Staff and faculty members gathered in Reeve Union to hear about possible changes to the UW-Oshkosh master plan on Monday and Tuesday.
The meeting began with Tom Sonnleitner, vice chancellor for Administrative Services, explaining how they will go about putting the new plan into effect. Administration and planning committee members have been discussing how to improve the Oshkosh campus for a while.
Now they are just beginning to bring their ideas up for discussion among faculty and staff, as well as any interested students. The next step is to take it to the community.
“We will invite the community to come to campus sometime in December, then take the plan to the City Planning Commission,” Sonnleitner said.
After they get input, the next step would be to take it to the Board of Regents, which will happen sometime in April, according to Sonnleitner.
After Sonnleitner finished explaining the process, it was time to go into specifics.
Ken Saiki, from Ken Saiki Design, Inc. presented details about the improvements they wanted to make to campus. One of the main areas Saiki discussed was traffic around campus.
“We want to take some of the traffic out of the heart of campus and make it a much more pedestrian friendly area,” he said.
To help control traffic flow, the idea of adding a roundabout on High Avenue near Woodland Avenue was proposed. According to Saiki, this will help control traffic speeds and allow traffic to move much more smoothly. This is very similar to the roundabout they have at the UW-Madison campus.
Also talked about was the possibility of redirecting traffic off of Algoma Boulevard and taking it down to a street by the river.
“There will be some changes in how people get around and how we may be directing folks,” Saiki said.
In his presentation, Saiki showed examples of new signs that may be added around the campus to direct people.
This will help eliminate some confusion when streets and traffic flow change. Also, much like the Madison campus, there will most likely be a large UW-Oshkosh sign incorporated into the roundabout to welcome people to campus.
Saiki also discussed possible changes and improvements to parking on campus.
“We want to look at parking in a much more holistic sense,” Saiki said.
In an effort to be more environmentally friendly, they plan to add plants, trees and other greens to the existing parking lots.
In addition to being more aesthetically pleasing, this will help improve the quality of the groundwater and sediment on campus.
Another idea discussed was replacing the River Center and turning it into a new recreation center.
Unlike the existing Student Recreation and Wellness Center, this new center will be more oriented towards outdoor activities.
Overall, these ideas are all generated toward making Oshkosh a more urban campus.
“Slowly but surely we’ll get there, more aesthetically, than we are today,” Saiki said.
Then Michael Lizotte, interim director of sustainability, began his discussion on the improvements planned for pedestrians and bicyclists on campus.
“Our bike lanes do not meet national standards,” Lizotte said.
Lizotte brought up the idea of “complete streets,” or streets that service the needs of all who use them, not just vehicles. This would include adding larger bike lanes, larger crosswalks and islands.
To help improve health and lower the amount of traffic on campus, having more bicyclists would be very beneficial.
Lizotte discussed potentially adding special parking areas that were covered, specifically for bikes.
“The only thing we’re certain about is that every time we increase the bike parking, it begins to fill,” Lizotte said.
After the presentation, those in attendance brought up their ideas, concerns and questions regarding the plans.
The audience questioned how these plans may affect snow plowing, handicapped students and coordination with city bus routes.
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