There are rumors that the new budget proposal for the College of Engineering includes the elimination of CAE labs on campus as well as imposing the costs of software subscriptions on COE students.

CAE and its labs provide computing resources for College of Engineering. This includes providing a variety of resources for faculty, staff, and students. CAE provides access to over 100 software titles on over 500 workstations in 21 computer labs throughout the Engineering campus. In addition to central computing facilities used by CAE and its user community, CAE also aids in operation and maintenance of a variety of computers dedicated to special purposes distributed throughout the College of Engineering.

Students use CAE labs to learn important coursework in and out of lecture settings, to complete assigned individual homework, and to collaborate with other students to complete shared assignments and course projects.

Eliminating CAE labs hinders the ability of College of Engineering students to learn important coursework and softwares vital to their professional development. Students would not only need to purchase the software packages but also purchase laptops with the ability to host several softwares throughout the semester.

Eliminating CAE labs hinders the ability of College of Engineering students to collaborate with other students as project files need to be shared over a similar network to allow for simultaneous multiple party access to files.

Eliminating CAE labs hinders the ability of College of Engineering students to afford courses involving software packages as they need to purchase software subscriptions as well as upgrade these packages when new versions are released.

Help save CAE labs for the College of Engineering and keep the University of Wisconsin - Madison amongst the top engineering schools in the country.