Instead of releasing details on the proposed Davies Center expansion project, student leadership presented a proposal for a brand new student center.

The surprise announcement came at Monday’s Chancellor’s Roundtable in the Menominee room of Davies Center. Nearly 55 students and faculty were in attendance at the meeting.

Student Senate President Sarah Schuh, and former President Andy Oettinger, presented a plan for a new student center. Schuh and Oettinger are members of the staff and student Davies Center expansion committee.

“We wanted to give it to you ourselves,” Oettinger said as he began the PowerPoint presentation that outlined the $36.1 million referendum needed for the new center.

Student centers are not state-funded, so the money for the new center would be from the students. Oettinger and Schuh said this means increasing student segregated fees by $102 per full-time student, each semester.

When adding the $38 increase approved by the original Davies expansion referendum in 2000, the total amount of segregated fees spent on a new center would reach $140 per student. The increase would be phased in over three academic years, beginning in fall 2004, a pamphlet distributed at the roundtable stated.

Schuh presented the case for a new center, and the analysis of the current center, made by the Davies Center expansion committee and area building consultants.

The analysis found that cracks in the building and the roof must be repaired, and the heating system needs to be upgraded.

After meeting with the consultants, the committee came to the conclusion that expanding Davies would cost $33.7 million, not the $8.5 million originally approved in a March 2000 student referendum.

To improve the heating and cooling system alone, Schuh said $5 million would be used and the new air handling systems would take up more space in Davies.

“We would still be left with the same building,” Schuh said, “just expanded.”

The committee declared in a unanimous decision to propose a new center.

If the new center is built, Davies will still be available. When the new center is complete, Schuh said Davies will be demolished and replaced with an expanded courtyard.

Vice chancellor Andy Soll said the $36.1 million includes funds for furnishing and operating the new facility and the demolition of Davies.

The tentative time frame of the project depends on the success of the new referendum. Assuming construction starts in 2006 when the project would be in the budget, Soll said construction should take 18 to 24 months to complete.

Exact details on the location of the new center are still pending until a site study can be done to find a suitable space, Soll said.

A possible location for the new center would be between Davies and the Phillips parking lot, he said.

Though this is the first the student body heard of plans for a new center, expanding Davies is not a brand new issue.

“This has been in the works for a long time,” he said. “(It’s) not something we came to easily and quickly.”

A referendum for upgrades to Davies Center with a price tag of $8.5 million was passed in a March 2000 referendum by 76 percent of the voting student body.

A planning committee of five students and five staff members went through expansion options with building consultants and UW System administration over the past year to come to the current proposal.

Schuh said the committee spent time consulting with students in surveys and interviews to see what changes they wanted in Davies.

Students surveyed by the committee wanted more dining space, more natural lighting, more lounge space and a fitness center, she said.

Students have the chance to approve or deny the $36.1 million referendum when it is put on the ballot for the Student Senate elections, March 3 to 6.

When asked how the committee can “sell” its recommendation to the current student body, Oettinger listed his reasons.

“Short answer – we won’t be the ones paying for it,” he said. “Long answer – the overriding sentiment is it is an investment in the future. I look at it as a kind of legacy.”