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Fall Welcome Back Issue 2013
Rec Sports suggests updates to facilities By Tamar Myers the daily cardinal
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Blank met with campus press in her new office on Bascom Hill and discussed building relationships on campus, giving back to the state and embracing new revenue streams.
Chancellor Blank shares plans for UW’s future By Tamar Myers and Megan Stoebig The Daily Cardinal
In a meeting with campus press on Aug. 26 in her recently unpacked office atop Bascom Hill, new University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank stressed the importance of building relationships with the campus community and legislators, upholding responsibility to the state and utilizing new revenue streams. Blank, who previously served under President Barack Obama as Secretary of Commerce, began her tenure as chancellor in July, succeeding David Ward. She said she is eager to begin the year ahead and has many plans for UW-Madison. In terms of building relationships, Blank said it is important for her to get to know the university by seeing firsthand how it operates. “I’ve visited every one of the schools and colleges,” Blank said. “I wanted to go physically over to where they were as opposed to having the dean come here into my office. I want to see where people live.” Blank welcomed new students to campus by visiting residence halls on the first move-in day, speaking an convocation and celebrating the first football game in true Badger fashion by hosting a tailgate. Blank also said she is concerned about her relationship with legislators “at the other end of State Street.” “I really need to … feel like
we have pretty open lines of communication, and that’s not something you do with one visit,” Blank said. “That’s something you do over time, getting to know people.” Still, she said her predecessor David Ward did an “excellent job” of maintaining relationships with these politicians, so she doesn’t feel much need to do catch-up work. Beyond Madison, Blank feels the university has an obligation to give back to Wisconsin.
“Most people out there aren’t very actively thinking... ‘Gosh, I wonder what the University of Wisconsin’s doing in my community. If we don’t tell them, they don’t know.” Rebecca Blank chancellor University of Wisonsin-Madison
“I’m quite committed to the idea that we have responsibility to the state, that’s just fundamental to our very founding,” Blank said. Blank said the university does provide benefits to the state in many ways, such as the medical school’s clinics and the School of Education’s training for teachers. In addition, she said UW-Madison has an economic impact on the state. For instance, many companies come to Wisconsin because they want connections with the research university.
However, she said she feels the university has not done a good job with talking publicly about these benefits. “Most people out there aren’t very actively thinking… ‘Gosh, I wonder what the University of Wisconsin’s doing in my community,’” Blank said. “If we don’t tell them, they don’t know.” In regard to tuition and funding, Blank said she believes the school has done a good job of leveraging state money, tuition and federal research dollars, but a fourth piece, private donor funding, will need more emphasis. To increase these donations, she said the school should work with the alumni foundation to launch a major fundraising campaign. Blank said certain projects around campus may appeal to private donors, most of which should not be funded by state and tuition dollars. “Some of that is building some buildings that the state is not going to fund, like an art museum… but the right thing to fund with private donor dollars,” Blank said. Overall, Blank said she missed the energy of the college experience and is glad to be back. “The fun parts of universities are that there are students here,” she said. “And it’s one of the things I have really missed in the last five years that I’ve been away from the universities. You’re with all of these middleaged people and you just say, ‘Is there no one young around here? Can we not have some other conversations?’”
Recreational sports officials are in the process of creating a proposal, which if successful, would lead to large-scale changes to campus recreation centers and most likely an increase in student segregated fees. According to Recreational Sports Director John Horn, Rec Sports facilities, which include the Natatorium, the Southeast Recreational Facility, the Nielsen Tennis Center and the Shell, are outdated by at least 30 years. In addition, Horn said UW-Madison’s recreational facilities total around 12,000 square feet and have over 100,000 eligible users. He said colleges should have 1.5 square feet of recreation space for every eligible user, according to guidelines set by both the National Intramural-Recreational Sports Association and the American
College of Sports Medicine. Instead of spending money to maintain outdated buildings, Horn believes it is more sensible to develop a long-term strategy to improve facilities. To accomplish this, Rec Sports created the Master Plan Committee to bring staff and students together to create a proposal for expanding and renovating current facilities. In addition, two students also started Badgers for Recreational Reform, an organization that hopes to gather ideas about what students want from their sports facilities. “The rec centers are meant for students; they’re the ones who end up paying for them,” said Dylan Fiedler, a University of Wisconsin-Madison junior and BRR member. “It’s important that their voices are heard.” After planning is completed,
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Rec Sports officials are creating a referendum, that if passed would renovate facilities such as the SERF, pictured above.
New ‘green’ residence hall opens doors to students By Megan Stoebig the daily cardinal
The University of WisconsinMadison opened a new residence hall for fall 2013, named Aldo Leopold Hall, which focuses on educating students about conservation and sustainable living habits. The facility, which was temporarily called New 32 Hall,
is located next to Kronshage Residence Hall on the west end of campus. It was named in July after former UW-Madison professor Aldo Leopold, who is often considered the father of the wildlife management and conservation movement. Director of Marketing for
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“…the great state University of Wisconsin should ever encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found.”