CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – The state legislature controls a large part of the University of Wisconsin’s budget. And the legislature is controlled by Republicans. That isn’t going to change after Election Day.
So it’s foolish for the UW Board of Regents to pick a new Chancellor who will enrage the legislature.
And that’s exactly what they did.
Dr. Jennifer Mnookin, law school dean at UCLA, is as left-wing as they come. She is a supporter of mask and vaccine mandates, which our legislature has pushed back against. She favors teaching critical race theory. That’s a non-starter for the legislature. She considered hiring Hunter Biden as a professor… to teach drug policy. The idea was quickly dropped, but that it was even considered shows that she’s not a serious person. All of that is completely at-odds with the people who will control her purse strings. And fighting with the legislature three months before starting a new job is silly.
You can see where this is headed. The in-state tuition freeze is popular. It’s likely to be brought back. The legislature has already put limits on what state funding can be used for. Expect more of that. For everyone who complains that the UW doesn’t invest as much as other Big Ten schools, that will get worse.
For all his faults, the best thing that former UW System President Tommy Thompson brought to the table was friendly relations with lawmakers. But Mnookin seems like someone who sees a chancellorship as a platform. That may make you a darling in Southern California, but the lay of the land here is different. The liberal dominance of our state’s flagship campus – the university for all of us – is going to get worse. The very logical question is whether the new chancellor is spoiling for a fight, or if she’ll decide that this job isn’t a good fit for her. We’ll find out in three months when she’s scheduled to arrive in Madison.
Chris Conley
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