The president of the 165,000-student University of Wisconsin system is fighting attempts by the board of regents to force him to retire or face being fired. The surprise effort to remove Jay Rothman from the post he has held since 2022 was detailed in letters Rothman sent to regents over the past week that were obtained Thursday by The Associated Press. No concerns had been aired publicly by regents about Rothman’s performance. According to Rothman, no regent has explained to him why they want him out. But Rothman wrote that regents told him they could meet this weekend to fire him.