The saga continued Thursday as three state representatives sent a second letter this week to University of Wisconsin Board of Regents President David Walsh, continuing to insist on both a new independent investigation of the Paul Barrows scandal and disciplinary action against UW System President Kevin Reilly.
The letter, signed by Reps. Scott Suder, R-Abbotsford, Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, and Rob Kreibich, R-Eau Claire, comes just a day after Walsh wrote a letter dismissing their requests. The group is upset about comments Reilly made to the Wisconsin State Journal this week revealing his early knowledge of the Barrows scandal.
"I fear this is one of those instances like the three felons that were on payroll while in jail that President Reilly is just going to get a slap on the wrist and the UW administration will call it a day," Suder said.
Walsh said he will not respond with yet another letter and instead placed a phone call to Suder's office Thursday. Suder acknowledged Walsh's phone call and said it will be returned.
"Regardless of the phone exchange we are now more rigorous than ever in our pursuit of an independent investigation and are once again calling upon the regents," Suder said. "I hope [Walsh's view] isn't the sentiment of all the UW regents."
Regent Brent Smith said he agreed with and appreciated Walsh's letter, however, and indicated that most, if not all, of the regents share those sentiments.
"It's hard to speak for all the regents … but I think generally, the attitudes that I have got is that we are behind Regent Walsh in his view that President Reilly certainly has done nothing wrong here," Smith said. "[Walsh] has our full support and I would support his view that we do nothing further at this time on that."
Suder said he remains hopeful someone on the board will support his mission, and the representatives wrote in the last paragraph of the letter, "[w]e do see some glimmers of hope in the words and actions of Regents Loftus and Rosenzweig."
"They seem to realize that the UW administration has a serious problem on its hands with regard to the Barrows matter," Suder said. "Judging by their earlier comments regarding the Barrows matter, I do think they take the matter seriously, hopefully seriously enough to bring the issue [before the board]."
Loftus was not available for comment, and Rosenzweig did not immediately return a phone call late Thursday.
Suder once again took issue with the content of Walsh's letter, which he described as terse, arrogant and unprofessional. He also suggested the regent president may have taken the request too personally.
"I think Regent Walsh may have taken the matter a bit personally or a bit too personally — perhaps he lost his temper in the letter. I'm not sure," Suder said. "I would hope in the future that Regent Walsh refrains from such flamboyant language."
Despite Suder's objections, Walsh said he does "not at all" regret his word choice and added he is "not offended by anybody's press release."
"I thought it was fairly civil," Walsh said of his letter. "My only request was that rather than communicating through press releases they pick up the phone or answer my requests."
Walsh said he believes some good can come out of this week's events, which has consisted of the two parties sending antagonistic letters to each other through the media.
"These are reasonable people [and] I'm sure that once they're done with their press releases, we'll have some dialogue," he said. "They're elected officials and that gives them the right to issue any press releases they want, and I'm looking forward to meeting with them."
