The column below reflects the views of the author, and these opinions are neither endorsed nor supported by WisOpinion.com.
Speaker Vos is insisting that the UW System end their diversity, equity and inclusion programs that serve students of color, student veterans, women seeking degrees in male dominated disciplines and students with disabilities. In spite of many corporations and business embracing employee diversity and inclusion programs Vos sees the U W programs as ineffective and creating racial divisions by focusing support on these specific groups of students.
Vos and Rep. August, R-Lake Geneva, with members of the Republican-controlled Joint Committee on Employee Relations are planning to block the pay raises for 41,000 UW System employees if Vos’s demands to end diversity, equity and inclusion are not met.
Emails to Vos and August asking what programs within the U W System warrants Republican legislative support generated no response. Likewise there was no response to a request for the current level of legislative support for the U W. In fact legislative support has dropped from 43% in 1974 to 15% in 2022.
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Vos wants to control the UW campuses like he controls his Republicans in the Wisconsin Assembly. Although the U W System is mostly funded [85%] by non taxpayer dollars; Vos and August believe they should determine the programming offered by the UW System.
Six Republican legislators should not be able to deny pay raises approved by the entire legislature and the governor to 41,000 U W System employees.
–Hanson, of Elkhorn, is a member of the Walworth County Democratic Party.
