University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee officials announced Sunday their desire to expand the campus to alleviate overcrowding and to increase research endeavors.

UWM Chancellor Carlos Santiago said he would like to build two new campuses away from the school's existing east side campus. The satellite campuses would still be in the downtown area, Santiago said, but would not be connected to the current university grounds.

"The expansion of our campus out into the area of the county research grounds and downtown would allow us to bring our researchers much closer to the business community, which is very interested in partnering with UWM to promote economic growth for the region," said Tom Luljak, UWM vice chancellor of university relations and communication.

The announcement has some, such as UW System spokesperson Dave Giroux, concerned with where the campus will expand. The Milwaukee campus is very condensed, Giroux said, and added it will be difficult to find places in the city for significant expansion.

"The campus has very limited room for growth," Giroux said. "So if they're going to add on … they're going to have to be very creative about how they do that."
UWM is currently the densest campus in the UW System, Luljak said, serving 302 students per acre. By contrast, UW-Madison only serves about 44 students per acre.

Luljak said this complicates the school's educational goals, which include making sure students and faculty have the assets they need for quality education.
"The challenge is to ensure that we have the facilities that we … need to meet the expectations of our students and business community," Luljak said. "We have to make sure we have the resources available to serve our students."

The plan looks to build one campus near the Milwaukee Regional Medical Center or the Milwaukee County Research Center. The other would be built near a health-care provider in downtown Milwaukee, which would be used to house a public health school along with programs in nursing, psychology and other health disciplines.

"It will provide more space for us to house our faculty and researchers, many of which are working in overcrowded conditions," Luljak said. "It will also provide updated facilities for the faculty within the sciences, especially for engineering."

Luljak also said the lack of proper facilities is holding back the university's research abilities. He said that with the addition of these facilities, UWM would be able to expand and improve its research efforts.

"We have wonderfully talented faculty today, and they are engaged in world-class research in a number of areas," Luljak said. "But they do that work handicapped because they don't have the kind of physical facilities they deserve."

With the addition of the two new campuses and the updated facilities, Luljak said, the fiscal development of the region will also get a boost.

Giroux said he believed the idea is supported and is happy to see such an example of forward thinking.

"There has been a lot of strong support for the Milwaukee growth agenda," Giroux said. "It has shown some creative thinking and collaboration."