Former Gov. Tommy Thompson Tours UW System For Vaccine Campaign

WISCONSIN — Former Wisconsin governor and University of Wisconsin System interim President Tommy Thompson is visiting different UW campuses to promote student vaccinations with scholarship incentives.

The University of Wisconsin's 70 for 70 program will offer a $7,000 scholarship to the first campus that reaches a vaccination rate of 70 percent.

UW-Milwaukee Chancellor Mark Mone said at a news briefing Friday that the system would report how many students and staff get vaccinated across all campuses "at the end of the week."

UW-Madison reported that 92 percent of its employees were fully vaccinated, and 88 percent of its students were fully vaccinated on Sept. 2. The Madison campus is excluded from the 70 for 70 program.

State Sen. Steve Nass (R-Whitewater) asked legislators to file a motion Wednesday to approve a lawsuit against the UW System after Thompson, who was also a Republican, refused to give them control over the universities' masking and testing policies, the Wisconsin Examiner reported.

Thompson told Patch that nobody had brought a lawsuit to him yet. "I don't want to fight with the Legislature," he said. "My responsibility is to the campuses, the professors, the employees and the students."

Thompson said that he didn't intend to mandate vaccinations on campus and preferred to offer incentives for students to get the shot.

Every UW campus currently has an indoor mask mandate, and most classes are being held in person, the Wisconsin Examiner reported.

Almost 56 percent of Wisconsinites have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services said.