University of Wisconsin System President Jay Rothman has refused to resign at the Board of Regents' request, the Associated Press first reported Thursday.
Rothman, who has led the System for nearly four years, said that he will not step aside and has been given no reason from the Regents for why they are requesting his removal in a letter to the Regents, obtained by The Daily Cardinal. In a second letter, he claimed the Regents planned to fire him over the weekend which would make him the first UW System president to be fired.
“Since to date you have not provided any substantive reason or reasons for the Board’s finding of no confidence in my leadership,” Rothman wrote, “I am not prepared, as a matter of principle, to submit my resignation.”
Rothman’s time as president has overseen significant turnover in the UW System, with declining enrollment among schools, closures of branch campuses and departures of several chancellors and other administrative leaders. There have also been major disagreements between the UW System and the Legislature, with budget deals over the past four years leading to controversial decisions to reduce the number of DEI positions and increase faculty workloads.
“The Board is responsible for the leadership of the Universities of Wisconsin and is having discussions about its future,” Bogost said in a statement. “We don’t comment on personnel matters.”
The letter alleges that Regents first voiced a lack of confidence in Rothman’s leadership in a March 21 meeting with Board of Regents president Amy Bogost and vice president Kyle Weatherly. Rothman said he was “surprised” by this and that there had been “no prior discussion or notice” that the Regents had lost confidence in his leadership.
Additionally, Rothman said the Board did not provide a reason for their lack of confidence in him and alleges that the stated concerns with his leadership were vetted without a meeting of the entire board.
“From a Board governance and leadership perspective, I find that to be extraordinarily difficult for the Board to defend,” he wrote. “As a person who reports directly to the Board, I am profoundly disappointed.”
A closed session special meeting of the Board of Regents was held Wednesday night to discuss “personnel matters”, the same day that Rothman sent a second letter to Regents Ashok Rai and Jack Salzwedel refusing to step down.
Rothman said Rai and Salzwedel told him that resignation or retirement was the board’s preferred method of facilitating his exit and that the Regents and Rothman would collaborate on a message communicating his resignation with the aim of ‘preserving his legacy.’
The second letter also alleges that Rothman was made aware that if he refused to resign or retire, the regents were prepared to meet this weekend to terminate his employment.
The Regents' vote of no confidence would happen in a public meeting, but they could debate the decision in closed session.
If terminated by the Board, Rothman would become the first president to be terminated. The last eight presidents have retired.
Rothman also cited in his letter the coming departure of University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin, who will leave to lead Columbia University at the end of this semester, and the responsibility of the System to find her replacement as creating an inopportune time for his departure.
“I do not believe my resignation at this time is in the best interests of either the Universities of Wisconsin or the state of Wisconsin,” Rothman said.
Annika Bereny is the campus news editor for The Daily Cardinal. She previously served as the special pages editor. As a staff writer, she's written in-depth on campus news specializing in protest policy, free speech and historical analysis. She has also written for state and city news. She is a History and Journalism major. Follow her on Twitter at @annikabereny.
