Changes greet employees as they return to UW

Sure, it was summer. But that doesn’t mean that everything on campus stood still.

In fact, as the campus community prepares for the new academic year, there are a number of important, visible changes in store. Here’s a list of some of them, so you can be ready for 2006-07.

There’s a new, free campus bus route.

Route 85, called the South Park Circulator, complements the existing Route 80 bus and offers daytime service every seven minutes on weekdays during the academic year and every 15 minutes during recess periods.

It will travel from 21 N. Park St., the site of a new residence hall, the new Lot 29 parking ramp and office building, to Lake Street to the Memorial Union. From there, it will travel up Observatory Drive to Charter Street and on to Union South. From there, the bus will travel via Dayton, Mills and Regent streets back to Park Street.

The My UW Internet portal received a facelift, and the tech folks added a bunch of improvements. They improved security and designed the site to make personal content more accessible.

For the first time, Elizabeth Waters Hall will welcome men as residents. The all-women’s residence hall goes co-ed this year, while Cole Hall becomes an all-women’s dorm. Its capacity is 244 residents, about half the capacity of Elizabeth Waters Hall.

As part of the transition, the Women in Science and Engineering program will move from Elizabeth Waters Hall to Cole Hall.

Street construction on Linden Drive and Henry Mall is complete, and Observatory Drive is scheduled to open in time for the residence hall move-in. The work was part of a months-long project that upgraded utilities in the central part of campus.

The project added a bike lane along Observatory Drive, improved street lighting and a raised crosswalk in front of the Natatorium.

As part of that project, athletic fields east and west of Elm Drive along Observatory Drive were raised several feet for improved drainage. They will be planted with a special sports turf seed mix but won’t be available for recreation for another year. Officials warn that it will take a full year for the turf to establish itself and ask that people stay off of the fields during that time.

Moped drivers are being required for the first time to purchase $55 annual parking permits beginning in 2006-07. The scooters will also be required to park only in marked stalls on campus.

Last year, the university began providing the moped stalls on campus — and ticketing those who failed to use them — as a way to reduce conflicts between a growing number of scooters, pedestrians and bicyclists. Officials estimate that about 850 mopeds are parked on campus at any given time.

Moped drivers must use designated moped parking stalls or face $60 tickets. Permit applications and more information is available at http://www2.fpm.wisc.edu/ trans/.

The expansion of on-campus wireless Internet service continued. When the semester begins, 60 percent of campus buildings will have wireless service ready to go.

An extra dining room, to accommodate an increased number of on-campus housing residents, will open in Gordon Commons.

It was announced that Olin House, the official residence of the UW–Madison chancellor, will receive a privately funded renovation. Work on the 95-year-old red brick home, designed in the Late Gothic Revival style, is expected to begin this fall.

Chancellor John D. Wiley and his wife, Georgia, took advantage of an opportunity to purchase a condominium in downtown Madison and relocated there this summer. The Wileys do not intend to move back into Olin House and will not accept a housing allowance.

Olin House, 130 N. Prospect Ave., requires extensive updates to make it more energy efficient and livable and to protect the historic home. The renovations were recommended by the Olin House Advisory Committee, a group of community and university volunteers.

“The renovations, which have been needed for several years, will make it a much more functional home for my successor, once I decide to retire. It will also relieve that person of having to undertake this project as one or his or her first acts,” Wiley said.