step out of the Board of Regents meeting this morning
in order to hold this availability.
So with that, I will begin recording
and allow President Rothman to begin.
Very good, Mark.
And thank you and good morning, everyone.
We appreciate you being with us today.
As you know, the assembly speaker has very publicly
held up UW legislative priorities
and pay plan increases for University of Wisconsin
employees over concerns raised both within his caucus
and by constituents.
Today's agreement reflects what we believe
to be in the best interests of the universities of Wisconsin
and all Wisconsinites to find a path forward
on the issue the speaker has raised
in a way that enables all of our universities
to better serve students and the public
under the current circumstances.
We thank Governor Evers for his support
through these challenges as well as many legislators
on both sides of the aisle who have expressed their support.
I will recommend this agreement to the Board of Regents
at a meeting that will occur tomorrow.
And that resolution recommended the resolution
that has been posted publicly for approval.
I remain hopeful that the Board will approve the resolution
and I also remain hopeful that the full legislature
will also approve the actions that are required
of them pursuant to this agreement.
There are several points that the speaker had raised
in our conversations with him that reflected issues
that he was concerned about, one being restructuring
and realigning positions dealing
with diversity, equity and inclusion,
capping overall non-faculty positions
in the universities of Wisconsin for a three year period
with some additional exceptions for student facing
and research positions, three guaranteeing admission
to top high school students, high school graduates
in Wisconsin, the top 5% for UW Madison
and the top 10% for our other institutions
and four some other issues that are set forth more specifically
in the resolution that will be going to the Regents
for consideration tomorrow.
As part of the agreement, the legislature
would act on the following, approval of the pay plan
no later than December 31, 2023 for all UW employees.
Approval of the $32 million workforce proposal
to add additional capacity in four high demand fields,
including engineering, nursing and healthcare,
business and finance and computer and data science.
Three, approve a new engineering building for Madison.
Four, provide up to $45.4 million in funding
to allow us to demolish some facilities
that are no longer needed or are no longer habitable
across the university system.
Five, approve utility projects as set forth
in our original budget request.
Six, approve the winter Heidi Hall renovation at Whitewater,
which was a project specifically that the speaker wanted
to have added to the list for enumeration.
Seven, approve the renovation of three dorms at UW-Madison,
which are in need of that renovation.
And then finally, approve the Assembly Bill 140
that relates to the allocation of funds
for the under the reciprocity agreement
where Minnesota students are coming into Wisconsin.
And it would really provide that the tuition dollars
that are earned by our universities
actually go back to those universities.
The agreement we reached is a result of an arduous process.
Well, it funds the priorities of the universities of Wisconsin.
We also have made compromises to get to this agreement.
We have agreed to restructure approximately 43 DE&I positions,
while also not increasing the aggregate number of jobs
in DEI for three years across all of our universities.
What is important to note in this is no one is losing their job.
Rather, those positions are being reimagined
into an area where they are focused
predominantly on student success.
As we have made clear publicly throughout this process,
our commitment to DE&I remains,
diversity and inclusion are core values of our universities.
But we are also open to changing
how some of those positions can more directly benefit
student retention and graduation.
And as I mentioned, as part of the agreement,
we would be realigning one third of the current positions,
which is approximately 43 positions to be realigned
over the course of two academic years
from DEI service roles into roles
focused more broadly on student success.
We also agreed to predominantly an overall freeze
on administrative positions.
We are well underway as we speak today
about actively addressing special deficits
at a number of our universities,
while still preserving faculty positions
that are essential to the educational experience.
So we are making those reductions already,
but this would simply put a cap
on our administrative positions moving forward.
Guaranteeing admission to our Wisconsin top high school students
that at our universities is not something we object to either.
So long as it is done correctly.
As part of the agreement,
we have freed up over $800 million
in new projects, initiatives
and inflationary pay increases for our employees.
This funding is essential
if we are going to help build a vibrant future
for all of Wisconsin.
Our mission is to be here for all Wisconsinites.
Our mission is developing the talent we need
to prosper economically as well as provide students
with a high quality education
that they both deserve and their parents expect.
Being a partner with the legislature
helps us achieve that mission
because we cannot do it alone.
Our universities rank 42nd out of 50 states
in the nation in public funding for the university system.
We will continue to advocate for our state to do better.
We have made compromises on management issues
because we can better serve the interests of our state
with the projects and initiatives
that will be funded under this agreement.
This agreement can hopefully reset our relationship
with the legislature so that we can work together
to focus on what is best for the state of Wisconsin.
I have been grateful for Chancellor Mnuchin's support
throughout this process.
She has been an extraordinary partner
as we have worked with the speaker
and others to push this agreement forward.
And it's my pleasure now to introduce Chancellor Mnuchin
who will make a few comments.
Chancellor.
Thank you, thanks so much.
And thanks for this opportunity to talk to all of you.
It's certainly critical for the universities of Wisconsin
and UW Madison in particular to resolve these issues
and to be able to move forward with our mission
are incredibly important missions.
The work of serving our students,
the work of giving students
a transformative educational opportunity,
the work of doing extraordinary research
and serving our state.
I'm grateful for my partnership with President Rothman
and for the Regents and the members of the legislature
who've participated in these conversations.
And we're hopeful that the various elements
of this agreement will be supported by the Board of Regents,
by the full legislature and Governor Evers.
There's no question this has been a difficult process.
And we recognize the stress and strain.
It's caused in our communities over the last six months
as it's played out, partly in public.
We talk a lot about bridging divides
and the importance of doing that.
This is a compromise that I think does exactly that.
And I want to be clear that it's also a compromise
that allows us to hold on to our core values,
which include a commitment to diversity,
inclusivity, belonging and excellence.
These commitments are and must be as strong as ever
for our students and for our employees.
And I understand we still have work to do in these areas,
especially for our underrepresented minority students
and for other students who also say
that they feel an inadequate sense of belonging
on our campus.
We're going to have to continue to work on that and we will.
This isn't getting rid of DEI,
nor is it completely business as usual.
We've agreed to partly reimagine how we go about our work
to emphasize student success,
which already, of course,
is an incredibly important priority.
And I also want to emphasize what President Rothman
already said, nobody will lose their job
if this goes forward.
On the capital side,
this agreement lets us move forward and Madison
with our much needed engineering building
so that we can grow the number of engineering students
we can serve and so that we can support
our world class research.
It also funds a much needed residence hall repairs
and a variety of infrastructure investments
that our world class research university requires.
These are things that we need to serve our students
and to serve the state.
These have been challenging times,
but I do think unbalanced,
we have reached a compromise that represents
a commitment to higher education in the state
and a recognition of the role that UW-Madison
and the universities of Wisconsin play
in helping to move Wisconsin forward.
And for those reasons, I do support this resolution.
Thank you.
Before we get the questions,
I'd ask that folks who are asking questions
just introduce themselves and the media they work for.
And I will call on folks
and we'll get to as many as we can.
Kate Martin.
Hey, yeah, Kate Martin with WIS Politics.
I just wanted to ask you,
have you gotten a handshake agreement from Robin Voss
basically guaranteeing that he will follow
the stipulations in this deal?
We have gotten concurrence on the terms of the agreement
with the speaker and the obligations of the UW system,
the universities of Wisconsin are contingent upon
the legislature acting in the manner
as set forth in the agreement.
So we believe that we've got an agreement on paper
that reflects a consensus with between the speaker
and the universities of Wisconsin
and we're gonna move forward on that basis
to seek approval from the entire legislature
and then to the extent necessary on bills
that have to be enacted to fulfill the agreement
execution into law by Governor Evers.
Liam Knox.
Hi, Liam Knox for Inside Higher Ed.
Thanks for taking the time to answer questions.
I had initially heard some reports
about an initial deal,
including the elimination of the UW TOP program
for faculty diversity hiring,
as well as the creation of a new position
that Voss wanted to be funded by philanthropic donations.
Can you tell me anything about whether that is included
in this new, oh, as well as the elimination
of a diversity statement on student applications?
Are any of those three included in this deal?
And can you, yeah.
They are certainly set forth in the resolution
that will be going before the Regents
and which is a public document
that you can get access to,
but allow me to have the chance
to just respond to the items
that are specific to the campus at Madison.
Sure, two of the things you suggested
are specific to me.
One actually isn't.
The Target of Opportunity program,
I have agreed that we will make that this the last year
of that program that was always intended
to be a temporary program.
We will replace it with a new program
that looks at parts of our hiring,
focusing on faculty members who have demonstrated commitment
and expertise in supporting underrepresented students.
So we will be eliminating one program,
but replacing it with another that is different,
but that is also focused on serving our students,
especially from underrepresented groups.
On the admissions part that really goes back to J
on the faculty chair,
I have agreed that I will go and seek fundraising
to support the creation of a chair
in one of a variety of areas
that could be classical economic thought,
it could be conservative political thought.
And if I were to receive that funding,
we will move forward with that chair
under our ordinary processes.
As I'm sure you're well aware,
we have a variety of chairs across our campus
in a whole lot of areas,
and this would be another one.
Sarah Masler.
Good morning.
Sarah Masler, donor, WKOW,
Capital City Sunday host.
I wanted to ask how much was the campus community,
the system community involved in these discussions,
or was it just on the kind of higher end,
and Regents, President, Chancellor level?
So I guess what's the temperature of the system community,
the faculty, staff and students on these decisions?
Good morning, Sarah.
We reached out to a number of people,
as you can imagine, as we went through that process,
certainly the Regents were continually briefed.
We had a lot of input and a lot of discussion
with the chancellors as well.
And we also reached out in various ways
to leadership and share governance as well.
As well as solicited views of others as part of this process.
The negotiations and discussions themselves included both the chancellor and me,
but we had a broad range of input and guidance as we went through this process.
Todd Richmond.
Yeah, Todd Richmond from the Associated Press.
Two part question.
I assume Governor Evers without the sign off on any legislative action.
Correct. And do you feel that boss held you hostage?
I mean, this is a really unusual way to do business here with striking deals with
passage of bills and passages of other initiatives in return for this and that.
I mean, is this log rolling, essentially?
And let me respond to your first question.
Any legislation would require the governor's signature and we have certainly kept the
governor's office.
A prize that where we are at.
And assuming the legislation is passed,
we are hopeful that the governor would sign it into law,
but obviously that would be a decision that he would make at it at another date.
Regarding the process itself,
I just viewed it as we wanted to find an agreement that was in the best interest
of the universities of Wisconsin under the circumstances with which we were presented.
And that is what I believe we have done.
AJ.
Hello, everyone.
AJ by for CBS 58 in Milwaukee.
Appreciate you guys taking the time to do this this morning.
Another two part question.
One, the UW system statement as of Wednesday was that an agreement was not,
quote, imminent between now and then what changed.
And two, can you confirm that there will be, as part of this agreement,
a mandatory course on something along the lines of diverse topics,
or excuse me, divisive topics.
And if so, what exactly would that include?
As it relates to, you know, where we were on Wednesday,
and where we are today, there was progress made in our conversations with the speaker.
And we were able to reach an agreement.
I don't think there's any more I can say on that front in terms of the, the agreement itself.
There is nothing relative to a course on divisive topics that is in the agreement.
And I encourage you to take a look at the proposed resolution that's available on the board's website.
Rich Kramer.
Rich Kramer, Wisconsin public radio. Thanks for doing this.
So what's to prevent this from happening? Every budget cycle.
There's, there's some.
People that are critical already of the, the regions and the system for even considering.
You know, in agreement that was.
You know, based on a withholding of pay raises that were pre approved by the same lawmakers that held them up.
So is this something that the UW system is, or I should say the University of Wisconsin are worried about happening.
On the regular.
You know, I think, Rich, as we look at it, you know, we're pleased that we were able to reach an agreement on these issues.
And it is our intent to continue to build a relationship with the legislature.
So that we can have productive discussions as we go through the process.
And find ways that we can invest in our universities to the betterment of the state.
Liam Baron.
Hi, Liam Baron, the daily cardinal on the system has been facing some criticism from democratic leadership, particularly in the black democratic caucus on its approach to these negotiations.
How did it respond. Some folks have been saying the UW system has sold sold out is underrepresented students or made a deal that prior to this is funding over diversity, equity and inclusion.
You know, I think Liam and I'll also ask that the chancellor to, to provide some input on this as well our core values around diversity and inclusion are not changed.
As the chancellor mentioned, we are neither eliminating the nor are we continuing business as usual in an entirely we are trying to continue to evolve to change to help students succeed.
And I appreciate that there will be people who agree and disagree with with all of this. And again, it's it's when you go through a difficult process a challenging discussion and challenging negotiation to reach reach an agreement.
So, you know, neither side at the end of the day is typically said this is the greatest thing since sliced bread that's just reality. But I think on balance, we have found a point that this is in the best interest of our universities.
And I am pleased to be able to recommend it to the Board of Regents. Chancellor, would you like to add anything more.
Thanks and nice to see you, Liam. I don't think I've got that much more to add. I mean, this absolutely is not getting rid of DEI, but it is a commitment.
To reimagine parts of it. I think that we should actually pretty constantly be looking at what's working well and what isn't working well and how we can best serve our students, including our underrepresented students and help them achieve success.
I think we can continue to do that under this agreement and that will absolutely remain a tremendously important priority for me as I know it will for the chancellors across the system.
Thank you both.
Thank you.
Can you go ahead.
Yes. Hi, Carol from the Badger Herald.
Thank you all for taking the time today.
I know you're talking a lot about supporting students through this transition, but how specifically will you support students from marginalized communities during this transition of reimagining DEI efforts on you campuses.
Yeah, and I think I go back to the basic premise that our core values around around diversity and inclusion have not changed.
We know we need to support students from underrepresented groups, students from different face students of different political ideology students of different socioeconomic means veterans and disabled students and so forth.
But our commitment to those students are commitment to achieving student success is not going to change.
That is absolutely critical.
The only thing I would add to that I add two quick points. One is that to the extent we're reimagining some elements of our function.
We're actually strengthening the focus on students and student success.
The second thing I'd add is that in the overall position cap.
One of the important exemptions is actually for positions that are student facing.
So that we've really prioritized that in how this is framed.
We have time I think for one more question and there's one person who hasn't had an opportunity who's got a raised hand that's Kayla. Go ahead Kayla.
I'm so sorry I was talking but I was on mute.
Anyway, hi, I'm Kayla with the cap times.
So as others have said, students, faculty and lawmakers of color are concerned about this deal.
Were any people of color at the negotiating table this week.
Now we certainly had consulted with a variety of wide variety of people, including our regions, our chancellors, some members of shared governance and others.
So there were that we had a we had input from a diverse group of people throughout this entire process.
Got it. Thank you.
Thanks everybody. We appreciate your presence this morning. And thanks most of all to Chancellor Mnuchin and President. Thanks again. Thanks everybody. Thanks everybody.
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