Changing times: 1-on-1 with UW System President Jay Rothman
MILWAUKEE - Higher education is going through various changes.
Student athletes are now able to make money with their name, image and likeness. Some college campuses are hot beds for international protests. All the while, undergraduate enrollment is declining nationwide, in some cases by nearly 20%, according to the Education Data Initiative.
To navigate this changing landscape, the Universities of Wisconsin enacted their own change – at the top.
FOX6’s Stephanie Grady had the chance to go one-on-one with the UW system’s new president – Jay Rothman.
Stephanie Grady: When you took the job last year, you laid out two specific goals. The first was modernizing the aging infrastructure of the UW campuses. The second was increasing pay for staff. How is the progress coming?
Jay Rothman: We got nearly $1B from the state this year for new building renovations, and we're continuing to do that. Right now, the pay adjustments for our employees are being withheld. I think that compensation being withheld is both unfair and it's wrong.
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Grady: I assume Governor Tony Evers agrees with you because he just filed the lawsuit against Republicans in the state legislature for withholding pay for 35 plus thousand employees in the UW system. With your background in law, do you think that this case has any legs, or do you think this is more or less a chess move in this situation?
Rothman: Those adjustments were adapted by the legislature, approved by the governor, and they should be that compensation should no longer be withheld.
Grady: How much money is spent on diversity equity and inclusion programs across the universities of Wisconsin system.
Rothman: You know, that number gets conflated from time to time because a lot of our efforts are focused on student success and really ensuring[…] we can recruit great students, we retain them and graduate them.
Grady: I ask, because Republican lawmakers, they're specifically voicing concern, as you know, about the spending and they're seemingly following through on that promise by blocking the pay raise for the UW employees and the school system wanting that cut by $32 million.
Rothman: I've been very clear about my stance on D.E.I. and I came out of the private sector. I know how the private sector views diversity, equity, inclusion, and it's important to have a diverse workforce. But I also look at it within the university context. We need people from, you know, different religious beliefs, different ethnic backgrounds and so forth to come to our universities to be welcome there because the state needs those educated workers.
Grady: And you don't want to cut any funding for any of the programs that exist as of now?
Rothman: Because I think those fundings go to student success predominantly. That's what we're focused on.
Grady: This is a perfect segue way because speaking of diversity, equity inclusion, UW Madison ranks sixth in the nation in top public universities by Jewish population. There is a lot happening in the world, as you know, with the war ongoing between Hamas and Israel. Does the university allow sanction protests on campus?
Rothman: I mean, if I step back and say, listen, what across all of our campuses, we condemn terror activity without question. What Hamas did was terror. And that's just wrong. We want to protect students’ safety, but we also we have to be cognizant. We have to comply with the First Amendment, and we have to allow for a marketplace of ideas. In fact, we want to encourage a marketplace of ideas.
Grady: Do you think the university needs to take a stance if it does get to a place where Jewish students are feeling as though they are unsafe.
Rothman: If our Jewish students feel that they are physically unsafe? Absolutely. And we're doing that. I want our students to feel safe.
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Grady: Let's talk athletics for a moment. The landscape has changed quite a bit since June of 2021. The Supreme Court made the ruling on student athletes’ monetization of their name, image, likeness. Has the University of Wisconsin embraced this new frontier, if you will?
Rothman: I think it has. Chris McIntosh, the athletic director there at Madison, is very much attuned to that, but also doing it in the right way, doing it in the ethical way, doing it with integrity. [That] means that name, image, and likeness is done where there is actual the right value being contributed. It's not a front for buying off players. But we also have to understand that it is a competitive marketplace, and it is important that Madison have strong athletic programs. And I know the team at Madison is doing everything, everything they can to ensure that they put really competitive teams on the field, but doing it in the right way.
Grady: Well, we are coming up on Thanksgiving. You have been at the Universities of Wisconsin for 537 days now, but who's counting? What are you most thankful for?
Rothman: It's a couple of things. It is the transformational and that change of trajectory in students’ lives that the universities can offer. And if I can look at it and say I can play some small part in that change in people's lives, that's tremendously I'm grateful for that. The other thing I'm really grateful for is the absolute commitment to students’ success throughout the organization. With all the challenges we have, with all the challenges around higher education, including some of the things we're going through right now in Wisconsin, the commitment of our faculty and staff to student success, to making sure those students are able to graduate and be successful in their lives is absolutely incredible. I am extraordinarily thankful for that kind of commitment to excellence that our faculty and staff display every single day.