The Universities of Wisconsin Board of Regents will meet Tuesday to discuss whether to fire Jay Rothman from his job as president of the the university system.
The public meeting, which was announced Monday afternoon, comes days after The Associated Press first reported on letters sent from Rothman to the board and its president, Amy Bogost, in which he said he’d been asked to resign or be fired.
In a statement Monday, Bogost said Rothman’s future had been a subject of “good-faith” discussions for months, and that the board has a responsibility to ensure a healthy future for the 164,000-student university system.
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“At a time of profound change in higher education, this decision is about the future. The Universities of Wisconsin must be led with a clear vision that both protects and strengthens our flagship, supports our comprehensive universities, and ensures we are meeting the evolving needs of our students, workforce, and communities across all 72 counties,” Bogost stated.
The Tuesday evening meeting would take place “to consider next steps with that responsibility firmly in mind,” Bogost added. The formal agenda for the meeting said the board would move into closed session “to consider taking a personnel action to terminate the UW System President.”
In his letters to the Regents, Rothman said he had recently been informed that a majority of board members had expressed no confidence in his leadership. He then described his record as system president, a role he has held since 2022. That included securing state budget increases system-wide, fundraising for buildings and facilities, increasing financial aid and mental health resources for students, and expanding flexible options for Wisconsin high school students and those transferring credits.
“If the foregoing list is not sufficient evidence of my leadership in driving bold and transformative change, I really do not know what is,” Rothman wrote to Bogost on March 26. “Since to date you have not provided any substantive reason or reasons for the Board’s finding of no confidence in my leadership, I am not prepared, as a matter of principle, to submit my resignation.”
Rothman, who had previously served as the CEO of a Milwaukee law firm, has presided over a tremulous time in the universities’ history, including closures of campuses, state fights over funding and diversity initiatives and, more recently, sweeping funding cuts from the Trump administration aimed at higher education and research.
Appearing on WPR’s Wisconsin Today Monday, Rep. David Murphy, R-Hortonville, said state Republicans would file a records request seeking Rothman’s latest performance review.
In her statement, Bogost said that the system president is an at-will employee who “serves at the pleasure of the Board, which bears the responsibility of determining whether its chosen leader continues to hold its confidence.”
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