The new Wanek Center of Innovation will break ground next month and is planned to be complete by June 2025. Students will start using the building for courses the following fall term.
The donation will fund a redevelopment of Western Technical College's Business Education Center. The new building will make advanced manufacturing equipment available for students to build skills with robotics and the background knowledge that makes them function.
Including Wanek's donation, the new center will cost $10.5 million for redevelopment, new equipment and programming.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the business school has pivoted to mostly online courses and requires much less space. The business program will move to the Coleman Center across the street.
Wanek and Western officials have worked on the donation plan for about eight years. According to president Roger Stanford, it is the largest gift Western has received since $700,000 was donated for the Lunda Center.
About $3 million of Wanek's gift will go toward the purchase of advanced manufacturing equipment like new robotics and laboratory technology. Stanford said the current advanced manufacturing program has outgrown its space.
The new space will be much larger, have virtual simulation capabilities and full integration with other programs adjacent to advanced manufacturing like cybersecurity and data analytics.
Part of the donation will also support K-12 school outreach to get young students interested in STEM careers early. Wanek said that without early personal investment in STEM programs, students and colleges alike won't invest money into STEM down the line.
"They want to specialize in liberal arts, to be quite honest with you, because it's cheap." Wanek said. "You can have a teacher and 40 kids in the classroom, where, when you got a laboratory with $3 million worth of equipment and 20 students, the cost for students is a hell of a lot higher."
In Wanek and Stanford's eyes, investing in advanced manufacturing education in Wisconsin will keep many Wisconsin careers within Wisconsin.
The Wanek Center of Innovation will not only enroll new STEM students, but also offer upskilling classes for industry professionals to learn the newest advancements in advanced manufacturing.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 19 percent of Wisconsin's labor force was made up of manufacturing jobs in 2022. Only Indiana ranked higher in the nation at 19.8 percent.
"The reason we are able to compete is because of what we're doing in automation and technology. The industry overall has not done that," Wanek added. "You just can't rest on your laurels. You have to constantly upgrade. You have to look at what everybody else is doing if they're getting better."
©2024 the La Crosse Tribune (La Crosse, Wis.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
