UWM has Room to Grow on the East Side
The author of "UWM Downtown not Tosa" attempts to present an alternative to the move of the College of Engineering and Applied Science (CEAS) from the East Side to Wauwatosa. While this is certainly a good suggestion as an alternative, assuming a move is needed at all, it is important to point out that this article unfortunately re-enforces the UWM bureaucrats' view with the statement, "It is clear that UWM has little room for expansion at its current East Side campus..." That is similar to the UWM administration's position that there is no "assignable" space on current UWM land, whatever that means.
One can also say: there is no assignable space on the northeast corner of North and Humboldt. It is of course understandable that the residents of the Riverwest want to enliven their neighborhood and increase the property values. However there is in fact plenty of space on the existing UWM location to build a building not just for the College of Engineering and Applied Science (CEAS), but also for other closely allied science areas, which also need new offices and labs and classrooms. This is especially relevant in light of the push for the so-called "cluster hiring," which is intended to create interdisciplinary research collaboration.
Moving and separating the various parts of "clusters" will most certainly detract from the envisioned goal of collaboration. As for the article's suggestion that the East Side residents do not want the students, this has been a myth presented in just about all meetings of the UWM committees--with no supporting documentation--from the ineffective, so-called faculty governance committees to the ineffective administrative groups that do not make any effort, in spite of their huge salaries, to solve the horrendous parking problems for students (and other residents) by building a sizable parking structure.
A reality check is in order. According to the common database on the UWM home page, the College of Engineering and Applied Science has about 700 declared majors. UWM overall has about 29,000 students. Moving such a tiny fraction from the East Side will hardly have an impact on what the East Side residents allegedly perceive to be problematic, whether it is parking or something else.
Such important and far reaching decisions as fragmenting a campus should not be made lightly or with such reckless disregard for facts.
George Davida
Director-Center for Cryptography, Computer and Network Security
Department of EECS
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
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in passing
Professor Davida assumes that *of course* Riverwesters could use and *surely* they would like to see UWM build on their vacant brownfields. I bet *most* do feel that way. But they're not the ones who make the noise.
The Noise of Complaining about Growth (hiss! boo!) is never far from anything east of I-43 and north of downtown. NIMBYism at its finest. I call it clueless cranky middle-class honkey syndrome. Maybe too many people over 40 or 50 getting hard in the arteries.
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Room to grow but a stance on C
UW Milwaukee has tip toed around their neighboring residents for too long. This is a major university that has occupied the area before the property owners bought their homes. It should be expected that a university should grow and gobble up owner occupied housing for its campus and student housing needs. Now that the Columbia Hospital is available for purchase UWM should acquire the site and use it for the most pressing needs of the University. Perhaps the Medical College of Wisconsin can partner with UWM to create a combined Engineering/Medical research hospital. Build much needed student housing and offer parking to students and employees to begin with. Unless there is a written contract I'm not aware of, UWM should respectfully exert their power to use the Columbia Hospital site without making promises to the neighbors that are unwarranted and self defeating.
Side Note: I'm disappointed that the new student housing is selling bags of chips to the students in the lobby. That's like a hospital selling alcohol and smokes.
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Of course they should expand
The neighbors never had any quarantees to anything. In fact they have been living large on totally inflated rents that they were happy to take in over the years.
UWM is the most important institution in Milwaukee. It produces stable, educated, tax-paying home owners who become the core of our future. We should be doing everything in our power to help the U. become even better. Spreading it out over the city is not a wise use of resources.
I fully agree with the writer above about the self-defeating tiptoeing around the neighbors that UWM engages in. Life is full of changes. NIMBYism is petty and short sighted and not in the interest of the big picture for Milwaukee's health! Get over it neighbors and sell your house for the inflated prices it will bring and move to a neighborhood without a major university.
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