In deal with Republicans, UW Regents chose pragmatism over principles. Now what?

Backed into a corner on a deal seen as selling out students of color in exchange for state money, the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents talked around the problem this week.

UW-Parkside student Jennifer Staton instead excoriated the man she claimed was responsible for the crisis.

"Let me speak to Speaker Vos directly," she said during Wednesday's board meeting, referring to Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Burlington, who has spent months demonizing diversity, equity and inclusion programs. "Not only am I a veteran, I’m a military spouse. Don’t you dare sit there and use that term (DEI) as an inflammatory tool for your political game when my husband and myself have sacrificed so much."

Staton embodies the difficult position the Regents were put in over the past week, forced to choose between pragmatism and principles.

As a Hispanic student veteran, she didn't like the deal, which freezes campus diversity positions — critical to helping her and other nontraditional students through college — in exchange for millions to cover construction and staff raises. But she voted for it anyway.

Republicans defended the final package, saying they pushed for what the public wanted.

"It's a win for everybody," said Rep. Dave Murphy, R-Greenville, who chairs the Assembly Committee on Colleges and Universities. "DEI has become a big cost without proving its bang for the buck. We have had a reduction of students and growth in administration. We’ve got to put the brakes on this somewhere."

Murphy said the deal also holds UW campuses to account.

"We do have oversight and it’s our responsibility to do that," he said. "I think there’s a difference between micromanaging and no managing."

The terms require campuses to hire no additional DEI employees through 2026 and restructure a couple dozen of them into broader "academic and student success" roles.

In exchange for caving to conservative DEI demands, universities get $800 million for building projects and pay raises, both of which Vos has held up for months despite wide public support.

The deal caps a contentious six-month standoff between the state public university system and Vos. It comes amid a national campaign targeting campus DEI offices. Dozens of state legislatures have introduced anti-DEI bills and at least six have signed them into law, including Oklahoma this week.

The initial rejection of the deal Saturday may have marked a turning point in the more than decadelong rift between UW and the GOP.

But Wednesday's re-vote undercuts UW, said critics, who also fear it's only the first battle in a longer war.

Vos, who did not return a request for comment, promised as much in his statement after the regents rubber-stamped the plan.

"We finally have turned the corner and gotten real reforms enacted," he said in a statement. "Republicans know this is just the first step in what will be our continuing efforts to eliminate these cancerous DEI practices on UW campuses."

No choice but to compromise

Staton is one of two student regents serving on the 18-member board. She is a Hispanic woman studying health sciences at UW-Parkside, the most diverse campus across the UW System. She served seven years in the U.S. Army, including deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan as a combat medic.

Students of color and student veterans are among the groups who benefit from campus DEI offices, helping them find a sense of community and navigate financial aid forms.

Staton framed her vote-flipping as an act of service, placing the campuses' financial needs above her own values.

Staton, who did not respond to a request for comment, pushed back on Vos' tunnel-vision toward campus diversity efforts. He has claimed DEI is "the single most important issue that we’re facing as a people, as a nation, and as, really, humanity."

"What rock is he living under?" she asked. "He has lost touch with the reality of how people are actually living because, to be honest, we’re not walking around arguing about DEI. He has created and perpetuated this battle here in Wisconsin. That’s his world of politics, which we all know is a very small percentage of our population, and therefore, his opinions are statistically insignificant."

For UW-Madison engineering dean Ian Robertson, the deal delivered him a new building that will allow roughly 1,000 more students to graduate annually. As for the concessions on DEI, he echoed UW-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin and UW System President Jay Rothman.

"It was a compromise," he said. "Our commitment (to diversity) remains firm. Everyone will have the opportunity to thrive and reach their full potential."

PROFS, a UW-Madison faculty advocacy group, also acknowledged the proposal's imperfections.

"Chancellor Mnookin and UW System President Jay Rothman were put in a very difficult position, and we commend them for their work to secure some significant gains for the university," the group said in a statement Thursday.

Political compromises aren't new, but Wisconsin's situation unusual

In a previous era, higher education was seen as a public good deserving of robust state funding and broad-based public support. Since the Great Recession beginning December 2007 through June 2009, universities have become a growing political fault line, said Tom Harnisch, vice president for government relations with the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association. The advocacy group represents UW System, as well as other state university systems.

Public universities have always had to make political compromises. But UW's stalemate drew national attention for several reasons, he said.

The breadth of the deal — from admissions to DEI to faculty hiring to building projects — was unusual, Harnisch said. In other states, the issues would be discussed as separate matters.

He also noted the longtime board members are serving unconfirmed by legislative leaders, and the threats associated with firing them depending on their vote.

"I have not seen that occur in any other state," Harnisch said.

Nor has he seen another state create a faculty position based on a particular ideology, a provision Republicans pushed for in the deal. UW-Madison is required to fundraise for a faculty position focused on conservative political thought.

Wisconsin's swing-state status and its divided government also stood out. While other states have used their historic budget surpluses to invest in higher education, Wisconsin was among the few states making cuts.

Legislative impasses can wreak havoc on universities, Harnisch said. Illinois endured 736 days without a state budget beginning in 2015. Public universities starved, enrollment dropped, jobs were cut and faculty recruitment efforts damaged.

Harnisch said it's too soon to say what, if any, downstream effects the DEI dispute will have on UW campuses.

"The universities are playing the cards they’ve been dealt," he said. "While these investments are a step forward, there is need for considerably more state investment in Wisconsin's public colleges and universities. The state has a budget surplus and needs to strengthen its commitment."

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: University of Wisconsin and Republicans take stock of diversity deal