Who Knew?
Q. How many people does it take to keep all the flowers on campus in splendid array?
A. Not a whole bunch. Just five gardeners work with the approximately 70,000 flowers and plants that make up the beautiful gardens on the 933 acres of main campus.
Most plants are grown from seeds or saplings in campus greenhouses each year and then are planted around campus, including at the president’s house and the chancellor’s rsidence.
As fall approaches, the grounds crews are “watering quite a bit,” says Tom Homburg, grounds supervisor. They’re also “bringing some cuttings in off of stuff that we don’t grow from seed before the weather changes.”
In addition, he says, “Some of the beds that look kind of ratty we’re replacing with that flowering kale.” In another three or four weeks, the university’s tulip bulbs should arrive for fall planting.
The big “W” on University Avenue at Park Street will stay red with begonias this fall. Petunias have been tried there, Homburg says, but they’re not tough enough to hold their shape and color in Wisconsin’s inconsistent weather.
Q. Why doesn’t UW–Madison have an architecture department?
A. Well, it doesn’t appear to need one. According to the folks in the know, UW-Milwaukee’s School of Architecture and Urban Planning serves the state just fine, and UW–Madison provides the other end of the spectrum through its Department of Landscape Architecture.
“There’s probably some question as to whether or not the state could afford to support two colleges of architecture rather than one,” says Stephen Born, chair of the Department of Urban and Regional Planning. “I think the main reason is really not to duplicate.”
Al Beaver, who recently announced his retirement as interim chancellor of UW-Extension, agrees. As a former UW System administrator, he says he doesn’t recall anyone proposing a separate architecture department at UW–Madison.
When new programs or majors are proposed by one campus today, the proposal is circulated among the vice chancellors from each UW campus, Beaver says. “Comments come back to System administration as to whether there’s any difficulty or questions or concerns or whatever.”
“No campus official has a veto over another campus, but we try to ferret out any points of contention,” says Gary Alexander, a UW System senior academic planner. Some joint programs currently operate between two campuses. Ultimately, any proposal must be OK’d by the Board of Regents.
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