Opinion

Campus renovation plans worthy of applause

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Last Thursday, University officials unveiled a plan that will change the face, culture and feel of the UW-Madison experience we have come to know and love. The plans will create a pedestrian mall from the parking lot next to the Union Terrace all the way to the Kohl Center, giving aesthetic coherence and beauty to the current hodge-podge of academic, housing and retail buildings. We endorse this proposal.

For many prospective students, the “feel” of a university can be just as important as the academic opportunities it offers. And for many students enrolled at UW, that “feel” can be defined by warm, sunny days spent on the green space of Library Mall throwing a frisbee, studying for a class or meeting new people. We welcome this proposal for the considerable effort it makes to extend this uniquely UW “feel” to the south and east ends of campus. Adding aesthetic pleasure will only increase the appeal of UW to students nationwide. In turn, it will increase the quality of the University itself.

Visits to other universities across the country quickly reveal one of the treasures of UW: We are one with the city, our boundaries undefined. This plan will work to encourage that integration through the construction of new facilities including retail development. At such prestigious institutions as Stanford University and University of California-Berkeley, the campus is clearly offset from the remainder of the city. This University is committed to an education of its undergraduates that encourages involvement in the local community, and this aspect of the plan puts that into real terms.

We also join the majority of campus in applauding plans to demolish two of the least-liked buildings at UW: Ogg Hall and the George L. Mosse Humanities building. As any undergraduate, graduate student or professor will surely attest, the Humanities building is both an eyesore and a functional failure. Even seniors still get lost trying to find their professors’ offices, and the wild temperature changes of the lecture halls have made exams there especially torturous. As for Ogg Hall, finding someone who did not like living in this aging facility is about as easy as locating a Wisconsin sweatshirt on Regent Street during game day. We encourage plans to create new student housing reflecting the needs of 21st-century students and placing such facilities alongside a convenient and visually-appealing pedestrian mall.

It’s about time to bring the University into a bright, new future. This plan will guide us in the right direction.