Wisconsin Regents Fire University System President

The Wisconsin Board of Regents voted unanimously today to terminate the head of their state university system, Jay Rothman.

Trustees discussed the matter in a closed virtual session for 20 minutes before publicly approving the resolution by a vote of 17-0 with one member absent.

Regent President Amy Bogost made brief remarks after the vote, noting the decision is “about the future” and centers on strengthening the system’s flagship university and meeting the needs of all public university students and the workforce in every Wisconsin county.

“This does not diminish the president’s many contributions,” she said.

Rothman was appointed in June 2022.

Shortly into his tenure, he touted campus DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) initiatives and called for more state funding. He also closed a two-year branch campus and discontinued in-person learning at two others due to declining enrollment. Several other branch campuses closed under previous presidents.

Wisconsin’s public higher education system currently serves 164,000 students across 13 universities and 10 branch campuses. It operates with an $8 billion budget and awards 37,000 degrees annually, according to its website.

Rothman earned a law degree from Harvard University. As an attorney, he specialized in mergers and acquisitions, capital markets, and corporate governance. He served as CEO of the Wisconsin-based Foley & Lardner law firm before taking the helm of the university system, which paid him $600,000 annually.

He had no prior experience in higher education leadership, according to his bio on the university system website.

In his March 26 letter to the Board of Regents, Rothman complained that he hadn’t been informed of what he did wrong and maintained that he would not voluntarily resign.

He also listed his accomplishments leading the university system, saying he secured $2.5 billion in state funding for new facility construction, eliminated structural deficits at all 13 universities, secured private funding for a financial aid program, improved the process for transferring college credits into the system, helped make the 13 universities more welcoming environments for Native American students, and established guidelines for using generative artificial intelligence in teaching and learning.

“In light of the current circumstances, 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,” he said in the letter, which the Wisconsin Universities System provided to The Epoch Times.

Bogost, in her remarks following the vote, said this decision follows Rothman’s last performance review, which he previously discussed with the full board of Regents.

“It was not sudden,” she said of the termination decision, but did not elaborate on the performance review nor what she and other members of the board specifically discussed with Rothman.

Rothman was scrutinized by Republican state legislators during his tenure. In April 2025, Rep. Dave Murphy, chairman of the Assembly Committee on Colleges and Universities, cited problems with free speech and discrimination on multiple campuses.

At the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, a department chair overturned an information table staffed by students in a campus Republican club. At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, admissions office employees flouted the 2023 Supreme Court decision that prohibited preferential treatment of applicants based on race. An audit of DEI practices across the entire system also found continued illegal practices despite prior state and federal orders that prohibit special treatment of employees and students based on ideology instead of merit.

“These incidents are not isolated—they’re symptoms of a deeper problem,” Murphy said in a news release. “The UW System is at a crossroads: it can recommit to free expression and equal treatment, or it can double down on policies that suppress dissent to favor certain groups over others.”

In early 2025, the university system’s vice chancellor was demoted and returned to a faculty position after auditors determined he awarded large salary increases and bonuses to certain employees based on his personal commitment to DEI, plus excessive spending on travel and office supplies.

“The UW is spending massive amounts of money on DEI to get no return on investment,” Murphy said in a March 19, 2025, news release. “Backup jobs do not exist in the private sector, and the lack of true accountability is concerning.”