Jay O. Rothman, president of the University of Wisconsin System, speaks during the UW Board of Regents meeting hosted at Union South at the University of Wisconsin–Madison on Feb. 9, 2023. (Photo by Althea Dotzour / UW–Madison)

The Universities of Wisconsin Administration released a third-party report on its finances Monday, announcing plans for how it can better and more efficiently support the state’s public universities as the system faces declining enrollment and increased scrutiny from Republican lawmakers. 

The report’s release comes after Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said that the system’s $855 million budget request was a nonstarter — even though system President Jay Rothman agreed to Republican demands for changes to the system’s diversity, equity and inclusion policies. 

“Right now, the Universities of Wisconsin are 43rd out of 50 states in the nation in terms of public support for our universities,” Rothman said on WISN’s UpFront on Sunday. “The $855 million gets us up to average, gets us up to the median. That, to me, in the context of a long period of time where the universities have not been invested in, is a reasonable ask.”

The release of the report, from the consulting firm Deloitte, on the system administration’s finances comes after similar reviews of the finances of the 12 University of Wisconsin schools outside of UW-Madison. Ten of those schools have been operating at a deficit as budget support from the state government has decreased and enrollment numbers have declined. Only the Madison, La Crosse and Stout campuses have been projected to create enough revenues to cover their expenses. 

A strategic plan implemented by the UW Board of Regents in 2022 calls for structural deficits to be resolved by 2028. A decade-long tuition freeze implemented by Republican lawmakers was ended in 2022 and earlier this year, the Regents approved the second tuition increase in two years. 

​​“The independent third-party review that has now concluded complements our strategic plan, adopted by the Board of Regents two years ago,” Rothman said in a statement. “It provides us insight on how better to provide unparalleled educational opportunities for Wisconsin students, improve Wisconsin communities, and help Wisconsin win the War for Talent.” 

The report notes that each campus is run independently and that system administration needs to do a better job clearly stating what its goals are so campus leaders can plan effectively. 

There is a need to improve systemwide accountability, while leaving space for the unique identity and culture of each campus, as the Universities of Wisconsin is the sum of its parts, ultimately rolling up to singular financial statements.

“Without a clear tactical vision and roadmap for the future of UW operations, it is difficult for university leaders to make informed decisions about investing in operations and/or strategic priorities,” the report states. “UW universities would benefit from a strategic roadmap across administrative, operations, technology, programmatic, and enrollment initiatives.”

Efforts to solve the system’s financial woes have already been underway, with a number of branch campuses across the state being shuttered and faculty and staff at several universities facing layoffs. 

The release of the individual campus financial reports in April drew concerns from faculty and students that the system would lean on austerity measures to balance the budget, harming their jobs and educational opportunities when the true cause of the struggles is the lack of financial support the system has gotten in the state budget. 

Monday’s report recommends that the system administration do more oversight of academic program creation and management, noting that the number of programs at the 12 non-Madison campuses has grown by nearly 7% while the number of bachelor’s degrees conferred has declined by more than 9%. The report states that system administration should set clear markers for what it means for a program to be successful and better determine if a program should be tweaked, invested in, combined between campuses or closed. 

“While creating and curating academic programs should fall within the purview of faculty governance at each university, UW Admin should be accountable for creating transparent policies and processes to provide the data necessary for the Board of Regents to fulfill its role in approving and monitoring programs,” the report states. 

With the release of the report, Rothman announced a number of plans to follow its recommendations, including being more active in enrollment management, creating a work group for evaluating low-enrollment programs, increased standards for financial accountability and providing “more effective, customer-focused shared services.” 

“These reviews have helped us refine steps to eliminate structural deficits at a number of our universities and embark on a path of long-term financial stability,” Rothman said. “We will continue to make necessary changes across our universities to ensure faithful stewardship of resources and to better serve students and parents, employers, and communities across Wisconsin.” 

College students this past spring used on-campus encampments , including at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, to protest Israel's prosecution of the war on Hamas. New Universities of Wisconsin and UW-Madison policies have place strict limits on institutional statements by the UW system, its universities and university departments, requring viewpoint neutrality about matters outside the university system. (Baylor Spears | Wisconsin Examiner)

A new Universities of Wisconsin policy requires statements in the name of UW institutions to avoid expressing a point of view on political or social controversies.

On the heels of the new UW system policy, announced Friday, UW-Madison instituted a policy Friday that echoed the system document. The policy change was first reported on Friday by the UW-Madison student newspaper, The Daily Cardinal.

“Institutional statements issued by university leaders should be limited to matters that directly affect the operations and core mission of the university, and should maintain viewpoint neutrality in any reference to any matter of political or social controversy,” the UW System policy states.

The policy applies to statements issued through university channels and that “are likely to be perceived as speaking in the name of and on behalf of” the university system, any of the university campuses, or any particular department, center, division, program or other university entity.

It applies to UW System President Jay Rothman, system vice presidents, university chancellors or a variety of other academic officers.

The policy permits statements about regulations, legislation or court rulings that directly affect the university. But those statements are only allowed to share support or opposition when authorized by Rothman or a university chancellor.

Both the UW system and the UW-Madison policies include disclaimers emphasizing that they are not intended to infringe on university employees’ free speech rights.

“This policy does not apply to statements made by faculty or staff in exercising academic freedom with respect to scholarship, teaching, and intellectual debate, nor to faculty or staff acting on their own behalf in their capacity as individuals and not purporting to speak in the name of and on behalf of any university or unit,” the UW system policy states.

The UW system’s policy follows a statement issued in May by the UW-Milwaukee  expressing support for a cease fire in Israel’s war on Hamas in the Palestinian territory of Gaza. The statement also included a condemnation of the Hamas attack Oct. 7, 2023 that preceded Israel’s attacks. The statement followed negotiations between the university administration and student groups on the campus who protested Israel’s prosecution of the war. The statement and related actions at UWM prompted criticism from Jewish groups as well as Rothman at the time.

Asked Monday whether the UWM events prompted the change, Mark Pitsch, director of media relations for the UW system, told the Wisconsin Examiner in an email message, “The Universities of Wisconsin, along with peers across the country, for years have discussed how to handle institutional statements and President Rothman decided the time had come for a formal policy.”

In a message to students, staff and faculty Friday explaining the new UW-Madison policy, Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin acknowledged she has been among campus leaders throughout the U.S. who have chosen “to make public statements about or take positions on major issues, events, and controversies.”

Mnookin wrote that “I have come to believe that this practice is problematic,” and that such statements delivered by an institutional leader “may, however inadvertently, discourage free expression among the plurality of voices within our university” and “risks crowding out other points of view.”

That applies to messages aimed at comforting and supporting people who are “hurting and suffering in the wake of something that has occurred in the broader world,” she wrote. “And yet, while some may feel comforted by a given message, others may feel excluded or unseen by what is said, and by what is left unsaid.”

As of Monday the American Association of University Professors Wisconsin chapter had no comment on the new policy.

One especially vocal opponent has been Nathan Kalmoe, who holds a staff position at UW-Madison and who sharply criticized the policy on the social media platform BlueSky shortly after it was announced.

Kalmoe is the executive administrative director at the Center for Communication and Civic Renewal in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication. In an interview Monday he specified he was speaking for himself and not for the center, the school or the university.

The disclaimers in Madison and UW System policies protecting the right to free speech of individuals are important, Kalmoe said. He contends, however, that the university as an institution and its departments and other units should be free to take stances on significant matters.

He cited as an example statements that the UW-Madison chancellor’s office as well as a number of university departments and programs issued in support of the Black community in the aftermath of the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd in 2020.

The university’s declared commitment to equality “means recognizing that certain controversial issues are a direct threat to equality in our society,” Kalmoe said in an interview.

John Lucas, assistant vice chancellor for public affairs at UW-Madison, said in an email message that the new policy “requires a situation to have a direct impact on campus operations or the university’s mission for the university to take an institutional position.”

When that does not apply, the policy allows for an informational statement from the institution “to acknowledge the situation and provide support and resources,” Lucas said. “In all cases, it would also allow faculty members, in their individual capacity, to continue sharing their own views in all manner of ways.”

Asked whether the new policy would have permitted statements of the sort that followed Floyd’s death, Lucas said it was “hard to retroactively assess a George Floyd statement,” but added, “that was a situation that also had a direct impact locally and on campus operations.”

Nevertheless, Kalmoe said issues in wider society such as racism, sexism, antisemitism or islamophobia can have a direct effect on students and their wellbeing on campus and should prompt university support. By treating them instead as subjects of controversy requiring a neutral perspective, he said, it falls short.

Kalmoe also believes the university has a responsibility to set a moral example on such subjects.

“If the campus is muzzled on those kinds of things that are directly related to our mission and to the intellectual and moral values of the university,” he said, “then we’re removing from public discourse a vital voice that influences how people think about these issues, and forfeiting the opportunity for leadership on these issues that are directly related to our values.”