Challenges for the new president of the University of Wisconsin System; five found dead in Milwaukee residence

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
·4 min read
Milwaukee police gather where five people were found dead in the area of North 21st and West Wright streets. Police are investigating the deaths as homicides.

New UW System leader will need to get up to speed quickly to face array of challenges

  • Milwaukee attorney Jay Rothman, named Friday as the eighth president of the University of Wisconsin System, faces an array of challenges, from enrollment declines, to tuition increases, to improving relationships with the state Legislature and the public. He said he wants to talk to campus leaders and financial experts in the system before making any decisions.

  • Asked at which point he thought a smaller campus should close due to low enrollment, Rothman declined to outline metrics on such a decision. "The first thing I think we need to look at is are there students in those areas that those campuses serve that we haven't accessed," he said. "Is the demand there for the educational opportunity ... have we done everything we can to reach into the K-12 environment, or into the tech school environment for people who are transferring into the system, before we think about it?" At the end of the day, if a campus isn't viable, Rothman said the system has to face the difficult call of looking at "some other option."

  • Asked if he would support a tuition increase by the board, Rothman declined to get into specifics, saying he'd want to talk to the system's finance experts first. Chancellors have long expressed dismay at the idea of tuition freezes, saying they ultimately hurt the quality of education, especially if legislators won't provide supplemental funding to make up the difference.

Rebecca Kleefisch used 'indefinitely confined' voting method she now wants abolished, says it was a mistake

  • The revelation could complicate Kleefisch's bid for governor because she has centered much of her run on tightening the state's voting laws. She has derided Democratic Gov. Tony Evers for vetoing Republican-backed voting legislation — including one bill that would have prevented her from using the voting method she did in 2020.

  • Thousands of disabled and elderly people who cannot easily get out of their homes have long used the law. Voters decide for themselves whether they qualify as indefinitely confined and do not need to submit medical information to election clerks. In 2020, as the coronavirus pandemic surged, the number of indefinitely confined voters exploded. That November, 215,000 voters claimed to be indefinitely confined, compared with 67,000 in the 2016 presidential election.

  • "The indefinitely confined status was clearly made by mistake," Kleefisch spokesman Alec Zimmerman said by email. "Upon learning of that designation, Rebecca asked her clerk to correct it and voted in person in 2020. When she requested her absentee ballot in the spring of 2020 she was told by her clerk that she did not need to upload her photo ID because they had one on file for her."

5 homicide victims found near North 21st and West Wright streets in Milwaukee

  • Police were making a welfare check at a home near North 21st and West Wright streets. When they entered they found five people dead, four men and a woman. Police don't have a motive or suspect in the deaths.

  • “It is important not to feel numbed by the ongoing violence in our community," Acting Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson said. "A horrible crime has again occurred, and it is not a movie or a fictional account. These victims died in our city, in one of our neighborhoods."

  • At the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner's office, the weekend's death investigations included eight homicides, eight probable overdoses, five from COVID-19 and one suicide, according to a tweet from the medical examiner's office.

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The Money

KOHL'S: A hedge fund has targeted Kohl's Corp. with an unsolicited $9 billion purchase offer.

FOLEY & LARDNER: Milwaukee's largest law firm has named a new chair and chief executive officer. His predecessor was just named UW System's new president.

The Games

MU: It's basketball season now, right? And we've got some really good teams in this state. Latest example: Marquette won for the sixth time in a row, including the last three over ranked teams. On Sunday that was No. 20 Xavier, who they dispatched 75-64. Marquette has to be in the top 25 when the rankings come out today, right?

PACKERS: Yes, painful. Here's some of our coverage:

Today's Weather

We're going to wake up to a little snow and a messy drive in — if you still drive in, that is. High of 22.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Challenges for UW's new leader and five found dead in Milwaukee