The Society for Women in Engineering hosted a town hall Wednesday with state Sen. Kelda Roys (D-Madison) and state Rep. Francesca Hong (D-Madison) to offer a space for College of Engineering students to ask questions about the funding status behind the college’s new building project.
The University of Wisconsin College of Engineering is seeking to build a new building to allow the college to recruit more students each year, and provide students with a facility that better encourages and supports their learning. UW named the engineering building their top budget priority earlier this year, but in June, the Republican-controlled Joint Finance Committee excluded it from their approved 2023-2025 capital budget.
“Speaker Robin Vos, who is the head Republican in the State Assembly, said that he was basically going to punish UW until it eliminated DEI programs on campus,” Roys said. “I think it’s really important to understand that this has been a 40-year pattern that Republicans have engaged in cutting funding for public education, everything from K-12 to higher education and the University of Wisconsin. There has been long-term animosity between Republican legislators and UW and this is just the latest excuse that he’s using.”
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State funding for the College of Engineering upgrades has widespread support, Roys and Hong said. When the College of Engineering plan was axed by the Joint Finance Committee, Roys started receiving calls from Republican CEOs who would “otherwise never call a liberal Democrat.” Roys said she had to put it into context that Republican legislative leadership has a “toxic one-sided” relationship with UW, Roys said.
“These are positions that very blatantly put politics over people … it’s about power and control right now,” Hong said. “It’s unfortunate it’s coming at the expense of our students … this is deliberate, and it’s going to have massive consequences for the economic future of the state.”
The legislators hope a letter sent Monday by Wisconsin’s top CEOs will work to urge the funding forward. In the letter, the over 40 CEOs signed a joint statement saying how disappointed they are that the Joint Finance Committee has not progressed the proposed funding. The CEOs note how much of a positive economic impact the building project would have on the state and its workforce.
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Another important piece of the funding puzzle is private investor contributions. Right now, UW has private funders lined up for this project, most likely including some CEOs named on the letter. If the state does not provide their share of the funding, the pledged private contributions might disappear.
“The threats to private funders are very real right now,” Hong said. “What was initially proposed was that there were going to be private funders who would fund and match what the state put in. Right now the state is not doing its part, so there are definitely real threats, but there are also ongoing conversations.”
Roys and Hong made it clear pressure must be applied to get the funding approved. They are both working to shine a light on how these cuts will directly impact students and lead to a hindering of the Wisconsin Idea, hurting every part of this state.
“The problem is that you have a very, very intransigent man, Robin Voss, who has made it his mission to punish UW–Madison,” Roys said. “I know and I think they know that this is a terrible decision for the state.”
