Chancellor Mnookin with Tom Smart in Naples, Florida!
Tom Smart, March 17, 2023: It was my pleasure to represent the Motor City Badgers at the reception for Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin that was hosted by the WAA Naples Chapter at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Naples, Florida on March 17. There were approximately 200 UW alumni in attendance to enjoy the program, with excellent hors d'oeuvres and an open bar beforehand. UW Foundation president Mike Knetter welcomed everyone and introduced Chancellor Mnookin.
The Chancellor started with some Q&A slides that she used to bring us up to speed on interesting UW facts and figures. 60,000 Freshmen apply for 8,100 openings. It takes an average of 3.85 years to earn an undergraduate degree. UW-Madison is a top-5 producer of tenure-track faculty. 57% of undergrads finish without student debt. Bucky's Pell Pathway: UW–Madison pledges to meet the full financial need for four years for new first-year Wisconsin resident students who qualify for Pell Grants. Pell-eligible transfer students from Wisconsin will receive two years of full-need funding.
The Raimey-Noland Campaign aims to enroll more underrepresented students, attract diverse faculty, staff, and mentors, improve social and racial justice, and provide academic support and career prep.
Building News: A new Computer, Data & Information Sciences (CDIS) building will open in 2025; CDIS enrollment outpaces all majors. A new Chemistry Building opened in 2022. A proposed new, 340,000 sf Engineering Building would replace the existing 64,000 sf building, doubling the capacity of new students to 2,000 from the 7,000 applicants per year. A new Letters & Science building is slated to replace the deteriorating and unloved Humanities Building, and the Lincoln statue will stay at Bascom Hall!