Bob Atwell has seen a lot in his time on the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents.
In 2017, Republican Gov. Scott Walker appointed him to a seven-year term. When Atwell joined, then-State Superintendent Tony Evers was the only Democrat on the board.
Over the next seven years, Atwell found himself at the center of campus closures, a controversial UW-Madison funding compromise with the state Legislature and a controversy of his own in May 2024 when he, at the advice of Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, declined to step down at the end of his term. By the time Atwell resigned in June 2024, he was one of just two Walker appointees left, and Evers, his former colleague, was now a two-term Governor.
The board presented Atwell with a resolution of appreciation at its meeting Friday in recognition of his service. There he addressed his former colleagues, expressing his gratitude and offering advice for the future.
“I’m well into the fourth quarter of my game clock, and it's a great season to reflect on things that I once firmly believed and now no longer believe,” Atwell said.
This kind of reflective attitude doesn’t just apply to himself, though. Atwell said it’s something he wants to see from all regents.
“We need to be more humble, more self-reflective, more generous and more willing to admit our screw-ups and correct course,” Atwell said.
He took aim at the public’s perception of the board as a “ceremonial body” of “fading, semi-dignitaries,” urging regents to “insist” the UW System “live its critical function to seek truth and build unity” given the challenges of the current moment.
“These are painfully tumultuous times in the U.S., and our state is at the epicenter of the social, political, demographic and economic battles that swirl around us and within us,” Atwell said.
Atwell also addressed UW System’s faculty and staff, thanking them for their “passion” and “affection” and swearing to continue fighting for better pay.
“I’ve seen your work in the light of our students' eyes, and in the light of my own childrens’ lives. You do change lives,” Atwell said. “I am truly sorry that you remain chronically underpaid, and I’m sorry that we’ve been so ineffective in changing that. I will keep trying.”
He called UW-Madison a “global powerhouse” but said there’s still “a lot you can do better.”
“The rap on Madison is that it’s a lovable, loony, lefty place. I think you should own the reality that your culture is stiflingly leftist,” Atwell said. “Take your critics seriously, you’re tough enough to do that. And even when our critics are off the mark, we can still find value in listening.”
The solution, he said, is not a “conservative safe space” on campus, but instead a “genuinely open, tolerant and self-reflective culture.”
Atwell also warned against “intellectual excellence” leading to arrogance. UW-Madison should serve the state and lead Wisconsin to a “place of mutual respect and affection,” he said, but it won’t happen “if your culture effectively despises half the people.”
He also questioned the board’s approach to the COVID-19 pandemic, calling UW System’s vaccine mandate for employees “manifestly unjust, unnecessary and unscientific.”
To the state government, Atwell called for more listening and compromise. He urged Republican leadership, specifically Vos, to meet with regents, and called on Evers to be a “unifier.”
“I didn’t vote for you, but I respect you as our governor, as my governor,” Atwell said. “I also have to admit that I kind of like you.”
There are too many people and too much money “seeking to reinforce divisions” in Wisconsin, Atwell said, and Evers and Vos have to work together for the future of higher education.
“For the love of the state, university, and the god that most of us believe in, get together and communicate,” Atwell said.
Nick Bumgardner is a senior staff writer at The Daily Cardinal covering state news and politics. You can follow him on Twitter at @nickbum_.
