Here & Now

Jay Rothman Shares His Priorities as UW System President

Frederica Freyberg:

The leader of the UW System stepped into his new job this week. System President Jay Rothman will lead 13 universities across 26 campuses and a statewide extension network. He comes from the law firm Foley & Lardner, where he was CEO. He succeeds Tommy Thompson as the eighth president of the UW System. We should note, PBS Wisconsin is part of UW Madison. We sat down with Rothman late this week. First of all, thanks very much for sitting down with us.

Jay Rothman:

No, it’s my pleasure. Thank you.

Frederica Freyberg:

We wanted to ask, why did you want this job?

Jay Rothman:

This is such a fascinating job. And as I began thinking about applying and said, “Did my skillset fit?” And just to give you a little bit of background, I’ve been a Wisconsin resident my entire life. So, I have known the value of the system. I’ve lived outside of the state for only four years in law school and then clerking for a year outside of the state, came back to the state that I had grown up with ’cause I like it here. I love it here, quite frankly. I had the opportunity to work in the law firm of Foley & Lardner for a number of years, serving the last 11 years as the firm’s chairman and CEO where I had the opportunity to work in strategic planning. I got to see administrative functions, whether it was finance, talent development, IT, and so forth. And then I also got to understand what it means to lead in a non-hierarchical organization with 500 partners, 1100 lawyers across the country and some globally, that you need to secure buy-in. You need to be a servant leader, which is consistent with my philosophy in the first instance. So, when I started to look at this job and my term at the firm was coming to an end, I was not subject to be re-elected to a full term, and I had the opportunity to stay there, but I was presented with this opportunity and I said, “This is interesting.” And then I started to think about the impact that the family of universities that comprised the system have on the state of Wisconsin. And I knew that intuitively ’cause I had seen it growing up and had family members attending UW schools. But when I really started to dig into it, I really got excited, and about playing a small role in impacting the trajectory of people’s lives in the state, and that’s what this system does every single day. That’s what’s exciting to me. And I always ask the question, what would Wisconsin look like if the UW system and the schools in the UW system were not here? What would it look like? What would it mean to the vibrancy of the state of Wisconsin? That to me is the exciting point of this job, and I’m really just energized and excited and passionate to have the opportunity to serve in this role.

Frederica Freyberg:

So, what are your first priorities as president of this system?

Jay Rothman:

I really have several. Let me start with, and what we’re working on right now is we’ve just started the initial phases of doing a strategic plan. And we are in the process right now of understanding core values, understanding strengths and opportunities for the system as well as some of the challenges we may have. So, I really want to be driving that as quickly as we can, but that’s something that we have to have a lot of input on from the chancellors, from system leadership, from shared governance, from other stakeholders to make sure we are headed in the right direction. That’s one of the priorities kind of going forward. My focal areas as we work on the plan really are four. One is to continue to enhance the focus on students. Much of what we do is all focused on that student experience and helping them in their educational journey. We’re doing a hundred stories over the first a hundred days of my tenure, talking to individual students. We’ll do a hundred different students during that period of time. And this is more than just the impact of a college education on one’s economics, because those statistics are unsaleable. They are what they are. But these stories really get into the value of education and how it has impacted these individual students. The impact faculty members and staff members have had on their journey. And we’re just starting them, but they have been so inspiring. And when you think about 36,000 graduates coming out of the university every year and the impact that they are having, that focus on students is really critical. You know, the second one is looking at affordability. I’ve asked our data analytics team to review affordability from two different perspectives. One is from the perspective of how do we compare with peer institutions? And then secondly, how do we compare relative to any one perspective student’s individual economic means? Because it is important that we keep affordability in mind, and you’ll see these objectives kind of tie into each other. But one of the great things we’ll be doing next week will be presenting a budget to the Board of Regents, of the annual budget, and I will be recommending in that budget a tuition freeze for instate undergraduate students for the coming school year that focus on affordability. And certainly that has been facilitated in part by Governor Evers, directed some money to the UW System for that purpose, and I’m grateful for that money ’cause I think it helps us focus on that affordability piece for the upcoming school year. You know, the third is to build relationships among the various stakeholders in the system. Whether that be the legislature, the administration, shared governance, but particularly focused on, and I should mention students in that as well ’cause they are really an important constituency and stakeholder in this, but focused with some particularity on the business community, and really asking the business community, “What more can the system do to help you?” What can we be doing? Whether that is the demand for engineers or the demand for nurses, or reskilling and upskilling of adult learners. That lifelong learning continuum that I think is going to be more and more prevalent in our society, going forward. All of that is absolutely critical to the vibrancy of the state of Wisconsin. We want employers to be able to find the talent here, so that they can grow here and not feel that they have to grow somewhere else. I want to build those relationships with the business committee. And last is the focus on diversity, equity and inclusion. And I break that down in a variety of different pockets. One is dealing with prospective students from underrepresented groups, and making sure that there is a path forward for them. Affordability is a big piece of that, student focus is a big piece of that, but we also have to make sure that they feel that they belong, and they are part of the university community, whatever of the 13 universities they may happen to be or whatever campus they happen to be on. That is particularly important in a driving force. And we also have to support them in their journey, because it is unconscionable to me to say, “Well, we recruit them and then they’re on their own.” That’s not fair. They have to be supported along the way, and we have to have the resources to help them so that they can succeed. That’s absolutely critical. And it’s not just racial and ethnic diversity, it’s also socioeconomic diversity, so that we touch all parts of the state because that’s what’s going to make the state stronger and better. So, that’s the student piece. And then you think about the faculty and staff, and then you think about the leadership of the universities, and of the system itself. But that we are focused, and diversity, equity and inclusion becomes not something that’s set about to the side, but it is part and parcel of every decision that we make going forward. So, those are the four priorities that I have set for this start of my tenure

Frederica Freyberg:

Outgoing UW Madison Chancellor, Rebecca Blank said, before she left, that political polarization in Wisconsin is the greatest existential threat to at least the flagship university in her mind. What is your response to that?

Jay Rothman:

I think that Chancellor Blank did extraordinary things for UW Madison. I have great respect for her. I think we need to focus, and when we talk about the political polarization, I take one step back from that and say, I have to believe that we all want what is in the best interest of the state of Wisconsin. We may have different views about how we get there, but let’s start with that basic premise, that everyone sitting in the legislature, everyone sitting in the administration, our citizenry, our residents want what is best for the state of Wisconsin. If we start that as our north star, that’s what we ought to be focused on. That’s what we want to focus on. Then we can have constructive conversation about how we get there. And that’s what we plan to do. And I would take it one step further than that, because I think, when you think of yes, is there polarization in the political environment these days? Yes, I don’t think… that’s undeniable. But what can the universities do to help with that? And we talk about freedom of expression and civil dialogue. The universities have always been, and need to continue to be, that place where the marketplace of ideas is discussed without someone being tainted or labeled by their perspectives. That ideas, concepts can be discussed in an open, free and frank manner, regardless of which your political philosophy happens to be. The universities can be great examples of how we can forward that discussion going forward. We’re working on some things around civil dialogue and freedom of expression at the system right now that we can help to support the universities that are already focused on this. They’re doing a good job. How can we do a better job to discuss issues that are critical, that are hard, that are nuanced, that are sophisticated, not subject to sound bite, not subject to tweet, but require deep thought? Because a lot of things happen in that. One learns how to think critically. One learns how to think analytically. One’s views evolve as you hear different viewpoints batted back and forth. That’s important. And our students are really, really smart. They’ll be able to sift and winnow what they’re hearing, and make up their own minds. And that’s what a university experience ought to be.

Frederica Freyberg:

The legislature passed, and the governor vetoed a bill that would eliminate courses on racism at UW campuses in their instruction. What are your thoughts about people inside the capital deciding what’s taught inside classrooms?

Jay Rothman:

I think we need to look at and have that working relationship with the legislature, and we step back again and look at it from a higher perspective. What is in the best interest of the state of Wisconsin? What is in the best interest of the system as a whole? What is in the best interest of the students that the system is trying to serve? I’d like to have the conversation at that level, that we really focus on that level about what is in the best interest of students? And it really goes back, I think, to the whole concept of that freedom of expression, that civil dialogue, that we can debate those issues, have that conversation. The university can be a point at which those conversations can occur. They can occur in an area where people can agree to disagree, and that’s okay, but they’re not labeled as being wrong or mean-spirited. It is just on an ongoing basis we have those conversations.

Frederica Freyberg:

To that question of discussion of and teaching of racism within classrooms at the UW, do you think that’s okay or do you think that’s wrong?

Jay Rothman:

I think what one wants to have in a university experience is to be exposed to various ideas, various perspectives, so that these students who are, as I said before, are really, really smart, they can make up their own minds. We’re not going to tell them what to think. They can make up their own minds because we couldn’t tell them what to think. They’re too smart for that. And I think all of us should be exposed to various viewpoints, to be challenged on our own views, to challenge other on their views. That’s how thinking evolves. That’s how we get better as a society. And if we can do that in a civil environment, that’s what the universities can help format.

Frederica Freyberg:

What can you tell us about the health of the system schools and enrollment? I mean, are there plans at all to scale back any programs or do something different around institutions that might not be doing as well as perhaps the flagship?

Jay Rothman:

A couple of thoughts on that. Are we looking at the enrollment issue? Of course we are. And how do we do that? But it goes back to some of the priorities that I started with. You know, that student focus, and really trying to raise the value in people’s minds and the value of that college education. Because I think, over time in some circles, that has been diminished a little bit. We should be talking about that. And that’s not a political statement. That’s not a right or left issue. That is simply, how do we discuss the value of that college education? Yes, it has economic impact, but it has so many other impacts about opening doors for other opportunities. So, that’s one way to address it. I think a second way is when we talked about affordability. Making it affordable, have people believe that they can belong here. That can help with enrollment challenges. And the third piece is, if you think about how we look at diversity, equity and inclusion, the recruitment and development, and finding that journey and that path for those students who are coming from underrepresented groups. I think those are some of the proactive things that we’re already dealing with in order to deal with the challenges around enrollment. I think we have to look at enrollment too, differently. How much of it was impacted by COVID? How much of it has been impacted by the vibrancy of the job market right now? And that ebbs and flows as the economy ebbs and flows. But we certainly can’t… We understand the demographics. We know how many kids were born 17 and 18 years ago. We know what that pipeline is of at least high school graduates. That’s one piece. But as the economy has become so much more vibrant and dynamic, think about the need for upskilling and reskilling. That, the system can do as well for adult learners that may be online totally. But those are the things that I think we need to be thinking more creatively about and more innovatively about. And I also look at the geographic footprint of the system, which was part and parcel of your question. If we’re going to live the Wisconsin idea, if this university is going to, and the university system is going to have impact every resident of the state of Wisconsin, that footprint’s important.

Frederica Freyberg:

Taking a look at the books, which I’m sure you have, and with your past experience, are there campuses that are in trouble now? And if you want to maintain the tuition freeze, where do you get the financial backing to move forward and make sure that these institutions are in good shape? Do you need more money from the state?

Jay Rothman:

Well, one always needs more resources, right? Have you ever seen an institution or organization that hasn’t felt itself to be resource constrained? That’s always cause there’s always more opportunity than there might be resources. But I look at it this way. I think the real key to that is to focus on the enrollment side, and drive enrollment, and drive adult learning, and communicate the value. The value of the college education. The value of that experience. The doors and opportunities that opens for you. We have so much to offer. And I think that’s where we should focus first before we look at any other of the objectives or steps that we may need to take. ‘Cause I’m optimistic that we can do that and do that well.

Frederica Freyberg:

Okay, Rothman. Thanks very much.

Jay Rothman:

Thank you very much. Appreciate your time.