Regents participated in meeting despite expired terms
In a special meeting Thursday of the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents, two board members whose terms expired on May 1 participated and voted in board proceedings.
Lacking appointments of three new regents from Gov. Tony Evers, Regents Jason Plante and Torrey Tiedeman — the board’s nontraditional student representative — joined the call and weighed in on board decisions.
Regent Janice Mueller, whose term also expired May 1, did not participate on the call.
The special meeting of the board was announced publicly earlier in the week. The next meeting is scheduled for June 4.
“An unexpected extra meeting has provided us with one more opportunity to work together,” Regent President Andrew Petersen said.
The nearly four-hour meeting included the approval of multiple university contracts, building projects in the millions and a vote to waive standardized test score requirements for incoming freshmen for the next two academic years.
It also included a lengthy discussion on the financial impact of the pandemic on campuses, the UW System president’s plan to reevaluate and cut academic programs across the state, and what it would take to reopen campuses in the fall.
A representative from the governor’s office did not respond to multiple inquiries from the Journal Sentinel,
including questions on the status of the new appointees.
“The UW System’s long-standing position has been that a confirmed Regent may ‘hold over’ past the expiration of their term until such time as a new Board member is appointed by the Governor, at which time those Regents have historically stepped down,” UW System spokesman Mark Pitsch told the Journal Sentinel.
He said the position is consistent with past legal precedent, the actions of other state boards and past regent transitions.
“I think voting by former members is likely improper, but it’s not explicitly in the open meetings law,” Bill Lueders, president of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council, said.