Chancellor Katherine Frank issued the following statement in reaction to the state Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee approval of funding for UW-Stout’s Heritage Hall:
Yesterday evening, the Joint Finance Committee voted to approve funding for the Heritage Hall renovation project. UW-Stout, the City of Menomonie, Dunn County and our statewide business and industry partners welcome this exciting development. We appreciate the committee’s support and recognition of UW-Stout’s critical contributions to Wisconsin.
In my conversations with business and industry partners throughout our state, I have heard significant concerns voiced about childcare, mental health, manufacturing and other issues impacting local economies. Heritage Hall is part of the solution.
Degree programs housed in Heritage produce career-ready teachers, school and clinical mental health counselors, police officers, food scientists, property managers and directors of hotels, restaurants and tourism who, before graduation, provide direct services to our state. Stout graduates are the backbone of Wisconsin communities, large and small.
State funding will rejuvenate the 50-year-old Heritage Hall into a state-of-the-art learning facility. It will double the number of students served each year to more than 4,000. And it will save the state and Wisconsin’s taxpayers more than $10 million a year in projected inflation costs incurred by further building delays.
We will continue to stress the importance of this project to the Assembly, Senate and governor through the remaining steps of the budget process, but I want to repeat my sincere gratitude to members of the Joint Finance Committee for investing in UW-Stout’s impact on Wisconsin’s high-need workforce areas now and into the future.
