The University of Wisconsin Recreational Sports Board recommended Monday the construction of an extension onto the Natatorium facility.
UW botany professor Thomas Givnish, chair of the Recreational Sports Board, said in his annual report to the Faculty Senate the recommendation was made by the board in conjunction with Kahler Slater Architects of Milwaukee after the two groups completed the master plan.
This new addition would provide students with a variety of new resources including an indoor artificial turf facility, a large fitness center and a four-lane walking-jogging track, Givnish said.
“Compared with our peer institutes in the Big Ten, our recreational facilities are quite small,” Givnish said. “I think it is also true that there is a need for the university to modernize the systems.”
It is estimated that the 140,200 square-foot additions would cost nearly $60 million, which amounts to a raise in segregated fees of $60 per student, per semester, Givnish said. The committee will explore fundraising for the project in the coming year.
Associate professor of bacteriology Katrina Forest voiced some concern about the expansion, since “one-time wetlands” make up some of the area around the Natatorium. Givnish assured her the surrounding area would be taken into consideration.
Professor Joseph Kemnitz, chair of the Library Committee, updated the senate on UW’s continuing participation in the Google Books Project, in which many Big Ten universities are participating.
The goal of the project is to “digitize” no less than a half million items from the UW libraries’ collections, Kemnitz said.
To help preserve the original copies of increasingly digitized material, Kemnitz said the committee hopes to build an off-campus preservation facility. He stressed the importance of maintaining the hard copies of materials while increasing digitization.
“We do need the hard copy of the original documents,” Kemnitz said. “We need them readily accessible, and we need them kept safe.”
Senate member professor Ann Hoyt presented the academic calendar for 2011-16, which includes recognition for the Jewish holiday of Shavuot.
The holiday conflicts with exams week in 2013, so Hoyt asked professors be willing to make adjustments for students who would be observing Shavuot.
After the presentation, one senate member suggested Election Day be taken into consideration as an “official day of public service” in the future.
Secretary of the academic staff David Musolf said “policy constraints” regarding required class days would make this adjustment difficult, as the suggested public service day would “throw off the balance of Tuesday-Thursday class days.” The calendar will undergo more scrutiny, he added.
