The sayonara challenge by Jay Rothman to the Universities of Wisconsin Board of Regents that fired him as system president raises a big question: Did he and the board not have a strategic plan?
Jay Rothman
The board didn’t give a compelling reason to the public for terminating Rothman after nearly four years on the job. And he maintained publicly something similar – that he was never given a good reason by Regent President Amy Bogost when she delivered the tough, unanimous message on behalf of the 18-member board.
Obviously, the split was not handled well, and there were hard feelings on both sides. In response, Rothman offered in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel “some thoughts” on the board dynamics, starting with “The change must start at the top of the board of regents.”
His analysis included nine bullet points, including a recommendation to reduce the size of the board from 18 to between 9 and 12 members. But the bullet point that stood out was his assertion that the $7 billion UW System lacked a strategic plan. It read:
“The board must adopt a strategic plan with goals that each regent understands and embraces. The plan must be the “North Star” for the UWs, against which any decision of the board is measured. In the absence of that discipline, the strategy disintegrates at the hands of opportunism, and there is no shared vision for moving the organization forward.”
That bullet point implies the absence of a system-wide strategic plan. How can that be?
It’s standard practice for new CEOs to spend several months or quarters to get the lay of the land in the new organization. Once grounded, experienced leaders move into an initial strategic planning process to get key players onto the same sheet of music. Why did not Rothman and Begost make something like that happen?
It’s not like the system doesn’t face major educational, demographic and organizational issues that beg resolution.
Amy Bogost
Regent President Amy Begost is a small-office, civil rights attorney with no experience in running a big organization.
The system has more than 35,000 employees. She is undoubtedly heavily reliant on the bloated UW staff for direction. Staffers are not responsible for bold leadership or accountable for strategic outcomes.
Rothman led the biggest law firm in the state, but that is more of a collegial exercise among fellow attorneys than leadership of a large, complex organization with many moving parts.
In my view, progress under Rothman and Begost has been incremental. Rothman did win increased state revenue from the legislature in the last biennium, but nowhere near what he asked for.
He and the board did establish a direct admission policy to mitigate sharp enrollment declines on most of the 13 UW campuses.
That said, there was no marked strategic advances on major system issues that have been raised across the state, including:
- The obvious and compelling opportunity that was missed to merge the state’s two-year liberal arts UW colleges with the state’s 16 two-year technical colleges. Six of the technical colleges have already added baccalaureate tracks to become what’s known as community colleges. A piece of the Wisconsin Idea philosophy died when eight of the two-year campuses were closed in their communities.
- Oregon University and Yale University have spun out their big hospital systems, and there are many good reasons to do the same in Wisconsin. The spinout could include Quartz, the health care insurance subsidiary. Why is the university in the health care and insurance businesses? Keep the UW medical school; it fits an education mission.
- UW-Madison is an unique creature with world-class level research and development capacities. Should it not be separated from the system with its own governance? It is so different from the other 12 universities, and it has no enrollment issues.
- The other 12 campuses could be organized into four regional entities to align with how the state’s economy works in the real world.
- UW-Madison does have one glaring issue, though. Fewer than 50% of its students are from Wisconsin. Even though out-of-state students pay high tuition, they are less likely to stay here than our kids. The target for Madison should be at least 75% in-state.
- Should not the headquarters of the university be based in Milwaukee, the state’s largest population, business and cultural center? Other states have that powerful co-location.
There are many other strategic issues facing the state that the university system could embrace, in a keen strategic plan, such as climate change, health cost hyperinflation and the structure of public education.
Kevin Conroy
Clearly, the board of regents need some heavy-weight organizational leaders as members, people experienced with large-scale organizational management. An example of a person who has those kinds of organizational chops is Kevin Conroy, who just pulled off the biggest business deal in the history of the state with the sale of Exact Sciences to Abbot Laboratories.
He is the kind of leader who will take on the big strategic issues. He or somebody like him would be a good replacement for Rothman, but also for Begost or UW Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin, who is leaving for Columbia University.
