- Secretary, governor and now
president of the UW System,
Tommy Thompson, thank you so
much for being here.
- Well, it's my honor,
Frederica. It's always a
pleasure to see you.
I remember fondly
our days we used
to you -- you used to interview
me when I was governor.
So I'm very happy to be back
on your program.
And thank you so very much for
having me.
- Well, thank you.
Well, just to jump in with
K-12 districts in certain
parts of the state deciding
to go virtually
for the start of the school
year, how can the
UW safely open to even a
hybrid of remote and in-person
classes safely?
- We're dedicated and
passionate about making sure
that our professors,
our instructors, our employees
and above all, our students
are going to be safe.
You got to remember that I was
Secretary of Health, and I
would never put anybody in
harm's way if I can
help it. And we're doing
everything. We're preparing our
classrooms.
We're making sure our large
classrooms are not going to be
utilized.
We're making sure that every
student has to have a mask
on when they're inside.
We're also asking them to wear
their masks outside if they
cannot socially distance.
We're making sure that in our
entrance and exits, a
lot of them are only going to
be one way.
We're making sure that our
classrooms got the
highest cleaning standards
put down by CDC.
We're dedicated to that.
We're putting instructions out
daily as to how to
make sure our classrooms are
safe.
We feel that we're going to
have our classes
and classrooms as
publicly safe and as safe
for our employees as we
possibly can.
And above all, our students.
So I feel very confident.
We're opening on September 2nd.
And I am here to tell you,
I'm I'm dedicated to make
sure that everybody will be
safe.
- Young adults, as you know,
were in large measure
responsible for kind
of the most recent surge.
How can the university manage
their behavior on and off
campuses?
- Well, there's no way that
you're going to be able to -
Frederica - manage students
off campus.
But what we're doing is we're
asking students to wear their
mask.
We're putting out a lot of
information.
We're asking students to get
flu vaccinated
and have the vaccine
in and purchased so that
we can help students get
vaccinated.
We're putting out a lot of
instructions where we're
talking to a lot of students
and we're encouraging students
in the most important way
to do it is by
having students talk to other
students. Let's be safe.
Let's be healthy.
We are going to enjoy campus,
but we have to be healthy to
enjoy it.
This is the message going out
and using my public health
days, my public health
hat on, I'm going to do
everything I possibly can
through social networking,
through signs, through
encouragement, using students,
using our professors
to make sure our students are
safe, both on and off
campus.
- Now, you're obviously deep
into the books at the
UW System.
What kind of financial -- what
kind of financial hit is the
UW dealing with because of
closures last spring?
- Huge.
It was an amazing thing because
we had to refund pro
rata the share
of the student dorms,
the food that we had purchased.
You know, a lot of food we
purchased for the full semester
and then we had to give that
away. So it was a financial,
really strong hit.
Harder on some campuses
than others. But overall, it
was really tough for the
system.
And now -- and then we also got
in the first semester, we
also got hit by about
$50 million from the state
of Wisconsin.
And we're going to have to take
another hit.
So the University of Wisconsin
System has financial problems,
but I am confident.
I am confident, working with
the governor's office, working
with DOA, working with my
contacts in Washington,
that we're going to be able to
get enough state and federal
dollars, with the help of
what we're going to do managing
this problem at
the system level, we're going
to do -- we're going to make
it. We're gonna make it.
And we're going to come out
stronger next
year than we are this year.
- Because as you mentioned,
Governor Tony Evers has now
announced an additional $250
million
budget cut to state agencies
and presumably the
UW would have to take
a portion of that.
Is there any portion of that
that you believe that the
system can take and
still embark
on reopening and providing
all of the kinds of PPE,
et cetera, that you need to do
to do so safely?
- Well, there's two pots of
money that we're talking about.
The state money that
the governor is talking about
is money that
can be lapsed by the governor
and his office.
And we're pushing back on that.
But we're, but we're trying to
accommodate the governor
and the DOA.
We're trying to show how
difficult it's going to be and
why it's probably going to
be problematic for the system.
But we're working with the
governor and with his
staff and DOA.
We want to be -- we don't want
to be confrontational.
We want to be cooperative.
And we want to make sure that
they understand our financial
conditions.
We're also working in
Washington to get more federal
dollars. And as you know,
I've asked the governor for
$110 million
for personal
protective equipment, as well
as for tracking and tracing
and testing.
And we think, you know, with
that money, if we can get
$100 million, we
would be able to definitely
open.
Well, we are going to
open up and be safe, but it
would be much more helpful if
we have that extra funding for
testing and tracing and for purchasing the protective
equipment.
- What do you think the likelihood
is of getting that kind
of money?
- You know, it's always
an uphill battle.
You know there's -- nothing
is easy when you're acting
president of the University of
Wisconsin System I'm finding out.
But we're going to do
everything we possibly can.
I am aggressively seeking money
from the state and federal
levels. And I think
that we're going to be -- I'm
cautiously optimistic.
I come from Elroy, Wisconsin.
You have to be cautiously
optimistic just waking up in
the morning.
And so I feel that we're
going to do it and we're going
to be -- we're going to get
through this and we're going to
be able to be stronger
and healthier next
spring than we are today.
I am confident of that.
- We leave it there.
Former Governor Tommy Thompson,
now president of the UW System.
Thank you very much for joining
us.
- Frederica, it's always
a pleasure. Thank you very
much.