By staggering the different components of the east campus plan over the next 15 years, University of Wisconsin officials hope to make any inconveniences arising from construction minimal for students and faculty.

Planned within the project to give UW a facelift are the logistics of transplanting entire departments and relocating individual classes to transitional spaces or to their new, permanent homes.

“We have a complete plan for the whole move,” said Alan Fish, associate vice chancellor of facilities and planning management and the project’s head planner. “That’s why we’re doing it in sequence.”

The first and most extensive phase will demolish University Square during the winter of 2005. State Street will be undergoing construction at the same time, raising some concerns that students’ options for fun in Madison will be severely limited. Fish, however, said he is not concerned.

“I’ve never found a lack of student creativity for things to do,” Fish said. “There are a tremendous number of options in the city.”

The plan’s next phase will erect three new dormitories to replace Ogg Hall. The replacement residence halls will add 600 beds to campus, accommodating both those students displaced by Ogg’s demolition and the rising numbers of freshmen requesting university housing.

The often criticized Humanities building will be the next structure to fall as it is demolished in halves. History students and faculty will migrate to the Psychology building during construction on the building.

UW professor Steve Stern, chair of the history department, is hopeful that planners will take the UW’s day-to-day activities into account and minimize disruptiveness. However, Stern stresses that any inconveniences brought about by construction are minor compared to the need to rid campus of the eyesore that is the Humanities building.

“I think you would be hard-pressed to find anyone who thinks Humanities is a successful building, either functionally or aesthetically,” Stern said.

The project’s planners admit remodeling a dense urban campus is always a challenge. However, they assure students that any inconveniences due to the east campus plan will be minimal compared to those currently caused by Johnson Street’s recent makeover.

The biggest problem construction may run into is a depleted funding base. UW currently does not have all the money required to complete the plan and will rely on private fundraising for its capital-improvements budget to foot the bill.

The capital budget is an independent body of funds that cannot be used to fund university operations as mandated by state law. To avoid a possible fiscal crisis midway through construction, each new phase will not proceed until funding is committed.

UW officials stress above all that the project’s long-term planning and carefully crafted phases will prevent drastic or immediate changes to students’ normal lives.

“The plan is really a framework for construction over the next 15 years,” said Dennis Chaptman, spokesperson for UW Communications. “It isn’t going to be a construction war zone in the short term. It won’t be as if they are going in tomorrow with bulldozers [to] just start pulling buildings down.”

Chaptman also assures that the many advantages to the project far outweigh any of its potential downsides. Not only will the project bring student services and activities under one roof, he believes it will also drastically enhance the student experience at UW.

“All the projects will improve [students’] quality of life,” Chaptman said.