The year 2024 began with a headache for the Universities of Wisconsin. UW-La Crosse chancellor Joe Gow was fired from his leadership position in December for posting online pornography of himself and his wife. Gow spent the next several months fighting to keep his job as a tenured faculty member.
Incredibly, Gow’s plight wasn’t the biggest issue facing Jay Rothman, Universities of Wisconsin president, in 2024.
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Finances continue to plague the UW System.
“(Funding) was one of the big themes I wrote about in 2024,” Kelly Meyerhofer, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s higher education reporter, told WTMJ’s Wis. Morning News. “Campuses are running deficits. The past couple of years, some have laid off employees, implemented furloughs, cut programs, etc.”
With money at a premium, Rothman called on the UW Regents to approve a tuition hike, and to implement the Direct Admit program, an innovative new way to attract high school students.
“(Direct Admit) is meant to tell students ‘you are already accepted and we want you here,'” Meyerhofer explained. “The financial problems stem from primarily a huge decline in enrollment.”
It’s important to point out that the system has seen an increase in enrollment the past two school years. The numbers are “nominal” said Meyerhofer, but “an encouraging sign.”
In May, Pro-Palestinian protestors demonstrated on the campuses of UW and UW-Milwaukee. The schools struggled to find ways to remove the demonstrators ahead of the commencement. Grothman was unhappy with how UWM handled the situation.
The protests prompted policy changes and guidance issued by president Rothman, Meyerhofer said.
“If there are (future) protests, the UW System wants to be involved,” she said. “President Rothman wants to take much more active role.”
Coming up in 2025, the big debate will be over funding for the Universities of Wisconsin. Rothman has asked for an $855 million budget increase.
“(UW) has asked for an unprecedented amount,” Meyerhofer said. “Republicans have pretty much said that’s not going to happen.”
It’s anyone’s guess what amount will be decided.
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