STEVENS POINT, Wis. (WSAU) — Thursday was the official start for the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point’s new Chemistry and Biology building. The 70-million dollar project took years of planning and working with the state Legislature, Governor, and Building Commission to get it approved.
Chancellor Bernie Patterson says getting a new state of the art science facility is a milestone for the 102 year old university. “This is our first free-standing academic building, new one, in over forty years.”
UW System President Ray Cross, several legislators, members of the steering committee and the Building Commission, and Governor Scott Walker addressed the crowd. Walker commending the UWSP officials for their efforts to bring this building through the approval process. “Going forward, we’re going to focus on good projects like this. We were certainly pleased to approve it going through the Legislative process with the budget I signed, but ultimately through the Building Commission, you (Chancellor Patterson) mentioned, not once, but twice.”
Patterson says the new facility will have state-of-the-art chemistry labs and many of the biology courses, meaning every UWSP student will have an opportunity to attend classes in the new center. “Every student that passes through our halls will have an opportunity to take classes in this building, whether you’re in the business school, or the school of education, of the history department, it doesn’t matter. It will impact every student here.”
Construction is underway, and crews are preparing to pour footings already. Weather permitting, it should be ready in about two years.
Walker was not a welcome sight to many students and alumni, since it was his budget initiative that led to 250 million dollars in cuts to the UW System last year. A large group of them booed and heckled the Governor, and chanted “No more cuts” in support of restoring previous UW funding levels.
(You can listen to Chancellor Bernie Patterson speak about the new building on our website, here. You can also watch a live stream video of the construction site, set up by UWSP students here.)
