'Opportunity of a lifetime': Attacked by GOP, incoming UW-Madison chancellor excited to seek common ground

A day after being pilloried by Republicans, incoming University of Wisconsin-Madison chancellor Jennifer Mnookin said she couldn’t be more excited for the “opportunity of a lifetime” and looks forward to working with the GOP-led Legislature.

In Mnookin's first public remarks since being named the next UW-Madison chancellor on Monday, she tried presenting herself as ready for the rough-and-tumble of Republican-dominated politics, which she hasn't faced in her seven years leading the law school at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Mnookin told reporters Tuesday that she is excited to meet people, both on campus and in the Capitol, over beer or cheese curds and work to find common ground about how to move Wisconsin forward.

Some Republicans, including Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, of Rochester, have painted Mnookin as a leftist “woke radical” who has donated to Democratic politicians and supports critical race theory.

Mnookin said she'd love to talk about the “different definitions and swirling ideas" surrounding critical race theory, a complex academic framework to understand system racism that is typically taught in law schools.

"There are a lot of different perspectives on it and it’s become something that when people engage, I’m not even sure they’re talking about the same thing," she said, noting a distinction between the critical race theory taught by legal scholars and broader public discussions about how race and its role in American history should be taught to K-12 classrooms.

"I think free speech is incredibly important and we need to create spaces for all different kinds to be part of the dialogue within universities," she said. "I think those ideas do include, they include critical race theory, sure, and lots of other ideas, too, and part of how we move forward is through those conversations and dialogues."

Some Republicans have urged the UW Board of Regents to reconsider hiring Mnookin. Longtime UW critic State Sen. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, has linked moving forward with her hire to funding cuts for UW in the next budget.

The potential funding threat doesn't weigh too heavily on Regent Vice President Karen Walsh, who spearheaded the search committee that selected Mnookin over four other finalists.

"It’s a free country and people can say what they want and honestly I don't take those comments very seriously," Walsh said. "I would like for those folks to meet Chancellor Mnookin before they threaten our funding. I don’t think they really intend to do that. I think they're much more interested in sitting in a room with us and talking about our differences."

The Regents' Monday vote to hire Mnookin was unanimous, supported by board members appointed by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and by former Republican Gov. Scott Walker.

Other high-profile hires the board has recently made include former four-term Republican governor Tommy Thompson, who led the UW System from mid-2020 through March, and Milwaukee attorney Jay Rothman, who has given more than $77,000 in campaign donations to primarily Republican state office candidates and is taking over as UW System president next month.

"We hire based on leadership qualities," Walsh said. "We don’t have a political litmus test."

Another concern for Republicans stemmed from an article published in the conservative Daily Caller that reported Hunter Biden, son of Democratic President Joe Biden, tried teaching a course on drug policy at UCLA’s law school. Biden emailed Mnookin in 2019 about the possibility and may have even met with her in person, but emails showed school staff “were slow to embrace Hunter’s proposal,” according to the report.

UW System spokesperson Mark Pitsch said Biden made an inquiry, Mnookin handled the matter appropriately and he never taught at UCLA.

The statewide chapter of the American Association of University Professors dismissed Republicans' objections as being "grounded in corrosive right-wing conspiracy theories" and condemned lawmakers' calls to rethink the appointment.

“These threats are beyond the pale,” the group said in a Tuesday statement. “They constitute unacceptable political interference in the administration of the UW System, of a sort that has led to severe problems in the state university systems of Georgia and North Carolina, among others. They are deeply inappropriate, and an embarrassment to the entire state. We call on these elected officials and candidates to retract their statements and apologize.”

The group noted that Republican pressure on the Regents comes at a time in which half of the board’s members, all Evers appointees, have not been confirmed by the Republican-controlled state Senate, leaving open the possibility that they will be replaced if a Republican wins the governor’s race this fall.

Our subscribers make this reporting possible. Please consider supporting local journalism by subscribing to the Journal Sentinel at jsonline.com/deal.

DOWNLOAD THE APP: Get the latest news, sports and more

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: New UW-Madison chancellor Mnookin seeks common ground with Republicans