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MADISON, Wis. — <\/span>Leaders on the board that oversees the Universities of Wisconsin rebuffed the fired system president’s claim that he was \u201cblindsided\u201d by their decision to oust him<\/a>, telling lawmakers Thursday that he was slow to address pressing issues like artificial intelligence and feared upsetting policymakers, faculty and staff.<\/p>\n Members of the board of regents had said little publicly until Thursday about the surprise dismissal<\/a> Tuesday of Jay Rothman as head of the 165,000-student university system. Regents voted unanimously with no public discussion to fire Rothman after a closed-door meeting.<\/p>\n Rothman told The Associated Press<\/a> in an interview on Wednesday that he was kept in the dark about why he was being fired and his dismissal \u201cblindsided\u201d him.<\/p>\n But two regents who testified at a state Senate committee hearing on Thursday said Rothman knew more<\/a> than he is letting on. They also said there were \u201csubstantial\u201d reasons for his being fired, and Rothman was aware of them.<\/p>\n \u201cThat decision was not made lightly,\u201d Regent President Amy Bogost said. \u201cIt was not political. It was not retaliatory. It was unanimous. … We made a difficult decision for the right reasons, and I firmly stand by it.\u201d<\/p>\n