$241M In Major Building Projects Underway At UW-La Crosse

With $241 million in major, long-term building projects underway, the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse campus stands to look very different in a matter of years.

Chancellor Joe Gow says UWL’s facilities are experiencing a period of growth unprecedented in the school’s history. The UW System Board of Regents recently approved $62 million in capital projects for the campus. If those are approved by the State Building Commission, UWL will build a new residence hall, expand its student recreation facility, and renovate an historic, 100-year-old academic building.

The projects would be funded by student fees and program revenue, not with state tax dollars.

Gow said there are many factors that have enabled the proposed construction.

“I think one of the key things is that the enrollment has increased pretty significantly over the past 20 years,” said Gow. “Also, many of the buildings on campus were built long ago — 50 (years), sometimes longer.”

There are other ongoing building projects and renovations at UWL that are further along in development. Construction on a new student union will begin this spring, and last year, the state approved funding to replace an outdated science building on UWL’s campus.

Gow said that while the campus is undergoing a lot of physical growth, UWL is close to its optimal enrollment numbers.

“Certainly we could take more students, but we want to protect that personalized experience. We’ve worked very hard over the past five, six years to add faculty and staff to bring down the student-faculty ratio,” he said.

Gow says UWL is in the beginning phases of planning the construction of an indoor track facility, which his staff is proposing to student government this week.