Former UW President Jay Rothman accused Regents President Amy Bogost of misleading a state Senate committee when she said a 2% tuition increase for the 2026-27 school year wasn’t “written in stone,” according to an email obtained by WisPolitics.

Rothman wrote that the UW administration had been working on a 2% tuition increase “for a number of months” before Bogost testified April 9 at the Universities and Technical Colleges Committee. He added the board planned to vote on the proposal this month and Bogost had signed off on sharing the proposed tuition increase with other regents.

Rothman surmised in the email to committee Chair Rob Hutton and Vice-chair Rachael Cabral-Guevara that a planned vote during the April 20 regents meeting was pulled after questions were raised about a tuition increase during the hearing.

“The fact that the increase was not considered at the April meeting does not change the facts that were extant at the time of the Committee hearing and the lack of transparency Ms. Bogost exhibited in her testimony,” Rothman wrote.

The Board of Regents voted April 7 to fire Rothman after the president said he had been told by members he’d be terminated unless he resigned. Rothman also insisted he’d been given no reason for the demand, though Bogost has cited a loss of confidence in what she called the former president’s top-down leadership style, as well as a lack of urgency in addressing issues within the system.

UW spokesperson Mark Pitsch said the university was not going to “relitigate the Board’s unanimous decision of his termination.”

“The Board stands behind its past statements and testimony, and remains united, forward looking, and focused on results,” Pitsch said. “It is in all our best interests to move beyond a personnel dispute and instead ensure we are focused on the universities and students we serve. The Board intends to do so.”

Hutton called a hearing two days after Rothman’s termination to consider the appointments of 10 people to the Board of Regents, including Bogost and Tim Nixon, who testified in person.

Rothman sent the email to Hutton and Cabral-Guevara on Monday and penned an op-ed in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Wisconsin State Journal yesterday that argued the board should be smaller and better educated about happenings within the system. He cast the body as dysfunctional.

During the April 9 hearing, Cabral-Guevara asked Bogost about a 2% tuition hike for the upcoming school year after regents approved a 5% increase for 2025-26. 

Bogost responded the regents were “looking at everything right now. That is nothing written in stone.”

“There’s no tuition increase right now,” she said. “We’re looking at what the campuses need and seeing if we can move forward. That is where it’s at. We’ve had discussions with Mr. Rothman as well, bringing it to us, trying to figure out, can we move forward without it? What can we do here? How can we kind of close the gap?”

In Rothman’s email, he also took issue with statements by Regent Tim Nixon on two topics. 

One, Rothman disputed Nixon’s assertion that he had raised concerns about administrative staffing levels at the system “with no response from me.” Rothman asserted he met with Bogost and Nixon about staffing levels Jan. 28.

The former president also rejected Nixon’s claim that Rothman’s administration had failed to provide the board with policies on the use of AI on campuses. Rothman wrote he believed “that a system-wide policy would not be helpful since each university was on top of the evolving situation.” Still, after receiving feedback from the board, his team prepared a resolution for the regents to consider at their March 5 meeting. But after receiving it, Bogost directed the administration not to seek formal approval at the March meeting. Rothman wrote that while he’s unsure if Nixon knew of the proposal, Bogost did but didn’t correct her fellow regent.

Hutton said in a statement to WisPolitics that if Bogost and Nixon weren’t truthful with the committee about a tuition increase, it would make his concerns about affordability, accountability and transparency even worse. It would also “lend more urgency to the committee’s search for information around Rothman’s firing.”

Hutton added, “The firing has exposed deep concerns I have held about this entire governance model. If the Regents were unable to clearly justify their decision, that would justify the argument that the Board is disorganized, unserious and in need of reform.”

Read a State Affairs transcript of the April 9 hearing.