WHITEWATER - On the first day of classes this fall, some UW-Whitewater students did something no one has experienced on this campus in more than 20 years.

They attended lecture in a brand new building.

"I think we were all a little in awe when we came in and saw it," said Kelly Raquet, a 21-year old accounting major from Kiel.

Although there are typically multiple building projects on the UW-Madison campus at any given time, new facilities on the campuses of other four-year UW System institutions are rarer.

The last time UW-Whitewater built a new academic building was in 1987, when the majority of the school's undergraduates weren't yet alive.

The new facility - a sleek, $41.5 million facility with a floor-to-ceiling glass atrium - is home to the College of Business and Economics. It is named after Timothy J. Hyland, a 1982 accounting graduate who donated a significant amount to the project.

Private donations make it much more likely that the state Legislature will approve campus building projects, said UW-Whitewater Chancellor Richard Telfer. Gift money often covers at least half the price tag on new buildings on the UW-Madison campus.

But it can be harder for the 11 four-year UW System institutions other than Milwaukee or Madison - sometimes called the "comprehensives" - to drum up private funds from alumni or corporate sponsors.

"We don't have people who give half the cost of the building," Telfer said.

Telfer said a request to remodel the old business school building at UW-Whitewater, Carlson Hall, to house part of the College of Letters and Science, was not included in Gov. Jim Doyle's budget.

UW-Platteville also got a new building this year, for its engineering school, but prior to that, it had been eight years since any of the 11 UW System "comprehensives" had built a new academic facility.

At UW-Whitewater, which has about 11,000 students, the College of Business and Economics is one of the flagship programs.

Hyland Hall more than doubles the size of the old building, includes a 400-seat auditorium, a cafe, and an investment center that allows for real and simulated stock trading.

Raquet, the accounting major, said she doesn't have "much good to say" about the old building. It was cramped, dark, and wasn't equipped with the latest technology. The classrooms in Hyland Hall are adaptable for students with laptops.

"You get this corporate feel," she said. "Kind of like some of the firms I've visited.

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