UW-Eau Claire chancellor, Milwaukee law firm CEO are finalists for University of Wisconsin System president job
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The University of Wisconsin System has named two finalists for the role of system president: UW-Eau Claire Chancellor James Schmidt and Jay Rothman, chairman and chief executive officer of the Foley and Lardner law firm in Milwaukee.
The two were named finalists Friday afternoon, bringing the UW Board of Regents one step closer to hiring a permanent president after nearly two years of searching for a replacement for former President Ray Cross, who retired in June 2020.
After the first search for Cross' successor failed, the position has been held in the interim by former Gov. Tommy Thompson. Thompson put in his resignation letter last week, effective March 18.
Schmidt has served as UW-Eau Claire's chancellor since July 2013. Before that, he also served as vice president for university advancement at Winona State University in Winona, Minnesota, and vice president for student affairs at Riverland Community College in Austin, Minnesota.
Rothman has been chairman and CEO of Foley and Lardner LLP since 2011. He joined the firm in 1986. He holds a bachelor's degree from Marquette University and a law degree from Harvard Law School.
The two come from a pool of 44 candidates for the job, 23 of whom self-identified as white, 11 as people of color and 10 who did not identify their racial background, according to the UW System. Seven of the candidates were women and three were veterans.
Regent President Edmund Manydeeds III, chair of the Special Regent Committee, said the two finalists offer depth and breadth of experience, including in the academic, business, and civic arenas.
“We have identified two excellent candidates, each of whom would be an outstanding leader for our university system,” Manydeeds III said. “We believe their qualifications and experience provide the committee a great opportunity to pick a future leader for the UW System.”
Rothman and Schmidt will participate in a day of interviews Tuesday, which includes meeting with the Special Regent Committee, faculty, staff and student government representatives, campus chancellors, and UW System executive leaders. After those interviews, the Special Regent Committee will recommend a hire to the full board, which is expected to make the decision official by the end of January.
Regent Vice President Karen Walsh, who chairs the search and screen committee which identified a list of viable candidates for the job, said Friday that unlike the previous presidential search process, there would be no public interview of the finalists. She pointed to the fact that there had been many opportunities to provide feedback earlier in the process.
“Our diverse 21-member Search and Screen Committee included representatives from all universities and all campus constituencies, which helped us identify a list of viable candidates to forward to the Special Regent Committee,” Walsh said. “We also held numerous valuable listening sessions at all of the universities and with all constituencies — often more than one. We look forward to the Special Regent Committee completing its work.”
Candidates bring very different backgrounds
In the end, the board faces a choice between an experienced insider and a business-minded outsider.
Rothman, 62, brings the latter perspective, with a background in business law, particularly strategic acquisitions, mergers, strategic planning and corporate governance.
He said he considered the job because he loves Wisconsin and believes the UW System is a "crown jewel" for the state. He is ending his term as chair of the firm and is not eligible for reelection, making it "an opportune time" to think about his next chapter.
Rothman pointed to his experience running a law firm with nearly 500 partners as key to helping him lead the system if selected for the role.
"A law firm is a pretty non-hierarchical institution," he said.
He added, the firm's partners are "intelligent and independent, and I suspect the same is very much true of leading the system, that you think about shared governance, and that's an important component of the system as I understand it. I have functioned in that environment."
Rothman has given more than $77,000 in campaign donations to candidates for state office, primarily Republicans, according to records kept by the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign. For instance, Rothman donated $29,000 to former GOP Gov. Scott Walker between 2010 and 2018. But Rothman has also given a total of $10,000 to Democratic Gov. Tony Evers since 2020. Evers narrowly defeated Walker just over three years ago.
More: Ray Cross to retire after five years leading UW System, 42 years in higher education
He is a director of Quad/Graphics Inc. and Mayville Engineering Company, Inc. and previously served as chairman and a member of the Board of Directors of Children’s Hospital & Health System, now known as Children's Wisconsin. He also directs Junior Achievement of Wisconsin and the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce.
Schmidt, 57, meanwhile, brings nearly a decade of experience in the UW System. He pointed to the close relationships he has with university chancellors local business leaders and his experience with improving student access to higher education while grappling with budget cuts and maintaining government relations.
UW-Eau Claire has earned several national rankings while under Schmidt's leadership, from recognition for its study abroad and undergraduate research opportunities to being a welcoming place for LGBTQ students. The university's enrollment has also slightly increased since 2014, despite a decline systemwide, according to system data.
The university has also grown in its collaborations with local businesses including Mayo Clinic Health Systems — which among other investments pledged more than $13 million for dedicated facilities in the new Science and Health Sciences Building — and Hewlett Packard Enterprise. He's raised more than $200 million for UW-Eau Claire overall.
Schmidt said he applied for the job because he believes in the power of ensuring access to higher education for students from all backgrounds and that he can make a difference for students, faculty and staff and the state as a whole.
"The biggest challenge the state of Wisconsin will face in the next two decades is attracting talent to drive our economy and our communities," he said. "It needs innovation and research to solve real-world problems. It needs to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to achieve their dreams."
Schmidt holds a bachelor's in political science from Winona State University, a master’s degree in business administration from the University of St. Thomas and a doctorate in educational policy and administration from the University of Minnesota.
Schmidt or Rothman will take the helm of the UW System during a challenging yet promising new chapter.
UW campuses continue to grapple with the way in which the COVID-19 pandemic will change their operations in the near and far future. Wisconsin continues to struggle with major educational opportunity gaps, by race and by region. Enrollment continues to decline, with an even bigger drop anticipated by some demographic experts. The board faces a major decision around if and how to raise tuition for in state undergraduates for the first time in nearly a decade, while the wary and — at times — hostile eye of the GOP-led state Legislature looks on.
In speaking with reporters Friday, both candidates answered the same set of questions around these and other major issues.
Rothman keeps answers broad, focuses on culture and trust building
Rothman generally kept his answers broad, offering few if any concrete examples of programs or efforts that could be implemented to address these major challenges. He came back often to his experience at Foley and Lardner.
He said the UW System needs to improve access and affordability at each campus, but also noted he meets people across the country through his work who are the parents of college-age students and are willing to "pay the freight" to attend. He said he would want a full picture of the system's finances before taking a stance on raising in-state undergraduate tuition, but it should be looked at, perhaps based on the student's financial means.
He also said that the system needs to work to "be in a position to pay market compensation" for faculty and staff, along with other retention efforts. He said he didn't have the answer to the problem of lagging pay but agreed that it should be addressed.
When it came to improving the system's oft-strained relationship with the state Legislature, Rothman said he would sit down with lawmakers and have a candid conversation and build trust, reminding them that the system's success is the state's success.
He talked about taking a collaborative leadership approach at his law firm and would bring that same approach to UW.
"I've viewed myself as the protector of our culture," he said. "There's the old management guru, Peter Drucker, who said, 'Culture eats strategy for breakfast.' And I still believe that's true, if you get the culture right ... and you get really great people, great things will happen."
Asked at which point a campus should close due to low enrollment, Rothman said the system should exhaust every option to reach potential students before considering such an option.
More: UW regents boost top leaders’ salary ranges amid major leadership searches
He said campuses should guide any efforts to differentiate their program offerings or missions, and that he wanted to demonstrate the importance of graduates' critical thinking skills, especially those who graduate with degrees in the humanities.
"The university experience, if it's done well, teaches you to educate yourself over time," he said. "And I think that's what we want to be looking at."
Schmidt focuses on student success, campus autonomy
Schmidt pointed to a career in higher education as the reason he should get the job, saying his experience in government relations would be key to championing the value of each UW campus in the Legislature and the public's eyes.
He said his experience working at the community college and university level, has cemented his passion for championing students, "who deserve at least as good an opportunity as each of us have had." He noted UW-Eau Claire has a goal to eliminate opportunity gaps within the next five years, a goal on which it has made recent progress.
Speaking about the possibility of raising in-state undergraduate tuition, Schmidt said he supports keeping tuition affordable but the system must raise tuition a small amount to make sure UW campuses are all providing quality education. He said he does not support "massive" tuition increases.
He said higher education has to keep evolving, particularly when it comes to giving students career-related experiences like industry internships and study abroad. The system remain innovative, agile and focused on the state's workforce needs, Schmidt said, collaborate with the state's technical colleges and even partnering with small businesses who want to help fund employees' college education.
If hired, Schmidt said he'd spend his first 100 days "barnstorming the state," meeting with business and civic leaders in communities to know directly from them how each university is doing and what can improve. He was also adamant about the power that each UW campus has in its autonomy, saying each campus brings value to the system and knows how to best serve its community.
"We need to get out of their way," he said. "We need to make sure that campuses can be agile, not be tied down by Board of Regent policies or state laws or other things. We need to work with the state legislature to loosen these things up so we can experiment and try to figure out ways we can respond to the local needs and individual students."
He said he believes the state's budget cuts have gone too far, and that pay gaps must be addressed knowing that the system's reputation can only take it so far when it comes to recruiting and retaining employees. But even when there is not new money flowing into the system, campuses need to prioritize and strategically invest the funds that are available.
Schmidt said he wants to meet with legislators to remind them that the system's success is crucial to the state's future. He said he agreed with interim President Thompson's approach to public engagement, saying it is time to "stop apologizing," and instead get out of the president's office and be visible, constantly demonstrating that "we're doing our job."
"We must squeeze every ounce of value of every dollar entrusted to us by the state of Wisconsin, from our students, from our parents and from our benefactors," he said.
Read a biography of Jay Rothman here. Read a biography of James Schmidt here.
Dan Bice of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.
Contact Devi Shastri at 414-224-2193 or DAShastri@jrn.com. Follow her on Twitter at @DeviShastri.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Two Wisconsinites named finalists for UW System President
