Three years after students passed a referendum to expand and improve Davies Center, a planning committee finally will submit its proposal to students at Monday’s Chancellor’s Roundtable.

The Davies Center Expansion Planning Committee will present all of the information people have been wondering about, said Student Senate President Sarah Schuh, a committee member.

“The proposal that is coming out is meeting a lot of the students’ needs,” she said.

The roundtable discussion, which will be at 4 p.m. Monday in the Menominee Room of Davies Center, will give students an opportunity to hear the expansion proposal and ask questions.

The proposal submitted by the committee will only include the amount of space and money that will be needed for the project, Schuh said.

“The big part of this is to educate students of the real needs for the building,” she said.

Some of the hidden needs of Davies Center include structural damage and problems with the heating system, Schuh said.

Although students’ comments are encouraged, Schuh said the committee believes its proposal is the best option. The project proposal will be on a referendum in March. Schuh does not foresee making any major changes to the proposal, but if a huge dispute arises, she said the committee would make necessary amendments.

The next item for discussion will be deciding what to put into the new space in Davies, Schuh said. A new committee will be selected to determine who and what will receive space in the building.

Davies Center receives funds through various student fees, so the expansion project will not be affected by budget cuts that are coming to the UW System and UW-Eau Claire, Chancellor Donald Mash said.

The System budget cuts, which will be announced Feb. 18, will also be a topic for discussion at the roundtable.

During the current biennium (September 2000 – May 2003), Eau Claire has received over $2 million in budget reductions, Mash said. Over the next biennium (September 2003 – May 2005), the cuts to the university’s budget will be much more severe, he said.

The budget cuts may delay certain building projects on academic buildings and dormitories, Mash said, but administrators are asking more questions.

Concerns and questions regarding the Davies expansion proposal and the Wisconsin state budget will be the focus of the roundtable. Mash also plans to allow time for other issues that arise.