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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: 6/3/08 |
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In
the News Archive - Year:
April 28, 2008 UWGB sets sights on university expansion School plans to grow student body, build new buildings By Kelly McBride
Legislative leaders are in negotiations on a budget repair bill to address the estimated $527 million shortfall on the 2007-09 state budget. Although there is no deadline for passing the bill, Gov. Jim Doyle has urged the Legislature to move quickly.
After last year's budget stalemate in Madison, the state agreed to fund the first phase of outgoing Chancellor Bruce Shepard's growth agenda — a $1.7 million commitment over the biennium. The growth agenda eventually seeks to increase enrollment to 7,500, up from 6,100 now.
During a recent visit to St. Norbert College in De Pere, Doyle expressed optimism the growth agenda funding would be untouched in the budget adjustments. But nothing is final.
"I think, from our perspective, we are proceeding with the growth agenda in terms of continuing to plan and make preparations," said Tom Maki, vice chancellor for business and finance, "while still being cognizant of the fact that we may have to change direction."
Maki hopes the Legislature will have a resolution on the spending plan adjustment by the start of the next fiscal year, July 1.
Either way, there's a sense of excitement surrounding the growth agenda — even from students who won't be around to see it come to fruition.
"Everyone loves the school that they went to," said UWGB senior Sara Duginske, president of UWGB's Student Government Association. "Everyone's excited. ... We are kind of a small campus, so to build community like that is going to be better."
UWGB's 2007-08 operating budget is $82.9 million, up from $76.2 million for 2006-07.
The approximate annual budget for 2008-09 would be $82 million, but that number is not final. The reduction from 2007-08 is mainly due to the completion of the Kress Events Center and University Union renovation projects.
Growth agenda plans for 2008-09 may seem modest compared with future expectations of an additional residence hall or halls — possible in the 2009-2011 biennium — and an additional academic building, likely in the 2011-2013 biennium.
But while those big-ticket items may be a few years off, the goal of enhancing academic capacity is a priority now, officials say.
In 2008-09, that should include additional dollars for faculty/staff diversity initiatives, the creation of a center for First Nations education and additional support for the university's Phuture Phoenix program, which seeks to raise college aspirations of fifth-graders, Maki said.
The first phase of the growth agenda should support 220 students in addition to UWGB's current 6,100-student enrollment, he added.
The university is planning for the growth in student population to occur over five budget biennia but funding to support it to occur over three, Maki said.
UWGB already is seeing signs of growth in its next freshman class. Officials cut off enrollment for most freshmen April 15, and say the 2008-09 freshman class could be the largest ever.
Growing the university is important not just for UWGB, but for the larger community as well, said Shepard, who is leaving UWGB June 30 to become president of Western Washington University in Bellingham, Wash.
"The states that have weathered the economic downturns well are the ones that have made a sustained investment in higher education," Shepard said. "We are going to need that kind of commitment ... to sustain this growth over the next biennia."
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