While many Wisconsin state employees received pay increases from the state government Tuesday, employees within the Universities of Wisconsin were left out. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos claims he will continue to withhold pay increases from these employees until the UW-System gets rid of all programming related to diversity, equity and inclusion.

The withholding of these pay increases for university employees is unacceptable and is a clear sign of the legislature going too far in its battle against DEI programming. Employees from the Universities of Wisconsin must be paid equitably and fairly to ensure they are able to keep up with the increasing cost of living in Wisconsin.

In June, Wisconsin Republicans approved cutting $32 million from the Universities of Wisconsin’s budget, citing that the amount is how much it costs to maintain DEI programming. This cutting of funds was an incentive for schools to remove the programming that Wisconsin Republicans deemed unnecessary.

DEI programming is important on college campuses, it can make students from various backgrounds feel more connected to students like them, foster creativity and cohesion across campus and attempt to educate those who may be ignorant amongst other benefits. The cutting of funding was a hard pill to swallow, but this attack on the employees’ salaries is too far and could put many campuses across Wisconsin at serious risk.

Lenient state labor regulations threaten vulnerable employees

First, public university employees do not have high salaries to begin with. The cost of living in Wisconsin is steadily increasing, something which is happening across the country. With rising inflation and housing costs, salaries need to increase as well.

This is why UW-Green Bay political science professor Jon Shelton told 27 WKOW that this isn’t a pay increase, but a cost of living increase. To public university employees, the pay increase is just significant enough for them to keep up with the rising cost of living, but without this increase, these employees will fall behind.

Second, there is a large chance that because of this lack of pay increase, these employees will search for employment elsewhere, which would leave universities short-staffed and result in the closures of certain campuses.

Already, the president of the Universities of Wisconsin Jay Rothman announced that UW-Milwaukee at Washington County and UW-Oshkosh Fond du Lac campuses will be ending in-person instruction, with UW-Platteville Richland fully closing. If university employees do not receive their pay increases, this could be a more common occurrence.

Finally, most employees in the Universities of Wisconsin do not have much control over DEI programming, so why should they face the brunt of the punishment from the legislature?

In all, this withholding of a pay increase by Wisconsin Republicans is dangerous to the Universities of Wisconsin as a whole and seeks to threaten these public employees’ ability to keep up with the increasing cost of living in Wisconsin.

Emily Otten ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in journalism.