainable, environmentally friendly campus, similar to the goals of UW-Madison's master plan.

According to a UW-Madison release, the university's plan calls for enhancing selected lakeshore views, protecting natural areas from development, decreasing storm water erosion, using more "green" building materials and techniques and improving mass transit opportunities.

UW-Green Bay's plan calls for the formation of a Campus Sustainability Committee, which would work toward promoting such an environmentally friendly campus.

"UW-Green Bay has had an environmental ethic and concern for a long time," Rodeheaver said. "The challenge that we have now is basically to translate that into what colleges and universities [are] doing in the 21st century to deal with issues relating to sustainability and the environment."

University officials will seek approval for the master plan from the UW Board of Regents in April.