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Thursday, March 28, 2024
Dean of Students Emerita Mary Rouse sent a letter to Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration Laurent Heller criticizing the Amazon deal.

Dean of Students Emerita Mary Rouse sent a letter to Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration Laurent Heller criticizing the Amazon deal.

Former dean of students expresses concern over Amazon deal in Red Gym

UW-Madison Dean of Students Emerita Mary Rouse sent a letter Sunday to Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration Laurent Heller to offer her perspective on the university’s deal with Amazon to use space in the Red Gym.

Rouse, who served as dean of students from 1987 to 2000 as well as director of the Morgridge Center for Public Service, said in the letter the decision to lease space to Amazon “seems short sighted and ill conceived.”

Rouse’s statement followed a Sept. 20 letter addressed to the Red Gym community by Heller, in which he acknowledged the university’s shortcomings in communicating about the deal, and said the university would “revisit earlier efforts to find the best possible home for the new Amazon pickup point.”

Heller did emphasize, however, the benefits the pickup point could bring for the university.

“We believe that this arrangement with Amazon will be of significant benefit for our students, staff, and faculty,” Heller said in the letter. “This agreement is also assured to generate at least $100,000 per year, and likely much more, that the campus will invest back into our public mission.”

Rouse made her case against the deal by citing the history and intent of the Red Gym space. Originally constructed in 1893 and 1894, the Red Gym was designated as a National Historic Landmark by the U.S. Department of the Interior in 1993.

In 1988, Rouse co-chaired a committee to determine the future of the Red Gym space, which determined that the space could be given to student organizations. In the following decade, Rouse oversaw the revitalization of the Red Gym as a hub for student life.

“Our committee concluded this was an opportunity to solve the well documented and long-standing space shortages for a number of student programs and services to bring students from different backgrounds and places together in one place,” Rouse said in the letter. “The ones selected to be located there were intentional and deliberate; student organizations, new student orientation and welcome programs, the multicultural center and international students.”

Rouse wrote that the Amazon pickup point facility, slated to be 2,200 square feet, would displace prime space for student activities, including study abroad programs. She also said the university should have worked more closely with other governing bodies, including the Associated Students of Madison, in coming to the decision.

However, Rouse noted she is not without understanding for the cash-strapped university.

“I can understand that the University is desperate for money in this age of diminishing state support,” Rouse said. “However, I would argue that this arrangement would mainly be a sweet deal for Amazon and a bad deal for the UW-Madison.”

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