Thompson asks for public input in UW System role
Former Gov. Tommy Thompson became interim head of the University of Wisconsin System Wednesday, and one of his first actions was to launch an online “listening post” for people in and outside the UW System to send him feedback.
“We are going to need your help,” Thompson says to the public in a video announcing the site, which dubs him the UW System’s “Listener-in-Chief.”
Thompson plans to respond to the input in ongoing video responses called “Two Minutes with Tommy” that will post on social media and on the system’s website.
Thompson also named two former public officials to lead his transition into the job, one Democrat and one Republican. UW regents said earlier this month that they chose Thompson because of this record for collaboration and bipartisanship.
Tom Loftus is a former speaker of the Wisconsin Assembly, a former member of the UW Board of Regents, and the U.S. Ambassador to Norway under President Bill Clinton. Scott Neitzel is a former secretary of the state Department of Administration under Gov. Scott Walker.
Former UW System President Ray Cross will stay on in an advisory role for the next three months.
Thompson will serve as UW System interim president for at least a year, at which point the System will re-start its attempts to hire a permanent leader.
The first search disintegrated amid uproar from faculty and others over a lack of transparency and representation. The sole finalist for the job ended up withdrawing from the process and returned to his job leading the University of Alaska System, only to resign from that job amid public pressure there.