UWM research plan in fast lane: Chancellor wants to break ground for new campus by end of '08, but funding questions persist
BYLINE: John Schmid, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Apr. 8--The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee has set a breakneck timetable to begin construction of a $143 million engineering campus and research park just west of the city before the end of 2008, even as major questions remain about how to pay for it.
UWM Chancellor Carlos Santiago, warning that the metro region cannot afford to lag behind the pace of economic change, last week laid out an economic development vision that exceeds in scope and speed anything that UWM previously has outlined in public.
UWM's expansion, envisioned on a hilly swath of unused Milwaukee County land in Wauwatosa, is meant to create a critical mass of research-driven institutions that "attracts companies to the region and produces companies directly from the university," according to a UWM document that Santiago has been sending to potential donors.
The proposed 55-acre UWM Innovation Park would be immediately north of an existing complex of research institutions, notably the Medical College of Wisconsin, which has nearly 1,000 scientists and physicians and $126 million in annual research funding.
UWM aims to align its technology labs with the needs of private industry, draw new investment and talent, and build what supporters call an economic engine for a metro region caught in a 30-year economic decline.
"New companies are not coming into the state," Santiago told the Journal Sentinel. "That's a competitive edge that the region has lost."
India and China began investing heavily in their research universities more than a decade ago and managed to shift global competition onto a new plane that's defined by research, technology and engineering talent. Meanwhile, the commodity manufacturing that once powered southeastern Wisconsin has been moving to China and other lower-cost locations.
For the cost of one engineer in the United States, a company can hire 11 in India, according to the National Academies, a U.S. government advisory body. And the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a Paris-based multinational think tank, last year announced that China spends more on research and development as a share of its economy than Japan and became the world's second-highest investor in R&D after the United States.
Santiago points to a continued loss of jobs throughout southeastern Wisconsin. But he notes that Milwaukee still has an opportunity to retain its cluster of "advanced manufacturing" companies, which require a steady stream of technology workers, software engineers and research and development investment. UWM in January announced that Rockwell Automation Inc. will help UWM build a technology research program to support the region's advanced manufacturing sector.
If the region loses the advanced manufacturing sector, Santiago said, "then we lose the competitive advantage in manufacturing."
The medical complex already ranks as an important economic engine, said Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker. "This would only add jet fuel to that engine," Walker said.
"This is a strategy that gets us closer to the vision of a globally competitive region in an innovation economy," said Tim Sheehy, president of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce. "It's exactly the kind of project that has broad regional impact."
Economist's perspective
Santiago, an economist, argues that no big metropolitan area has transitioned into the 21st century knowledge-driven economy without a research-based university at its core. He told the newspaper that he has spent weeks lobbying politicians and flying around the nation to meet with big-dollar donors from the private sector.
Past UWM construction projects have taken eight to 13 years, Santiago said, adding that he's unwilling to settle for anything longer than six to eight years for the entire engineering school expansion.
"His timetable is aggressive, but it's necessary for the metro economy to keep pace with the world marketplace," said Thomas Hefty, retired CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield United of Wisconsin and an economic-development activist who co-chaired Gov. Jim Doyle's Economic Growth Council from 2003-'05.
But at this point, Santiago freely admits that he still doesn't have the money he needs, doesn't own the land, and has not yet begun expanding the 60 engineering-school faculty members to 100, as he plans.
One potential hitch that could derail the UWM project lies in the Madison statehouse, where some lawmakers for years have opposed increases to the state's higher-education spending.
Doyle, who endorses UWM's expansion, has earmarked an additional $10 million in the state's 2007-'09 budget for the project. If Doyle and the UW System fail to push their UW "growth" budget through the Legislature, then Santiago cannot hire new faculty, donors will go away, and the UWM project will lose momentum.
"I'd have to turn to Plan B, and I don't have a Plan B," Santiago said.
Santiago also must succeed in selling the plan to the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors. Walker said he's heard no opposition from the County Board so far.
The Milwaukee 7, a southeastern Wisconsin development group that's drafting an economic master plan for the region, has put UWM's expansion on its legislative agenda "from the start" and "championed it as well with meetings with the governor for budget inclusion," said Julia Taylor, president of the Greater Milwaukee Committee, a civic group that helps drive the M7.
UW System President Kevin Reilly, who appeared with Santiago before the newspaper's editorial board, endorsed the Santiago plan. "We need more engineers who get their degrees here and stay here," Reilly said.
Big ambitions
Milwaukee is home to three relatively small engineering schools. UWM's landlocked east side campus lacks room for expansion. The school now crowds its scientists into a cramped building with antiquated facilities designed in the 1960s.
Marquette University has joined UWM in playing catch-up with a $167 million plan to modernize its College of Engineering. The Milwaukee School of Engineering last year completed a capital campaign that raised $77 million to build facilities and bolster its programs.
Universities in Milwaukee collectively generate $160 million a year in research grants.
"That's too small for a region as large as we are," Santiago told the editorial board. The medical complex on the county's west side, which has been the biggest driver of research to date, two years ago prompted GE Healthcare, a division of General Electric Co., to build an $89 million complex in the Milwaukee County Research Park for its information-systems division.
Santiago said UWM emulates the University of Illinois at Chicago, which alone generates $300 million in equivalent funds. While Wisconsin spends $4,500 per student at UWM, Illinois spends twice that much.
Previously, UWM said only that it planned to build a $70 million engineering school, but never gave a timetable. Last week it said the $70 million engineering building will stand at the heart of the $143 million Innovation Park, surrounded by a business incubation center and a Wisconsin Institute for Biomedical Health Technology.
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