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Robert M. La Follette
School of Public Affairs
1225 Observatory Drive
Madison, WI 53706

Telephone: 608.262.3581
Fax: 608.265.3233

Last updated:
August 18, 2011

Alumni and Friends: La Follette Notes Spring 2006

From the director: New building in works for La Follette

If all goes well, La Follette will occupy a new building in the fall of 2011.

The recently released Campus Master Plan includes several new buildings in the center of campus, a new La Follette School among them.

From the Director
Donald Nichols

After extensive development of the west campus—the hospital, the new Med School and all medical-related activities— and after announcement of a dramatic plan to re-develop the east campus with new arts and humanities building—the updated plan addresses central campus and the La Follette School.

Our building will not be large. It will fit on a small piece of lawn left on Charter Street adjacent to Ingraham Hall near the intersection of Observatory Drive. No deconstruction will be required. (Old- timers need to know that what is now called Ingraham was once the Commerce Building that housed the Business School.) There is quite a stretch of grass between Ingraham and Charter Street, and it is on that grass that our new building will go—currently planned at four stories with a 10,000-square-foot footprint.

The site keeps us close to the many departments and units with which we share faculty, such as Economics and Sociology and the Institute for Research on Poverty. By moving half a block east, we will be closer to Political Science in North Hall.

We need to find a major donor for the building—we are looking for $4.5 million (I almost said only $4.5 million, because many buildings on campus each require $20 million in gifts), and the other tenant is looking for $3 million. With this money in hand we hope the state will match and a $15 million building can be built.

Naturally, we love our old house on the hill, but it provides offices to only half of our faculty and to none of our student project assistants. Ten years ago La Follette was cramped when it had 4.5 full-time-equivalent faculty and about eight FTE staff. We now have 19 faculty and 10 staff who are full or part time. All need office space. Having the whole school under one roof will be good for our many mutually supportive missions, and faculty who have offices near each other will be better able to share ideas and collaborate on crafting policy solutions.

A new facility also will better serve our alumni, many of whom work in Madison. More meeting space and an accessible, central location for faculty and staff in a building wired for modern technology means we will be better able to respond when alumni and friends of the school bring questions or ideas to us.

I should note that this is my last year as director of the La Follette School. This summer I will retire after 40 years with the University of Wisconsin-Madison, most of them as an economics professor. For the last 16 years I’ve held a joint appointment in public affairs, and it is my pleasure to conclude my career while holding the top spot of this top-notch school of public affairs.

I thank our alumni and friends for their ongoing support of the school, financial and otherwise, and I hope you will be proud of what the school, its faculty, staff, students and alumni will accomplish in the next 10 years, no small part of which is construction of our new building.

Index to La Follette Notes spring 2006