The University of Wisconsin Board of Regents appears poised to potentially reverse its contentious decision last weekend to reject $800 million in funding, in a move critics said was prioritizing “diversity, equity, and inclusion” hiring over pay raises for the university’s administration and new building projects. 

The board’s surprise decision on Saturday, in a 9-8 vote, followed months of negotiations between the school and Republican state lawmakers, who had reached a deal ahead of last weekend that included the school changing its DEI efforts in exchange for the nearly $1 billion in funding. 

Now, the board will meet again Wednesday night to consider a “recommendation to approve proposed terms related to state funding.” 

Before the board’s weekend vote, the deal that had been reached between the university and lawmakers agreed the school would not increase DEI leadership hires through the end of 2026, and in an “active restructuring and reimaging of the DEI function,” would realign a third of its DEI roles into positions with a focus on academics and student success.

The deal also included ensuring that the school was in “strict compliance” with the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision banning affirmative action in admissions, eliminated requirements for diversity statements in student applications, and said the school would seek donor support “to create an endowed chair to focus on conservative political thought, classical economic theory, or classical liberalism.” 

“This is an evolution, and this is a change moving forward,” the UW system’s president, Jay Rothman, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel before the board rejected the deal. “But it does not in any way deviate from our core values of diversity (and) inclusion.”

The back and forth between the university board and Republican lawmakers is the latest battle over diversity, equity, and inclusion bureaucracies taking over institutions of higher education. The topic has been especially prevalent, the Sun has reported, as concerns emerge that Jewish and Israeli students are the victims of prejudice that results from the initiatives. 

The DEI crackdown efforts at the University of Wisconsin were led by the speaker of the Wisconsin State Assembly, Robin Vos, whose office was not immediately reachable for comment. 

“It’s a shame they’ve denied employees their raises and the almost 1b investment that would have been made in the UW System all so they could continue their ideological campaign to force students to believe only one viewpoint is acceptable on campus,” Mr. Vos wrote on X after the board’s decision.

“This deal was negotiated in good faith,” he told local radio station WISN-AM. “We’re not changing one thing in this deal.”

The board also met in a closed session Tuesday to “deliberate and negotiate funding proposals and matters.” When the Sun reached out to the board for details, no one was able to immediately comment. The university system’s press office also did not respond to multiple requests for comment. 

Wisconsin’s Democratic governor, Tony Evers, who could not immediately be reached for comment, issued a statement Tuesday saying that he is “disappointed in this process and recent days of threats regarding resignation and confirmation, ultimatums levied if discussions dare to continue, and legislative Republicans’ frequent refusal to work toward common ground when they don’t get their way.”

He said he supported the board’s weekend decision to reject the deal and that the board should be able to make decisions “without fear of threats and political pressure or retribution.”

Mr. Evers has been vocal throughout the process, and he sued Republicans in the state legislature at the end of October, alleging they were “unconstitutionally obstructing basic government functions,” including blocking pay raises for the University of Wisconsin System employees.

“I continue to urge Legislative Republicans to release the UW System employee raises and investments that were already negotiated, agreed upon, and approved in the biennial budget,” Mr. Evers said Tuesday. “They should’ve done so months ago, and they can and should do so today without further delay.”