Facilities Management

Ten years ago UW Oshkosh embarked on a major renovation of its Clow Social Science Center and the Nursing/Education building. The project was approved in 2011, but split in two to accommodate other System priorities.

Phase I was completed in 2016 and created a state-of-the-art facility to train and teach nurses, including interactive learning spaces and simulation labs. Phase II concentrates on teacher education and adds active learning classrooms, a science education lab, a distance learning lab, outreach workspace and gathering spaces for student collaboration.

Phase II was expected to begin when Phase I ended, and the project was listed as a high priority. Approval was expected in both the 2013-15 and 2015-17 biennium budgets. As UW Oshkosh moved through the litigation issues related to the Foundation, the Budget Committee removed Phase II from the 2015-17 list. Those issues are now behind us. In the 2019-21 budget, UW Regents bumped the project down the priority list. However, the project is now high in the Regents’ 2021-23 priorities.

We graduate more than 200 teachers each year, but our classrooms were built for dated methods of instruction–a podium, a platform and seating arrangements designed for students to sit, listen and learn. When the building was constructed in 1970, it had blackboards, a darkroom and projectors. Currently our education students aren’t exposed to modern learning environments until they begin their student teaching in a K-12 district.

UW Oshkosh is not only ready but anxious to finish this hands-on, high-impact learning environment that will help lead Wisconsin forward. It’s time our campus that excels at preparing the teachers of tomorrow offers its students the technology of today, learning environments that enhance student success and lab experiences that help stretch their minds so they can inspire their students.

It’s time to get this project done.

Andrew J. Leavitt, Chancellor
Robert Roberts, Vice Chancellor of University Affairs