A $15 million gift from the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) will help expand facilities for the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
The university says the donation will help the veterinary school address a severe space shortage by constructing a new building and connecting it to an existing building that will be remodeled.
Plans for the expansion project were approved as part of the State of Wisconsin’s 2019-21 budget. The budget calls for the School of Veterinary Medicine to provide $38 million in private gift support toward the project; the state is providing $90 million.
With WARF’s $15 million investment, the school has surpassed the $38 million needed for the project to be bid in spring 2021.
“We are thrilled to be able to move forward and break ground on this essential expansion and renovation, which will ensure that the school remains a global leader in training the next generation of veterinarians, serving animal patients and making critical research discoveries,” says School of Veterinary Medicine Dean Mark D. Markel.
The School of Veterinary Medicine’s building expansion will improve instruction space for students; double the size of the school’s small animal hospital and significantly enhance its large animal hospital; expand labs for studying naturally occurring animal and human diseases; increase and modernize infectious disease research space; and more.
The school’s teaching hospital, UW Veterinary Care, has nearly 28,000 patient visits annually across more than 20 specialty services. The existing hospital was built to see 12,000 patient visits annually.
Design for the building project has begun, and construction is expected to begin in 2021.
The addition is scheduled to be completed in 2023 and renovations to the existing building in 2024.
