The School
June 2009
New Building Progress
Recently, the Joint Finance Committee of the Wisconsin State Legislature passed a building commission omnibus motion that enumerated the construction of a new School of Nursing Facility at UW–Madison as part of the 2009-11 state building program. The building had been in the UW System capital budget request for enumeration in 2011. The total cost was $47,346,000. This recent action would have meant that the state was authorizing $28,069,700 in general fund supported bonding and $5,451,000 in program revenue supported bonding to support this project. The remaining $13,825,300 would come from gifts and grants. That enumeration was recently taken out of the 2009-11 state budget.
The Assembly Democratic caucus passed a motion to remove from the 2009 budget funding for construction of the Nursing Science Center. Leaders at the UW and in the Legislature were concerned that this enumeration short circuited a traditional process for construction. It was extremely gratifying to see that members of the Wisconsin legislature were aware of and responding to the need for more Wisconsin nurses and School of Nursing faculty, but it's important to point out that the legislative enumeration for the building during the 2009 budget cycle was also quite unexpected. The School of Nursing has been planning the construction of this building for several years and will continue to move forward working through the UW system process. We have been assured by UW–Madison leadership that our new building will be a campus priority for enumeration in the next biennium. We will begin preparations this summer by selecting an architect and completing a design and cost estimate so the project is ready to be bid in the summer of 2011 when the 2011-13 capital budget is approved. This will give us an opportunity to refine the program to balance research and instruction expansion needs, and to update the budget to reflect those changes. It will also allow two years for fundraising objectives to be met. We are not wavering in our objective to complete this project.
Over the next 20 years, Wisconsin expects a serious nursing workforce shortage. The job of registered nurse ranks first among the top 10 occupations with the most openings. By 2014, the State of Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development projects employment totals for registered nurses to reach 64,420–an increase of 26,110 over 10 years. There is no reason to believe that the nursing shortage will go away any time soon. By 2020, one of every six Wisconsin residents will be 65 or older; the ratio will be one of five by 2030.
A new nursing school facility will better enable the School to meet this looming healthcare crisis–to educate more nurses, attract and hire additional faculty, and conduct important research to better address the many challenges that modern nurses face today and will face in the future. We will continue to move forward in the building process and look forward to the engagement of faculty, staff, students and alumni in this exciting venture.
Katharyn A. May, DNSc, RN, FAAN
Dean and Professor, University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Nursing
June 15, 2009