UW only using 21% of space at Wausau campus
By Kevin O’Brien
Staff and students at the UW campus in Wausau are currently only using about 20 percent of the county-owned building space, raising questions about the future of facilities such as the fieldhouse, science labs, art studios and planetarium.
Gretel Stock, dean of the two-year UWStevens Point at Wausau, spoke to a pair of county committees last Thursday about a Campus Utilization Workgroup that recently completed an analysis and recommendations for how to address the unused campus facilities going forward. She said the group’s report will be turned over to UW-SP chancellor Thomas Gibson, who will consider the recommendations on how to build partnerships with outside groups that may want to sublease some of the facilities.
Supervisor John Robinson, chair of Human Resources, Finance and Capital (HRFC), said the county needs to be involved in those discussions as owner of the facilities, with the goal of continuing the educational mission of the site.
“I think we are at a critical state where the future of that campus is in question,” he said. “It’s not sustainable at the current numbers, and it’s not sustainable with current square footage.”
In her presentation to supervisors, Stock said university operations occupy about 48,600 (21 percent) of the over 235,000 square feet available on the campus. This includes about 19,000 square feet each for instructional space and offices/operations and another 10,778 for the library.
Gretel said the UW is primarily using the student resource center at the center of the campus, located just south of Stewart Avenue and west of South 17th Avenue, with most classes being held in the north hall and a few in south hall.
None of the facilities south of Garfield Avenue, including the field house, two art studios and Marathon Hall, are being used regularly, and neither is a three-bay greenhouse near the main campus building. The commercial kitchen on campus is being used as a business incubator, she said, but several old science labs, an auditorium and a 1960s-era planetarium are not.
The UW Center for Community Engagement, which features a large auditorium, is frequently rented out, and about 12,000 square feet is leased to non-profits and entities such as Wisconsin Public Radio and the Wisconsin Institute for Public Policy and Service, she noted.
Robinson, who served on the campus workgroup, expressed concerns about the campus drifting away from its core mission of being a center for learning if other entities move in to use the space.
“If it’s not an educational facility, what is it? What changes will there be?” he wondered.
Stock said students who continue to attend UW-SP at Wausau are now more interested in getting started on a four-year degree rather than just finishing a two-year program, and with the option of online classes, they are also not likely to spend long periods of time on campus.
“We are one of the many things that they have in their lives,” she said. “So, they’re working full-time, if not more than fulltime. They have family obligations. They have college obligations.”
Enrollment has dropped considerably in recent years, from a former average of around 1,000 down to the current 364, according to information at the UW’s Go Wisconsin website.
Robinson said it’s “critical” to bring the enrollment up to at least 600 full-time students so the campus can be self-supporting instead of being subsidized by the main UW-SP campus. He suggested engaging the business community to find out what kind of programs would benefit future employees.
Stock said the campus is already collaborating with Northcentral Technical College (NTC) on a four-year technology management degree and hosting a site for UWMadison’s physicians assistant program. Those types of partnerships are likely to increase in the future, she said.
Besides wanting to maintain the UW campus as resource for educating and training the local workforce, the county is also heavily invested in the facilities as the landlord.
County administrator Lance Leonhard said the county is potentially looking at having to spend millions of dollars on the campus facilities over the next few years just to keep them operational. He suggested the county revisit its lease with the UW Board of Regents, written in the 1970s, to see if it needs to be updated in light of the changing circumstances.
Stock said the $2.5 million budget allotted to the campus by the UW System includes all of the salaries and wages for professors and support staff, plus about $800,000 for utilities, custodial costs and other buildings and ground maintenance.
“We would like to not be paying 100 percent of the utilities when we’re using 21 percent of the space,” she said. “That’s money taken away from student support.”
When supervisor Wayne Hagen asked what would happen in a “worst-case scenario” with the campus being shut down, Stock said it would ultimately be up to the county to decide what to do with the buildings, but before that happens, she said UWSP is having proactive conversations to find viable options going forward.
Robinson said the report from the Campus Utilization Workgroup will eventually be shared with county members to guide them in making future decisions.
“We’ve all read about the two-year campuses being closed in communities with very little notice,” he said. “I think we’re fortunate to have the affiliation with UWStevens Point and their willingness to engage in discussion on a path forward.”
A SMALLER FOOTPRINT - According to the dean, Gretel Stock, staff and students at UW-Stevens Point at Wausau are only using portions of the building highlighted in black on a regular basis. The Center For Civic Engagement is used by Wisconsin Public Radio and other organizations, but all of the buildings south of Garfield Avenue are mostly unused.
