UW System interim President Tommy Thompson is resigning from his post, effective March 18.
He announced his impending departure to the UW Board on Friday, as the search committee tasked with finding a permanent president anticipates it will name a hire sometime in February.
“I was honored to be asked by the Board of Regents to serve as System President, particularly through what could have been its darkest time,” Thompson wrote in his resignation letter. “While challenging on many fronts, we worked together to continue to provide the quality of education our students deserve and parents expect.”
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Thompson said he is satisfied with what he has accomplished in his role and that he was sending his resignation letter in order to allow the board and the system staff time to prepare for the onboarding process of the next president.
Thompson has said throughout his thus-far 18-month tenure that he would stay in the role as long as the board asked him to but no longer than that. His cementing a departure date could be a signal that the search committee has confidence in how the search for the next system president is progressing.
Still, the departure date leaves less than two months between the anticipated hiring of the next system president and Thompson’s exit. At this point, it has not been publicly announced when the new system president would take office.
The committee is meeting in closed session Friday at noon to select finalists for the job.
Thompson declined an interview request Friday, as did UW Regent Vice President Karen Walsh, who chairs the presidential search committee. Regent President Edmund Manydeeds III released a statement on behalf of the board, calling the former governor “a lifelong friend of the University of Wisconsin.”
“Tommy Thompson was the right man at the right time. His leadership has helped carry us through a pandemic and set the standard for managing during a crisis,” Manydeeds wrote. “As important, President Thompson has been a relentless champion of the University of Wisconsin. It showed in everything he did as System President.”
A short but busy tenure
The resignation letter ushers in the end of a short but remarkable chapter in the career of Wisconsin’s longest-serving governor — and what may be the final one when it comes to holding public office.
Thompson, 80, initially declined the Board of Regents’ request to take on the interim role, which was left open after the mid-pandemic search to find a replacement for outgoing System President Ray Cross ended in a chaotic failure.
The small, Regent-stacked committee named a single finalist for the job, Jim Johnsen, then of the University of Alaska System, only to have him withdraw his application after public interviews, citing “process issues.”
More: University of Wisconsin System search for new leader in shambles as lone finalist Jim Johnsen withdraws
Thompson took on the role with characteristic enthusiasm and restlessness, unwilling to simply serve as a placeholder while the board worked to start another search.
In fall 2020, he overcame concerns around the effort to reopen campuses for in-person learning, using his experience as former U.S. secretary of Health and Human Services to navigate early spikes in cases on campuses, deploy testing infrastructure that also served surrounding communities, and encourage students and staff to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
Notes of gratitude from UW System chancellors rolled in Friday following the release of Thompson’s resignation letter.
“He has been an extraordinary advocate for our students, faculty and staff over these past 18 months, as he has been for the state of Wisconsin over his many decades of public service.” UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank said in a statement.
He also worked to solve less-flashy administrative challenges, pushing for improvements to the system’s human resources and procurement processes. Early in his tenure, he cut the central office’s budget by 10% to fund scholarships for underrepresented students and college counseling for school districts around the state.
Thompson was an unapologetic booster for the university system, touring the state to trumpet the role of public colleges in shaping the state’s future and challenging what some insiders saw as a chapter of timidity following years of political brawls and budget cuts.
He alternately courted and faced down the Republicans who control the state Legislature — as one of the state’s most prominent Republicans himself. He steered the system through the latest state budget process, securing a slight budget increase and an end to the eight-year-long freeze on in-state undergraduate tuition imposed by lawmakers. And when members of his party threatened to block the system from imposing masking and other pandemic-related mandates, he refused to comply and dared them to sue.
“Come and enjoy your classes,” he reassured students at the time. “Forget about the squabbles. …Your students, your children are going to be safe. We’re going to make sure they are. And we’re going to use science in order to do that.”
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State Assembly Speaker Robin Vos issued a statement thanking Thompson for his leadership, saying he was proud to call Thompson a mentor and a friend.
“I want to thank Tommy Thompson for his tireless efforts to help shape our workforce and for his decades of public service,” Vos said. “While this chapter is ending, I know this won’t be the last contribution he provides for the state of Wisconsin.”
Thompson wrote in his resignation letter that he will spend his remaining time advancing the system’s legislative agenda, making final visits to campuses and finalizing a list of priorities to pass on.
His successor will be faced with no less critical challenges than were seen in the past 18 months, as UW campuses continue to navigate the ebb and flow of the COVID-19 pandemic, grapple with declining enrollment trends and weather fierce political headwinds, all while trying to figure out just how to adapt their business model to changing demographics.
Thompson wrote that he is “confident our foundation is as strong as ever.”
“My mother was Irish, so I take my leave with mixed emotions and an everlasting affection for this institution I have been proud to lead,” he wrote.
Contact Devi Shastri at 414-224-2193 or DAShastri@jrn.com. Follow her on Twitter at @DeviShastri.