University of Wisconsin System President Jay Rothman knew the vote on a deal over campus diversity efforts was critical.
In fact, in the days leading up to it, he floated resigning if the vote failed, according to UW student Regent Evan Brenkus.
Wisconsin’s top Republican lawmakers said Monday that they are done negotiating with the Universities of Wisconsin over a deal that would have given the university system’s employees a pay raise and paid for the construction of a new engineering building in exchange for reductions in staff positions focused on diversity, equity and inclusion.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said Monday that Republicans “are not changing one thing” in the compromise plan the Universities of Wisconsin Regents rejected Saturday to roll back diversity efforts in exchange for staff raises and a new engineering building and other infrastructure improvements.
In an unexpected move Saturday, the board overseeing state public universities narrowly rejected a deal University of Wisconsin System leaders brokered with the state’s top Republican over campus diversity efforts.
Universities of Wisconsin regents narrowly rejected a deal Saturday reached with Republicans that would have given employees a pay raise and paid for construction of a new engineering building in exchange for reductions in staff positions focused on diversity, equity and inclusion.
A narrowly divided UW Board of Regents on Saturday rejected an agreement between Universities of Wisconsin system President Jay Rothman and legislative Republican leaders authorizing UW system funding and pay raises in exchange for changes to universities’ diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
The Board of Regents rejected a deal Saturday that would have unlocked pay raises for employees, funded UW-Madison’s new engineering building and allowed the Universities of Wisconsin to recoup the $32 million cut from its budget earlier this year.
In a deal months in the making, the University of Wisconsin system will “reimagine” its diversity efforts, restructure dozens of staff into positions serving all students and freeze the total number of diversity and administrative positions for the next three years.
In exchange, the universities would receive $800 million to give pay raises for 35,000 employees and move forward on some building projects, including a new engineering building for UW-Madison.
On the table are pay raises for 35,000 employees, a new engineering building for UW-Madison and $32 million recouped back into UW’s budget after lawmakers cut it earlier this year. Also being discussed is millions of dollars for building projects at some other campuses and a change in how the state manages money from the tuition reciprocity agreement with Minnesota that would bring more money to campuses.
Universities of Wisconsin leaders are said to be nearing a deal with Republican legislative leaders that would reclassify a third of the system’s diversity, equity and inclusion employees and put a yearslong moratorium on hiring more, in return for a new UW-Madison engineering building and moving ahead with employee pay raises already approved in the budget.
Co-authored by State Sen. Chris Larson, D-Milwaukee, represents the 7th Senate District. State Sen. Kelda Roys, D-Madison, represents the 26th Senate District.
The leader of the Republican-controlled Wisconsin Senate said Wednesday that lawmakers are nearing a deal that would allow for long-blocked pay raises for Universities of Wisconsin employees to take effect and for funding to be released to pay for construction of a new engineering building.
Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu said Monday that he opposes withholding the money.
Further emptying out the Mosse Humanities building by building a new music academic building and adding nearly 2,000 beds to University Housing could rank high on UW-Madison’s list of priorities for the next state budget.
When Jeff Roznowski and Bill Monfre first joined a coalition in 2020 to advocate for a new engineering facility on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, they figured they’d work with the group only a year or two.
The Evers proposal rejected by the Legislature would have spent $365 million on child care, $65 million on University of Wisconsin funding, $200 million on a new engineering building at UW-Madison and $243 million toward a 12-week family medical leave program for Wisconsin workers.
But instead of embracing Evers’ plan to put $365 million toward a pandemic-era program to support child care providers, create a state paid family and medical leave program and provide more funding for a new engineering building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Republicans opted to go in a different direction.
Evers’ proposal would have allocated $365 million in new child care funding, increased spending for the Universities of Wisconsin by $65 million, devoted $200 million to paying for a new engineering building on the UW-Madison campus, established a 12-week family medical leave program costing $243 million, and created workforce education and grant programs.
It’s pretty hard to explain, isn’t it? While Wisconsin is sitting on a multibillion-dollar budget surplus, its highly regarded state university campuses are being forced to lay off faculty, cut back classes, even close some two-year campuses to balance their own budgets.
The Legislature should quickly take up and approve funding for a new engineering building on the UW-Madison campus. If the Republican-run Legislature thought AmFam Field was a good proposal for Wisconsin — and it definitely was — then get a load of this offer: a $350 million engineering building that costs the public less and delivers the state economy far more.
Legislative committees controlled by Republicans have blocked the UW system pay increases even though Evers and the full Legislature have already authorized them. The inaction came after Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, said the UW system had to either eliminate its diversity, equity and inclusion programs or hand over its power to create university roles to the Legislature.
Evers has since sued the Legislature over the matter, alleging in a lawsuit filed directly with the liberal-majority Wisconsin Supreme Court that Republicans are violating the Constitution’s separation of powers by allowing legislative committees to “impede, usurp, or obstruct basic executive branch functions.”
Despite pressure from business leaders from across the state, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos this week held firm on the Legislature’s decision to withhold state funding for a new engineering building at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The Republican war on diversity, equity and inclusion could cost Wisconsin hundreds of engineers.
The GOP-controlled Legislature declined to fund a new engineering building for the University of Wisconsin-Madison as part of the state budget. The project would expand enrollment in the engineering college.
At a press conference, Vos said he would move forward with engineering hall plans if he got an agreement on DEI programs and greater authority over UW System positions.
In June, the Wisconsin Legislature approved pay increases for the 34,000 employees of the Universities of Wisconsin. Months later, Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said legislators wouldn’t give final approval for the pay raises until the university system eliminates 188 positions — all the university system’s jobs Vos claims are dedicated to diversity, equity and inclusion. Last month, a GOP-controlled committee affirmed the decision: The approved raises would go to all state employees except those who work within the university system.
In response, Gov. Tony Evers sued the Legislature, calling the move an unconstitutional “legislative veto.”
UW-Madison would launch a study of the effects of psychoactive mushrooms on Wisconsin veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder under a bipartisan bill that circulated Thursday.
The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay is considering discontinuing some programs, citing shifting student demands and budget constraints.
It’s the latest in a series of budget cutting moves by state colleges, and comes as the school said it’s the fastest-growing university in the state.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison kicked efforts to persuade the Legislature to come up with nearly $200 million for a new engineering building into higher gear Monday.
Assembly lawmakers on Tuesday approved a wide range of proposals that would affect higher education in the state, including an automatic-admission policy for the flagship campus at the Universities of Wisconsin and standardized rules around free speech on state campuses, which Republicans argued would expand intellectual diversity and Democrats warned would have a chilling effect.
Assembly Republicans have voted to bar University of Wisconsin system officials from considering race when deciding how to distribute publicly funded financial aid to students, setting up a likely veto by Gov. Tony Evers.
The bill, which passed 62-35 along party lines Tuesday, seeks to eliminate race-based criteria for college scholarships, grants and loan programs.
Employee Kenneth Sabbar said he feels the political infighting will drive people not only out of Madison but Wisconsin as a whole, contributing to a “brain drain” of educated workers leaving the state.
Democratic Gov. Tony Evers announced last week he was suing legislative Republicans, in part because they blocked raises for University of Wisconsin System employees.
Announced Monday, the proposal splits the $32 million among the system’s 13 four-year schools. All schools would use the funding toward educating students in engineering, nursing/health care, business/finance and computer/data science.
The Universities of Wisconsin on Monday proposed using $32 million the Legislature withheld earlier this year over the UW system’s refusal to eliminate its diversity, equity and inclusion programs to expand training in several high-demand fields at 13 schools in the UW system.
A campaign launched this week by the Wisconsin Alumni Association, a nonprofit arm of UW-Madison that facilitates much of its fundraising efforts, is encouraging business leaders and others around the state to contact their legislators and push them to take up legislation to construct a new engineering building.
Sunday’s edition of the Wisconsin State Journal contained a piece of writing that will be of interest to some of Wisconsin’s elected leaders.It wasn’t an article or an editorial, but instead a full-page advertisement paid for by the Wisconsin Alumni Association.
It may be too harsh to call it a death spiral. But the University of Wisconsin System is in trouble and it’s not clear when or how it can turn things around. Consider what’s happening.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos nixed a 6% pay raise for UW System employees while allowing it to go through for other state employees. He’s trying to put pressure on the UW to discontinue its diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
Gov. Tony Evers filed a lawsuit against Republican state lawmakers Tuesday, claiming their decisions to block pay raises for employees of the Universities of Wisconsin, conservation projects and updates to the state’s commercial building standards are unconstitutional.
In a lawsuit that could upend how the state Legislature operates, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers is suing Republican lawmakers over decisions to withhold pay raises for University of Wisconsin System employees and to block conservation projects, arguing such actions made by legislative committees rather than the full Legislature violate the state Constitution’s separation of powers requirements.
Evers said it was “a bridge too far” and “just bull s—” that Republican state lawmakers were telling 35,000 University of Wisconsin employees who were expecting pay raises to “stick it.”
Wisconsin’s Democratic governor, Tony Evers, has sued Republican legislators for allegedly defying the state Constitution and undermining his executive powers by withholding approved raises for University of Wisconsin system employees.
The Wisconsin governor, now in his second term, has reportedly attempted to bypass the lower courts, asking the state supreme court to take up the case directly.
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday, outlines Evers’ allegations that Republican members of the Legislature are holding hostage the pre-approved raises for 35,000 University of Wisconsin System employees and misusing the legislative veto process to block executive actions outside the bounds of normal budgetary operations.
Legislative committees controlled by Republicans are violating the state Constitution by blocking pay raises for around 35,000 Universities of Wisconsin employees and stalling conservation projects, Gov. Tony Evers argues in a lawsuit filed Tuesday.
The governor accused Republicans of an intrusion into executive powers and violating the Wisconsin Constitution.
Written by Ken Brosky, an associate professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.
The Republican led Joint Committee on Employee Relations voted to separate employees of the University of Wisconsin system from other state workers who will receive a pay increase.
UW System President Jay Rothman is disappointed with the outcome and says they will make the best of this difficult situation.
Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, who co-chairs the Legislature’s employment relations committee, has promised to block pay raises for UW employees until the school system cuts its so-called DEI spending by $32 million.
ARepublican-controlled legislative committee on Tuesday approved 6% pay raises over the next two years for most state employees, but withheld any increase for Universities of Wisconsin staff unless the UW system eliminates its diversity, equity and inclusion positions.
Half of state workers, about 34,000 people, will not be getting pay raises included in the state budget, as a Republican-controlled committee on Tuesday approved a 6 percent raise over two years for all but those who work for the University of Wisconsin System.
In an ongoing battle between Republican legislative leaders and the state’s public university system, GOP lawmakers on Tuesday approved a two-year pay increase for state workers but left out the 41,000 people who work for the University of Wisconsin System.
State employees have been waiting to see these pay increases approved since July when they were first authorized in the governor’s budget. Public sector employees have been holding out the past three months for the approval of the Joint Committee on Employment Relations (JCOER), a committee Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) co-chairs.
At least two University of Wisconsin system schools have modified diversity offices or programming amid Republican lawmakers seeking to shut down DEI initiatives statewide.
The bill reintroduces funding for programs that Evers had written into his budget proposal that were later removed by the Legislature’s Republican-led budget writing committee. It would extend a pandemic-era child care subsidy, establish a paid family and medical leave system and provide grants for the University of Wisconsin System and workforce development programs.
Two bills that never got a vote in the State Senate in 2021 were reintroduced and are now up for a vote in the Legislature that would ban transgender girls and women from competing in sports designed for women at publicly funded K-12 schools, University of Wisconsin System campuses and state technical colleges.
The public employees on capitol steps say while the DE&I aspect mostly impacts Universities of Wisconsin employees, maintaining strong state and university services means DE&I programs must be defended.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos is blocking pay raises for University of Wisconsin employees unless the university cuts diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) spending by $32 million. UW Madison student Daniel Wise says getting rid of funding for the program would be a mistake. “As a gay man myself, I just feel that it helped me be accepted at UW Madison,” Wise said.
Enrollment decline is affecting four-year colleges across the country.
Fortunately for the University of Wisconsin System, there is good news for the first time since 2014. To begin fall semester, estimated enrollment is up by 540 students systemwide.
Steven Deller studies public finance and economic development at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Although he doesn’t have direct knowledge of Fast Forward, he said there are “hundreds if not thousands” of federal and state-level grants that are not fully taken advantage of.
There are two main reasons, he said: a lack of awareness and cumbersome application materials. The need to ensure government money is being spent properly creates a lot of paperwork.
“If the agency is perceived as being ‘sloppy’ handing the grants out, there is a huge political price to pay,” Deller wrote via email.
“It wouldn’t surprise me if one of the reasons they haven’t acted on the pay plan is because of Robin Vos’ allergy to diversity. So, we’ve worked with legislators in Dane County and leadership to make our case for the need for the pay plan.”
