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Marketing and University Communication UW-Green Bay, CL 815 2420 Nicolet Drive Green Bay, WI 54311-7001 (920) 465-2626 E-mail: hildebrs@uwgb.edu Last update: 10/2/07 |
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In
the News Archive - Year:
May 15, 2000 UWGB awaits expansion news UW Regents studying $69.1 million proposal By Kelley Bruss
But student leaders at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay say they don't have the right facilities or enough space on their campus. Working on committees with faculty and staff members, they are in the thick of developing ideas to expand the University Union and Phoenix Sports Center.
The expansions, tentatively projected to cost $69.1 million, are described on paper — but not in drawings or blueprints yet — and are being studied by the UW System. A recommendation to the UW Regents on the plan is expected this summer. With System approval and some financial assistance, students hope their ideas of study lounges, exercise rooms, a coffeehouse and a multipurpose area for 7,000 people become reality.
"People, when they come here, should have a full experience," said Michelle Cullen, outgoing vice president of the Segregated University Fee Allocation Committee. "They are not getting the experiences that (students) are on other campuses.
Student leaders voted this spring to support the project by increasing student segregated fees by $100 for each of the next four years. By 2003-04, $400 from each student will go toward the expansions.
The University also has tapped the UW Foundation for about $100,000 to pay consultants who have helped during preliminary planning.
Jeanne Stangel, special assistant to the chancellor, was hired last June to coordinate efforts on the union and sports center expansions. Stangel, the former assistant athletics director, has some responsibilities with the Council of Trustees and the Legislature, but her primary role is to lead and connect efforts on the two projects.
Stangel said the students' ideas aren't out of line with what other schools offer.
"This is not a unique idea," Stangel said. "It creates a better student experience."
Union needs
Campus Life for the 21st Century, a report that spurred the development of committees to examine campus needs, included a section entitled "Informal Hang-Out Recommendations for the 21st Century."
Hanging out plays prominently in the students' ideas for improvements.
Union director Anne Buttke said it's typical for unions to change with the times. She's been director since 1997 and was assistant director from 1992 to 1997.
"The mission and purpose of a union has always been to serve as sort of the campus living room," she said.
The recommendations for the union include more space for clubs and retail, a coffeehouse and additional rooms for meetings, offices for student organizations and group studies.
The students also would like to relocate the school's bookstore, credit union and American Intercultural Center — currently on the main floor of the eight-story library, to the union.
The Phoenix Club, on the lower level, is too small for the ways it is used, including parties, dances and as a bar.
Kurt Kober, president of the Student Government Association, points to the Brew Bayou at Marquette University as the kind of atmosphere UWGB students would like here.
The Bayou "has eclectic furniture and stuff like that, things that are attractive to college students," he said.
Other students are ready to fork over additional fees to get the $7.9 million needed for the union improvements.
"The union does need to be expanded," said sophomore Kate Sentowski. The Phoenix Club "is nice, but it only has what, ten tables?"
The sports center
Besides providing practice space for various sports teams, including the Lady Phoenix basketball team, for intramurals, for physical-education classes and for community use, the Phoenix Sports Center also is supposed to be a place that gives students space to work out.
"A lot of time the students' needs are actually put on the back burner," said Cullen, who calls the center a "recruiting liability."
She said many students who lead tours of the campus skip right over the sports center "because it's embarrassing."
Proposed expansion of the center would provide better facilities for women's sports, a second gym for recreation, additional exercise and weight rooms, an indoor track, an athletic training room, instructional space and a space where 7,000 people could gather at once.
Students want that space for Phoenix basketball games, graduation, freshman orientation, Fall Festival and other student-organized activities or conferences.
"This is the only building on campus that hasn't been touched, hasn't been remodeled," said Athletics Director Otis Chambers.
The sports center expansions are to serve the needs of all students, not just those on a team. But the desire for a Phoenix home court has also spurred planning.
The Phoenix men played 16 games last year at the Brown County Veterans memorial Arena, and the women play there occasionally. Students say it's hard to get revved up for a team without a campus home.
That's one of the reasons senior Dave Meyer, who has one more year at UWGB, supports the improvements.
"Men's basketball can come back to campus, where it should be, so students don't have to traipse across town," he said.
Cost issues
No state tax dollars can be used to build or expand unions. State funding for UW schools has to be used to support academic programs. Schools typically turn to student fees or donations to fund union expansions.
Student government leaders vote annually on segregated fees, which support student organizations and activities.
UWGB's student leaders voted this spring to increase segregated fees by $100 next year and for each of the three years after that.
The additional money — $400 per student by 2003-04 — will go toward funding both building projects.
Students will pay the entire bill for the union. The sports center, however, will also require state and private funding.
Cullen said some segregated fees may support operations of the expanded union. But she doesn't anticipate the additional segregated fees staying at $400 forever.
"Hopefully, it will drop back down after" construction is completed, she said.
Sentowski isn't too concerned about the higher fees.
"Anything that can improve campus is worth a little extra money," she said.
The UW Regents need only to approve the union ideas for that project to move ahead. Buttke said that if all goes well, that work will take place during the 2001-03 biennium.
But the sports center plans is a little more complicated.
UWGB has asked for System approval and financial assistance to continue planning that project. Two years from now, during planning for the 2003 biennium, the school will ask for some state funding for the sports center.
UWGB has spent about $100,000 so far on the projects, said Tom Maki, vice chancellor for business and finance.
The school contracted with California-based RSK Associates, an architectural firm, for assistance during the planning stages. RSK subcontractors acted with two other firms that specialize in financing and sports facilities. The three firms helped the school come up with size and cost estimates.
Maki said the contract with RSK was for just under $100,000, but the firm will also be paid for travel to and from Green Bay.
"It's going to be slightly more than $100,000" on the final bill, Maki said.
The money used was from the UW Foundation. Most money given as a gift to the school goes into the foundation. Money given for a specific purposes is restricted to that use. Maki said the money used to pay the consultants was unrestricted.
Chancellor Mark Perkins said the university has been advised to work with consultants even in the early stages of projects the size of the union and sports center expansions. That helps avoid planning mistakes that could dramatically change the cost or timing of a project.
Students and school leaders are firm on the fact that students have driven much of the planning for the projects while administrators have served as advisers.
"It's the students' initiative," Perkins said. "The students have a deep interest in the future of the university."
History of the plan
In 1998, the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay's Student Government Association told Chancellor Mark Perkins the school did not serve students appropriately in terms of recreation and nonacademic space.
Perkins told the students to investigate the issue and deliver a report. That student report led the school's deans to recommend Perkins authorize a more thorough study.
Work began in fall 1998, and the Campus Life for the 21st Century report was delivered in April 1999. Thirteen committee members — five students and eight members of the faculty or staff — are listed in the report.
Perkins created three subcommittees to look at the three issues that the report identified: the University Union, the Phoenix Sports Center and the need for a large gathering space.
Subcommittees consisted of three students, one faculty member and one staff member. The subcommittee developed program statements, which outlined the major recommendations for each area.
Two students and one staff member from each subcommittee served on a larger planning committee, which also included adminstrators such as the chief financial officer and the special assistant to the chancellor.
That planning committee worked with three consulting firms to finalize the program statements, eventually combining the sports center renovations and the need for a large gathering space into one effort.
The planning committee's work is now before UW System administrators, who will make a recommendation on the plans to the UW Regents.
Highlights of the proposal
The following are the two lists of improvements that planners at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay hope to accomplish through renovations and additions to the University Union and the Phoenix Sports Center. The union list outlines broad ideas. The sports center list includes specific suggested additions.
University Union
• Open stairways and hallways
Phoenix Sports Center
• Multipurpose recreation gym
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