(This story has been updated with new information.)
The UW Board of Trustees asked the system president to resign, but he refused to do so because he said he was given no reason.
UW President Jay Rothman said that despite all the accomplishments, the board of trustees “is prepared to terminate my employment,” according to a letter obtained by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
In a March 26 letter to UW Board of Trustees Chair Amy Bogost, Rothman said Bogost and Vice Chancellor Kyle Weatherly asked Rothman to meet with them in late March. He was surprised to learn at the meeting that an unidentified majority of the board had lost confidence in his leadership. He said there had been no previous discussions and no specific details that led the board to reach its conclusion. At their meeting, he wrote, Bogost stated that each regent had his or her own opinion on the matter.
University of Washington System President Jay Rothman discusses the 2025-27 budget request during an interview in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel newsroom on Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in Milwaukee.
“To date, you have not provided any substantive reason or rationale why the board does not have confidence in my leadership, and as a matter of principle I am not prepared to submit my resignation,” Rothman wrote.
The board of directors held a closed meeting on April 1 to discuss ongoing personnel matters. Rothman said he had been given an ultimatum: announce his resignation at the end of 2026 and provide 120 days’ notice of resignation as required by the contract, otherwise the board would fire him.
UW President Jay Rothman, shown in a 2017 file photo, said he was asked to resign.
Bogost did not immediately respond to phone calls and text messages. In a statement provided by a UW System spokesperson, she said she would not comment on personnel matters.
“The Board of Trustees is responsible for the leadership of the University of Wisconsin and is discussing its future,” the statement said.
The Associated Press first reported Rothman’s letter.
Rothman sent a follow-up letter to the two directors on April 1, saying the board was preparing to fire him when it met over Easter weekend. He asked to appear before the board and said he was not given the opportunity.
“I find this process to be almost, if not completely, untenable from a board governance perspective,” he wrote in a letter to directors Ashok Rai and Jack Salzwedel.
Rothman takes over as chancellor of the University of Wisconsin System in 2022 without any higher education experience. He previously headed the Milwaukee law firm of Foley & Lardner.
Rothman’s two-page letter to Bogost listed accomplishments, including achieving the largest state operating budget increase in two decades, eliminating campus financial deficits ahead of schedule, closing many two-year branch campuses and launching a direct enrollment program.
“If the above list isn’t proof enough of my leadership in driving bold and transformative change, then I really don’t know what is,” Rothman wrote.
Rothman previously offered to resign in 2023, when the UW Board of Trustees reached an agreement with the state Legislature over campus diversity efforts. The board later overturned the vote.
This story may be updated.
Kelly Meyerhofer has covered higher education in Wisconsin since 2018. Please contact her at kmeyerhofer@gannett.com or 414-223-5168. Follow her on X (Twitter): @KellyMeyerhofer.
This article originally appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: University of Wisconsin System president told to resign or be fired
