A man passes crumbling concrete and exposed rebar on exterior steps at the George L. Mosse Humanities Building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. A fund for system repairs was eliminated in this state budget. Credit: Mark Hoffman

SHARE Clint Smail (left) and Richard Donovan work on roof repairs on a UW research building at 1220 N. Capitol Court. Mark Hoffman

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Before leaving the University of Wisconsin-Madison in March, Darrell Bazzell, vice chancellor for finance and administration, was able to secure $1.9 million in university funds to move forward on 24 projects.

Costing between $5,000 and $185,000, they had nothing to do with education, at least not directly.

Bazzell, now at the University of Texas, redirected the money, initially intended for instructional costs, to replace roofs at a research building, the Noland Zoology building and Vet Medicine building. Two new fire escapes — one at Ag Hall and the other at Bascom Hall — needed to get put in. Heat patching and repairing cracks on campus roads were overdue. And $185,000 was needed for repairing exterior concrete and the roof of the Humanities Building, one of the campus' most notoriously leaky buildings.

University officials would have preferred to see the $1.9 million spent on academic and research activities.

But there's a little-known, $100 million state funding cut to the University of Wisconsin System that few people talk about, at least publicly.

In prior years, the UW System received funding from the state for major maintenance, repairs and renovations to campus buildings, utilities and related infrastructure. That money — which the state borrows through bonding — was "zeroed out" by lawmakers in the 2015-'17 budget.

The money would have covered many of the expenses that come with running large campus operations: elevator replacements and fire alarm system upgrades; modifications for handicapped accessibility; replacement of emergency generators and worn-out heating; ventilating and cooling systems; major repairs to roofs, utility structures, walls and loading docks.

The decision by the Republican-led Legislature and governor not to authorize any new borrowing for capital projects this biennium for the UW System — or any other state agency — came on top of a widely publicized $250 million reduction in state funding to the system's operating budget.

University leaders are busily preparing capital project requests for the next biennium that starts July 1, 2017. They don't want to complain about what they didn't get taken care of in this biennium for fear they'll be penalized by lawmakers in the next biennium. But because there was no money in the 2015-'17 budget for capital projects — with the exception of a new chemistry building at UW-Madison — campuses have accumulated a backlog of fixes needed at older buildings. Work being done this summer either was approved for borrowing in a previous biennium, or was paid for by diverted funds from academic or research purposes.

Looking at just one campus — UW-Oshkosh — gives a glimpse into the wider challenges faced across the system:

■ The Buckstaff Planetarium has been shut down for two years because it needs $966,000 in infrastructure and interior renovations to resolve asbestos issues. The asbestos-laden insulation sprayed on the planetarium's dome began to become brittle and fall down. Classes had to be moved.

■ Multiple buildings constructed before current Americans with Disabilities Act requirements were put in place need renovation to enhance accessibility.

■ Three buildings have roofs that need to be replaced.

■ A small elevator installed in the late 1960s in the Kolf Physical Education building needs to be replaced; it has broken down during basketball games and trapped fans inside.

"As we continue to push these projects down the road, they become more and more expensive, and the list will continue to grow," said Lori Worm, vice chancellor for administrative services at UW-Oshkosh.

The school did allocate $250,000 this biennium for a system that would recover wasted heat from a campus bio-generator and use it to heat the Student Services Center. That money was diverted from academic uses.

The UW System collectively has more than 1,900 buildings of all shapes, sizes and ages. Many were built during the post-World War II enrollment surge of the 1950s and 1960s, and are wearing out, according to university officials. Another building boom occurred in the 1990s.

Republican lawmakers remain focused on the hundreds of millions of dollars the UW System and its campuses carried over through the years without full public disclosure. Since that practice was revealed in a state audit in 2014, campuses have been forced to spend down a sizable chunk of that money.

State officials say the UW System must learn to live within its means and not pass added costs on to students. That means tapping money it set aside for other future purposes, or what's left from the last biennium.

"It was determined that there was enough authority from the 2013-'15 budget for the system to utilize in the 2015-'17 budget," Tom Evenson, spokesman for Gov. Scott Walker, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

"There are dozens of projects occurring throughout the system right now, new facilities, additions, renovations and maintenance," he said.

The UW System did have $387,326 in capital borrowing left from the 2013-'15 biennium — about enough to replace one elevator, according to the university's documents.

Any discussion about the 2017-'19 budget is premature, Evenson said.

But university officials say that small and major capital projects across the UW System — if funded — would correct code deficiencies, improve safety and reliability, and ultimately decrease operating costs. They also argue that by eliminating funding, the Legislature essentially kicks the problem down the road.

"Maintenance is cheaper than replacement in a crisis," said Chuck Hermes, superintendent of buildings and grounds at UW-Oshkosh.

The UW System does not have its own bonding authority to borrow money, though that is a flexibility it hopes to receive someday from the Legislature.

"Carry-over funds are not a good way to budget or do planned maintenance and repairs," William Elvey, associate vice chancellor for facilities planning and management at UW-Madison, said of the deferred maintenance backlog at the state's flagship campus.

"There's a lot of duct tape and silicone sealer," he said. "We do whatever it takes to keep it going. ...This will manifest itself in some place, some time, that eventually will affect student classrooms. We've got a long way to go to July 2017."

Costly design work for future projects also is at a standstill unless money is diverted from campus operating budgets. Campuses plan two to three years in advance of the work so that when something fails, the design for replacement is already in place.

UW-Madison historically receives a minimum of $40 million for major maintenance and repair projects each biennium. At UW-Milwaukee — where the majority of buildings are more than 50 years old — the university typically receives $13 million to $14 million for major maintenance, repairs and renovations to buildings, and small projects.

"If an air compressor needs oil changed every 1,000 hours, we change the oil. If it's 45 years old and needs to be rebuilt, that's beyond our capability now," said Geoff Hurtado, UWM's associate vice chancellor for facilities planning and management. "Most of our roofs are flat. If there's a leak and it's easily patched, you patch it. If you have patch on top of patch, and have to put buckets on the top floor, then it's time to replace it."

Money to keep buildings going is not just an issue in Wisconsin, but in other states that have reduced funding to public higher education in recent years, according to national leaders in the world of campus facilities management.

"We joke that we've gone from state funded to state assisted to state located when it comes to the money," said E. Lander Medlin, executive vice president of APPA, an association of college physical plant administrators.

The average academic building on campuses across the country is more than 45 years old, she said. Residence halls are built to last only 10 to 20 years because interior spaces have to be changed more quickly.

Most universities don't think about how much a building costs to operate and maintain when money is donated for a new one, Medlin said.

"We get gifts to build buildings and we do a ribbon cutting. But buildings are the gift that keeps on taking. We don't do ribbon cuttings for HVAC, roof and elevator replacement."

Medlin said campuses must pay attention to which buildings are most important to institutional goals, and avoid overbuilding. Another issue is space management — making sure the classroom buildings that campuses already have are being utilized all day, instead of just 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., when a majority of classes are held.