Although some students said they feel the University of Wisconsin is favoring bioscience majors by reconstructing, renovating or rebuilding only the science-related buildings on campus, UW officials said there is no preferential treatment behind these new constructions. Much of the funding newer science buildings receive comes from professional companies such as Ford, which helped to fund the engineering garage where “Future Truck,” a hybrid fuel-efficient car, and other automotive projects, have been constructed.
UW officials say the necessity of research and the money at stake drives the large endowments to science-related buildings.
The engineering college has announced a new effort to fund a $33 million renovation of the Mechanical Engineering Building. Of the total cost, $23 million would be funded by the state of Wisconsin. The college would raise the remaining $10 million in gift funds.
The project received initial approval at a campus planning committee meeting in January. The Board of Regents will review the plan in August. Upon approval at that level, the project will be forwarded to the State Building Commission.
Science itself is one of the fastest-expanding fields in the country, and UW-Madison is starting to fall behind other universities’ developments, UW officials said, with the science buildings some of the oldest buildings on campus and in constant need of repair.
Officials said the bioscience buildings, such as the Medical Science Center, which was built in 1949, require renovation due to aging and decaying facilities, as opposed to the functional classrooms and lecture halls of other buildings such as Vilas Communication Hall, built in 1970.
The university and the state worked together to create the BioStar Program to build new science buildings for the campus.
BioStar is the eight-year, $317 million public-private partnership, including private gifts and grants, that former Gov. Tommy Thompson fixed into the state budget.
The major building projects under BioStar include a $27 million Biotechnology Center addition, an $85 million upgrade to the biochemistry building, a new $100 million microbial sciences building and a $105 million interdisciplinary biology building.
“We are poised to become the nation’s leading biotechnology center — in terms of both research and job creation,” said Thompson in 2000 about modernizing the research and teaching space for biosciences.
“The support from the state will allow the university to continue to recruit and retain the very best faculty in the biosciences,” Chancellor John Wiley said of BioStar funding.
“These faculty members, many of whom are working in new and emerging areas of knowledge, are the key to creating new applications for research and educating the future workforce of our state,” said Wiley.
At the university, the field of biosciences is one of the fastest-growing areas with more than 2,000 graduate students, 800 faculty members and 60 academic departments. A recent survey indicated that one in three incoming freshmen are planning to major in a biology-related area, according to a recent survey.
Kent Barrett of University Communications said the renovation of other non-bioscience buildings, such as Humanities, was in the university’s future plans, but Barrett said state budget cuts pushed those plans off into the future.
“With the state budgets now, there won’t be any new projects,” Barrett said.
UW officials said the university’s alleged favoritism toward the bioscience departments is simply a matter of priority and funding, but some students believe the reasoning goes even deeper.
“Personally, I don’t have a problem with the funding that is being contributed to the science department for reconstruction of buildings,” UW sophomore Susan Sloper said. “There is an increase in the need for new research in the biosciences each day, and in order to keep up with the nation’s newest technology, we must first start with the development of infrastructure.”
