MADISON, Wis. (AP) - The lone finalist for the University of Wisconsin System president job pledged to promote diversity and listen to faculty and staff’s concerns during an interview with campus stakeholders Tuesday, but he offered no detailed plans for dealing with the system’s financial woes or re-opening universities as the coronavirus pandemic stretches on.
University of Alaska System President Jim Johnsen spent nearly two hours fielding questions during a video conference marked at times by his dogs barking in the background.
Johnsen acknowledged in a lengthy opening statement that the system’s relationships with Republican legislators and others have been strained, hinting that they don’t believe the system is relevant or cost-effective. He added that many people are coming to believe that universities are perpetuating inequities and injustice based on race and class. He didn’t elaborate.
Lisa Goetsch, a member of UW-Oshkosh’s staff Senate, told Johnsen that UW schools are focal points for diversity and free speech expression akin to the protests over George Floyd’s death while in police custody in Minneapolis. She asked him what experiences he has had that would help him advance diversity.
Johnsen, who is white, appeared to choke up as he recounted how he grew up in a military family in Leavenworth, Kansas. He said a black next-door neighbor took him under his wing when his father was serving in Vietnam during his sixth-grade year.
“He took me to my baseball games, he woke us up in the morning for school,” Johnsen said, adding he reunited with the man in Washington, D.C., several years ago. “I walked in the door and he reached out his arms and said, ‘my white son.’ I began to tear up and cry and said ’my black father.’ We hugged and cried together.”
He also pointed to his stint as a senior vice president of Doyon, Limited, one of Alaska’s for-profit native corporations, from 2008 until 2011. He said he was a minority in that company; everyone who worked with him was an Alaskan native.
“As I look at what’s happening now, there are so many people who are hurt by the injustice and racism in our society,” he said. “And I totally appreciate and understand the anger that people feel when they are put in a box.”
He didn’t offer any specific plans for promoting diversity, however.
Johnsen acknowledged that the system faces financial problems. It is entering it’s eighth year of a Republican-imposed free on in-state undergraduate tuition, enrollment has been declining and state aid dropped 14% from 2008 to last year.
On top of that, the system anticipates losing as much as $102.3 million through the summer as students stay home to avoid the coronavirus. System administrators haven’t released a reopening plan yet and outgoing President Ray Cross has ordered chancellors to identify programs to cut by January.
Johnsen said UW needs a five-year plan but didn’t say what that should include. He promised to meet legislators in their home districts to advocate for the system and recruit local figures to lobby as well. He suggested fostering partnerships with telecommunications companies to win discounts on internet services if distance-learning continues, and taking a hard look at what costs could be cut.
Kathy Dolan, faculty committee chairwoman at UW-Milwaukee, pointed out that Alaska regents voted to eliminate nearly 40 academic programs last week. She asked Johnsen if he would support slashing Wisconsin liberal arts programs.
Johnson said he supports liberal arts because they explore questions of “why.”
“The real issues facing society aren’t technical,” he said. “The tough questions are questions we have dealt with for millenia.”
Other interviewers pressed him on whether he would support the shared governance model, which allows for faculty, staff and students to have a say in system government.
Shared governance advocates have been upset that the presidential search committee didn’t include any faculty. The UW-Madison Faculty Senate passed a no-confidence resolution against Cross in 2016, saying they doubted he would uphold the school’s outreach mission in the face of budget cuts. Johnsen himself received a no-confidence vote from the Alaska Faculty Senate in October over a consolidation proposal.
Johnsen acknowledged “some stress at points” with shared governance, but he said he wants to build relationships.
Johnsen was slated to go through more interviews with the full Board of Regents behind closed doors later Tuesday afternoon.
The search committee plans to make a hiring recommendation to the regents in coming days, but Johnson is the only candidate for the job. All the other would-be finalists withdrew themselves from consideration out of concern that if they were identified they wouldn’t be able to effectively fight the coronavirus in their current positions.
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