To meet growing demand for STEM professionals, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee is planning an upgrade of its engineering facilities.
UW-Milwaukee requested a $19.2 million investment be included in the 2025-27 biennial budget for project planning and design for its engineering and neuroscience building project. Gov. Tony Evers has included $6.9 million for the project in his proposed capital budget, but that funding is also contingent upon the transfer of supplemental funds to the state’s Building Trust Fund. The final state budget is determined by the state Legislature and then subject to Evers' approval, or the Legislature overriding any vetoes by the governor.
The university previously received $500,000 in 2021 to begin the planning process for this project, which includes renovating the Engineering & Mathematical Sciences building and replacing the former physics building with a new facility. The new building would provide additional capacity for engineering students as well as the university’s growing neuroscience program.
Going back to 2010, the university identified engineering and psychology/neuroscience as “top academic facility needs” in its long-range campus development plan, according to UWM’s website. These needs were further solidified through a 2015 study of the Southwest Quadrant of the campus, where UWM's STEM programs are housed.
The current engineering facilities are outdated, said Melissa Spadanuda, associate vice chancellor of facilities, planning and management at UWM. The 251,000-square-foot EMS building was built in 1968. About 175,500 square feet of space at the EMS building could be renovated as part of the project.
“When you walk into our EMS building, it’s built like the '60s, with small spaces, not a lot of open, interactive educational or research spaces,” Spadanuda said. “If students are comparing us to other institutions, they might come here and then be more attracted to an institution with more modern spaces to reflect that interactive opportunity. We have those opportunities, they’re just not seeing that when they tour the facility.”
More than 1,400 students accepted into UWM’s engineering and computer science programs in the past five years have turned down offers to instead enroll at out-of-state schools, according to the university’s website.
UWM’s neuroscience program, which is part of the psychology department, would share space inside the facility planned to replace the university’s former physics building. The neuroscience program “faces accreditation risks” because its facility space at Garland Hall and Pearse Hall “cannot be renovated to meet teaching and research compliance standards,” according to the university’s website.
The 108,000-square-foot former physics building, which would be demolished to make way for the new engineering and neuroscience building, was also constructed in the 1960s. UWM determined it would be more cost effective to build a new facility in its place than to renovate the building. Most of the physics programs relocated to the Kenwood Interdisciplinary Research Center on campus in 2015, according to the capital budget.
“When we looked at that square footage wise, engineering needed some square footage,” Spadanuda said. “Rather than them getting two separate buildings, one for psychology and one for engineering, it was most financially responsible to put them in a shared facility. There’s also some really great synergies between neuroscience and engineering that we could bring together with that opportunity.”
The requested $19.2 million would have ensured the project was ready for construction and demolition by the 2027-29 biennium. At that time, UWM would request funding to cover the renovation, demolition and construction costs.
Spadanuda said she has not evaluated which parts of the project design could be completed based on the $6.9 million Evers included in the proposed capital budget.
This model of project planning and construction follows the timeline structure of UWM’s health sciences renovation project, Spadanuda said. The university similarly requested funding for planning and design so that the project could be “shovel ready” when requesting funds for construction. UWM has requested $189.3 million to renovate 323,900 square feet of space in the former Columbia Hospital complex located on its campus. The project would unify UWM’s health sciences programs.
“Having that design completed up front allows us to be more accurate with the potential construction costs for these projects when we go to request enumeration for construction through the capital budget,” Spadanuda said.
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