Rothman: UW Living-up to its End of the DEI Bargain with Lawmakers

UW Cuts DEI, then asks for Money

The president at the University of Wisconsin hopes lawmakers will give them credit for their effort to rollback some of the DEI programs and policies that have angered them in the past.

“Some of those commitments were over two-year periods, but we have signed that agreement, and we intend to comply with it, full stop,” President Jay Rothman said during an appearance on UpFront on Milwaukee TV over the weekend.

The Republicans who control the legislature pushed Rothman to end racial preferences after the U.S. Supreme Court said using race as a determining factor on college campuses was unconstitutional.

Rothman said the University of Wisconsin has been living-up to its end of the deal.

“We look at diversity with a very wide lens. Yes, it’s ethnic background. It’s racial background, but it’s also veteran status. It’s political ideology. It’s religion, it’s disabled students. All of our students come to us as individuals, not as groups, and we want to make sure that each one of those students has the opportunity to be successful in our university, and they’re going to need different supports depending on where they come from, what’s their background. So that’s what we want to focus on. That’s where our diversity efforts are focused on dealing with an individual by individual to make sure that student can be successful,” Rothman explained.

Rothman hopes that Republican lawmakers give him credit for that effort when it comes time to write a new state budget next year.

Rothman is asking for $855 million in the next two-year state spending plan. That’d be on top of two straight years of tuition increases at UW-Madison, and the UW’s 12 other campuses.

Rothman has said without more money from state lawmakers, students may see another tuition increase next fall as well.

“Right now, the Universities of Wisconsin are 43rd out of 50 states in the nation in terms of public support for our universities,” Rothman said in response. “The $855 million gets us up to average, gets us up to the median,” Rothman explained.

Lawmakers will get a better look at the UW’s finances this week when the university releases third-party financial reviews for the university’s administration.

Similar reviews for UW campuses show while the Madison campus is doing well, many of the UW’s other campuses are struggling either with finances or enrollment.

Rothman said those campus are making strides, but some of the problems persist.