» MSOE residence:
President wants new residence hall
A new residence hall could rise on downtown’s east side in the next few years as the Milwaukee School of Engineering develops a master plan to “feel more like a campus.”
A new residence hall could rise on downtown’s east side in the next few years as the Milwaukee School of Engineering develops a master plan to “feel more like a campus,” according to President John Walz.
The college’s building plans are among several changes being led by Walz, who will be inaugurated as MSOE’s fifth president Saturday. He also has made key leadership appointments and is overseeing a possible expansion of MSOE’s academic mission in tandem with a fundraising campaign for scholarships and to increase its $63 million endowment.
The most high-profile potential development site is a 1.8-acre parking lot, east of N. Water St. and north of E. Juneau Ave., that MSOE bought in 2015.
The lot is just north of the college’s Grohmann Tower Apartments, just west of its Kern Center recreational facility, and southwest of Viets Field, the soccer field that tops MSOE’s largest parking structure.
The school needs to decide how to develop that parking lot, along with other parking lots it owns, Walz said.
Aside from Grohmann Tower, MSOE has two 13story residence halls and a five-story residence hall that together house about 900 students. Those halls were built in the 1960s, and feel like the 1960s, Walz said.
Grohmann Tower, which opened in 2014 at 233 E. Juneau Ave., houses 348 students. MSOE has an enrollment of about 2,900 students in engineering, nursing and business programs.
“We need a modern residence hall to support the academic mission,” Walz said. “We’re doing the hard part right; we have solid academics. We want to build the other parts around it.
MSOE expects to complete two separate studies by summer to inform its strategic planning, which is to begin this fall. One study focuses specifically on MSOE’s future housing needs.
The “living and learning” spaces Walz hopes to create would focus programming around students’ common interests and majors.
Learning communities are popular recruiting tools for colleges. That includes the University of Kentucky, where Walz spent four years and was dean of the College of Engineering before taking his new post at MSOE last summer.
Burgeoning downtown
Walz’s role as MSOE’s new president comes as the downtown landscape is rapidly changing with new
commercial developments, a new Bucks arena and more people living and working downtown.
Roughly 75% of freshmen live on campus — a requirement for those who come from outside a 50-mile radius of campus, Walz said.
Grohmann Tower houses upperclassmen. The university is adding freshmen honors students to that building and will expand a one-year honors program into a two-year program as part of that shift. The tower already has classrooms, Walz said.
Possible programs
Additionally, the strategic planning will look at what new programs could contribute to growing enrollment. Walz would like MSOE to add a computer science program that taps the need for more workers in artificial intelligence and cybersecurity. Walz said he expects a concerted effort to increase enrollment, “but we want to grow it strategically; we never want to sacrifice quality. We have been growing slowly, and I think we’ll continue to see growth over the next 10 years.”
He’s drawing from his experiences at other schools as he leads MSOE into the future. A residence hall at the University of Kentucky had an engineering freshman classroom and lab, plus peer mentoring and tutoring, Walz said.
“It supported the academics and the impact was fantastic,” he said.
Science and engineering learning spaces also need to be updated with the latest digital technology to improve learning and expand opportunities for teams to work across disciplines, he said.
Walz has hired several key members for his leadership team:
A former University of Kentucky colleague, Jeff Snow, just arrived at MSOE as vice president of development and alumni relations. He served as director of college advancement for the UK College of Engineering, where he planned and managed a $110 million capital campaign.
New vice president of academics, Eric Baumgartner, will start July 1. Baumgartner comes to MSOE from Ohio Northern University, where he has served as dean of the T.J. Smull College of Engineering and a mechanical engineering professor since 2006. While at ONU, he executed strategic plans and fundraising campaigns on behalf of the college, and also developed new partnerships and degree programs.
Walz created the new position of executive director of marketing and community engagement and appointed Sebastian “Saj” Thachenkary to the post in February. Thachenkary came to MSOE from Alverno College, where he was director of marketing communications.
“We’re a well-kept secret, and that’s not necessarily a good thing,” Walz said.