Living and Learning Center: Project Background and Rationale
The University of Wisconsin-Baraboo/Sauk County plans to build a Living and Learning Center (LLC) through non-tax levy dollars. This facility would provide:

• the campus with a residential hall for up to 130 students during the academic year
• the city and county with a regional environmental learning center that demonstrates alternative and sustainable technologies to educational, corporate, and civic entities
• the city and county with a state-of-the-art conference center for the summer season It is estimated that this 40,000 square foot facility will cost between $5M and $6M to construct and furnish.

Planning Funds and Processes
UW-B/SC requested capital planning funds from Sauk County through Sauk County’s required processes and committees. The county approved a $100,000 line item in its 2006 budget, thus enabling the campus to develop a campus master plan and the necessary engineering, architectural, and financial work to fully advance the LLC project. The campus has prepared a rough draft of a Qualified Based Selection (QBS) process that outlines how this funding would be utilized. Sauk County’s capital planning investment enables the campus to:

• Update its master planning and adjust for the evolving needs of our many student constituencies
• Confidently move forward in developing the ability to attract the gifts and grants needed to make the LLC a reality
• Provide the county’s many constituencies with an attractive alternative energy demonstration site for future planning and development considerations.

Campus and Community
Since the last major building program on campus (mid 1990’s), UW-B/SC on-campus degree student enrollment has increased from 395 to 548, and a variety of academic and co-curricular initiatives have been successfully implemented. These include the honors, internship, UW-Milwaukee Collaborative Bachelor’s Degree, summer theatre, international student exchange, varsity soccer and tennis, and first year experience programs as well as many others mentioned in the attached annual report.

In addition, more than 3,000 Sauk County residents come to the campus each year for continuing education and cultural programming.  Utilization by all other groups brings more than 10,000 people to campus each year.

The campus has also worked hard to recruit private and public organizations to the campus for statewide or regional meetings. These guests schedule meetings at our campus because of its natura lbeauty, its geographic centrality in the state, and its proximity to Devil’s Lake State Park and Wisconsin Dells.The campus estimates it has an $8M economic impact upon the region each year.

A “green” residence hall/conference facility will enhance the environmental themes that Baraboo and Sauk County have been developing as part of their overall plans to advance the region.

Because UW-Marathon is more than twice the size of UW-B/SC, UW-Richland provides a better model for projecting potential residential enrollment at UW-B/SC. 24% (124) of Richland’s 518 students live in the residential halls. A similar participation rate applied to UW-B/SC’s students would produce 131 students.

• Spring 2004 (97 Students):  64% of respondents would definitely live in the residence hall.
• Fall 2004 (139 Students):  58% of respondents would consider living in the residence hall.
• Spring 2006 (227 Students): 45% would have considered living in the residence hall.

More than that 45% of UW-B/SC students commute more than 40 miles day, making campus living attractive to many of our students for a variety of educational and financial reasons. UW-B/SC student surveys also indicate we need to add more four-year programs to its program mix.  With this development the LLC becomes even more viable, as students will be able to enroll at the campus for their entire undergraduate education.