Contact: Cullen Werwie, (608) 267-7303
Also adds facility at University of Wisconsin-River Falls
Madison– Governor Walker announced today that he was recommending two additions to the State’s Capital Budget for 2011-2013. The additional recommendations are for the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Nursing and University of Wisconsin – River Falls Health and Human Performance Building.
“Both of these projects are important to our state,” said Governor Scott Walker. “The nursing school will help us address the state’s shortage of nurses. It will allow Wisconsin to train the next generation of health care professionals so we can meet the needs of our citizens. The facility at UW-River Falls will fulfill a long-standing request from the campus that will allow related functions and fields to be housed in one space.”
UW-Madison School of Nursing
The governor is proposing to authorize the construction using $17 million in gifts and grants and $17 million in funds shifted from UW-Madison’s maintenance budget in this biennium along with an additional $17 million in taxpayer supported bonding in the next biennium. This modified proposal represents a reprioritization from UW-Madison after their initial request for $34 million in GFSB in this biennium.
The new facility will provide additional space for the expansion of the academic and research programs, easier access, and a visible identity for nursing research and education within the health sciences campus. By incorporating an active learning classroom complex that is much larger, the new facility will offer the first learning environment properly sized to allow inter-professional classroom activities with students from nursing, medicine, public health and pharmacy disciplines. The building will significantly improve the school’s capacity to partner with other nursing programs and clinical agencies to provide innovated credit and non-credit instruction on-site and at a distance because classrooms will be specifically designed for these purposes.
UW-River Falls Health and Human Performance Building
The governor is proposing to advance enumerate the construction in the 2013-15 biennium using $50 million in taxpayer supported bonding and $10 million in bonding supported with campus fees. The project will construct a new 162,300 square foot facility to replace the existing physical education center on campus and include space for Health and Human Performance programs, athletics and student recreation. The building will include classrooms, laboratories, a large gymnasium, dance studio, auxiliary gym, offices, locker rooms and training rooms. The project has been requested by UW-River Falls for years. The project will allow consolidation of Health and Human Performance programs from eight separate facilities into one.
