\n<\/p>\n
Rothman has led the 25-campus system for nearly four years.<\/p>\n
Photo illustration by Justin Morrison\/Inside Higher Ed | Liam Knox\/Inside Higher Ed<\/p>\n
The standoff between Universities of Wisconsin president Jay Rothman and the system\u2019s regents is over after the board voted Tuesday night to fire him at the end of a half-hour meeting.<\/p>\n
Rothman has been under pressure to resign, but he refused to do so and went public last week with the board\u2019s campaign to get rid of him\u2014saying he had been given no reason and that the board had threatened to fire him if he did not step down. Now they\u2019ve followed through on that promise, terminating a president who has led the 25-campus system for almost four years. Campus closures, enrollment challenges and political tensions over pro-Palestinian protests and diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives that Republican lawmakers targeted marked his tumultuous tenure. <\/p>\n
The vote to fire Rothman, effective immediately, passed unanimously with no public discussion. Regents did not publicly discuss the appointment of an interim leader or say why they got rid of Rothman. Instead, they announced in a statement after the meeting that Vice President for University Relations Chris Patton will serve as \u201cacting executive-in-charge\u201d until an interim president is appointed.<\/p>\n
Rothman, a lawyer by trade and first-time college administrator, regularly conceded to demands from the Republican-majority Legislature. The board that fired him was largely appointed by two-term Democratic governor Tony Evers. While news of the conflict first broke last week, Rothman initially refused to step down in a March 26 letter to the regents, which also referenced a prior meeting, indicating that the fight over his future had been underway for at least two weeks. <\/p>\n
Board president Amy Bogost wrote in her own letter Monday that such discussions began several months ago. On Tuesday, she offered no new details, reading verbatim from that letter.<\/p>\n
\u201cPresident Rothman was not without notice, nor was this process sudden. The Board has engaged with President Rothman in good-faith discussions over the past several months,\u201d she said. \u201cThis does not diminish the President\u2019s many contributions, which we acknowledge and greatly appreciate. As an at-will employee of the Board of Regents, the System President serves at the pleasure of the Board, which bears the responsibility of determining whether its chosen leader continues to hold its confidence. This governance structure is standard practice, and it exists to ensure that we remain accountable to the public we are honored to serve.\u201d<\/p>\n
While presidents serve at the pleasure of their boards, ousters with no public reasoning or claims of wrongdoing are uncommon. And when presidents have been pushed out recently, it has often been at the behest of Republican-appointed boards or lawmakers.<\/p>\n
Rothman did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent via LinkedIn but has previously defended his tenure, pointing to his work on the system\u2019s strategic plan, his role in obtaining state funding increases and capital investments, and improving operational efficiencies.<\/p>\n
Tuesday\u2019s decision seems certain to spark political backlash among state Republicans who publicly backed Rothman. Multiple state lawmakers, including Dave Murphy, chair of the House Committee on Colleges and Universities, questioned the rationale for firing Rothman and condemned the board for a lack of transparency in the process.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Board owes Wisconsin taxpayers, students and families a full explanation. They should provide specific reasons or stand down from this effort,\u201d Murphy said in a statement last week.<\/p>\n
Some Republican lawmakers have promised to take action against board members, 10 of whom have been seated but not yet confirmed by the Legislature.<\/p>\n
\u201cMake no mistake about it, the firing of UW President Rothman is a blatant partisan hatchet job. Despite his efforts to enact meaningful reforms to move our world-class institutions forward, members of the Board of Regents apparently believe President Rothman should be punished for not being liberal enough,\u201d State Senator Patrick Testin posted on social media Tuesday night. \u201cHis only crime was his willingness to work with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to get things done. Because the Board of Regents decided to remove President Rothman without just cause, I am calling on the Senate to reject every single one of their confirmations. As they say, actions have consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n
Evers, who is not running for re-election, has said little about the decision to fire Rothman. On Monday, asked by the press about the looming termination, he said, \u201cIt\u2019s their call.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rothman has led the 25-campus system for nearly four years. Photo illustration by Justin Morrison\/Inside Higher Ed | Liam Knox\/Inside Higher Ed The standoff between Universities of Wisconsin president Jay Rothman and the system\u2019s regents is over after the board voted Tuesday night to fire him at the end of a half-hour meeting. Rothman has<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48028,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[5412,1059,392,8694],"class_list":{"0":"post-48027","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education","8":"tag-fires","9":"tag-president","10":"tag-system","11":"tag-wisconsin"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48027\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/48028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}