The University of Wisconsin community welcomed Madison mayor
Dave Cieslewicz for a Campus-Connections luncheon at Education Hall
Wednesday. LaMarr Billups, UW chancellor John Wiley’s special
assistant on community relations, also spoke at the event, strongly
emphasizing the connections and relations between the UW campus and
the city of Madison.
Billups began the meeting by describing UW as one of the top 10
communities in terms of population and density in the state. UW is
home to more than 41,000 students and is the largest employer in
Dane County, providing jobs to more than 16,000 people.
He named more than a dozen city-campus issues UW has an interest
in examining and said, “There are many more, too.”
Billups said UW is interested, among other things, in the
annexation of the Town of Madison into the actual city, mainly
because the campus owns 52 percent of the town due to the UW
Arboretum’s location within the its borders.
Another issue Billups brought up was the west-campus
co-generation power plant. Cieslewicz described the professional
negotiations as ones that consider three sides –those of the UW
campus, the city and its surrounding neighborhoods.
All three of these groups have a strong interest in the location
of the power plant. Cieslewicz said he tried to moderate the
different interests of both UW and the neighborhoods. He explained
that UW wanted the power for the campus, but people in the Regent
neighborhood worried about pollution, lighting and noise, to name a
few issues. In the end, Cieslewicz and Billups agreed most people
have found a common ground in the new project.
“For the most part, we avoided a train wreck,” Cieslewicz
said.
Both administrators also stated local neighborhoods are not only
concerned with power-plant construction but also with merging the
design of different buildings with the surrounding community. In
addition, security concerns at Camp Randall have arisen among the
groups.
After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the Department of
Homeland Security developed a color-coded level of safety. Camp
Randall, which can hold more than 70,000 people, automatically
became an area of safety liability for UW.
Cieslewicz said many property owners on Breese Terrace
compromised with UW and the city during instances of code-orange
warnings.
Cieslewicz also commented on the plan to redesign the southeast
campus area. As a UW alumnus who lived in Ogg Hall, Cieslewicz
anticipated the new projects to be both more effective and more
attractive than the current buildings.
“I’m excited about where it’s going,” Cieslewicz said.
Another note hit upon by Billups during a question-and-answer
section involved the education partnerships UW has established in
southern Madison. The university set up a center at the Villager
Mall that Billups feels benefits the community and the
university.
“The ideas we work on is what the community has decided on,”
Billups said. “They’re not our ideas.”
Cieslewicz feels that UW is one of Madison’s most important
facets, as is the workforce that annually comes out of the
university.
“Madison wouldn’t be Madison if we didn’t have the university,”
Cieslewicz said. “We get 5,600 of the brightest [people] every
year.”
