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The Universities of Wisconsin, the system that oversees the state’s four-year public institutions, unveiled a proposal Monday that is designed to recoup $32 million that state legislators withheld as a tactic to restrict the universities’ spending on diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
Legislators held that amount of money back from the state’s budget for the 2023–25 biennium, over the objection of Governor Tony Evers and many Democrats, because that was reportedly how much the system spent on DEI efforts in the last two years. Evers partially vetoed the budget bill in a way that prevented the legislature from cutting positions related to DEI, but the $32 million cut went through. The legislation mandated that the Wisconsin system can recover the funds if it shows the money will be spent on workforce development instead of diversity and equity.
The proposal announced by university officials Monday would invest the funds in programs to produce four key groups of workers: engineers, nurses, data scientists and business and finance leaders.
“This plan is exactly what the legislature is looking for—a concentrated emphasis on adding more graduates to the workforce in key areas,” Jay Rothman, president of the Universities of Wisconsin, said in a news release.
Robin Vos, the Republican legislator who has led the fight against DEI, signaled to the Associated Press Monday that he would not act on the workforce plan until the university pulled back on diversity programs. “It looks like a good proposal. Once we work out an agreement on DEI, we’d be happy to move forward,” he said in a statement.
