University of Wyoming leadership focused on the positive during Tuesday’s state of the university address, but also acknowledged ongoing challenges — like a continued decline in enrollment and whether to allow concealed carry of firearms on campus.
Enrollment
Overall enrollment is down 0.8%, according to Provost Kevin Carman, with new student enrollment down 2%. While those statistics aren’t final, they suggest that this is the sixth consecutive year of declining enrollment at Wyoming’s only public university.
In 2018, the school tallied 13,047 students. This year, there are a little over 11,000, the lowest it’s been in decades.
Getting into the details, Carman noted that there are areas of growth, including a 0.7% increase among graduate students over last year, international student enrollment reaching pre-pandemic levels and a growing online enrollment.
“Although the actual numbers are modest … our online undergraduate enrollment is actually up about 10% year-over-year, due partially to nine new fully online undergraduate degree programs that we’ve launched,” he said.
Efforts to keep students at UW are also going strong, he said, with an increase in student retention.
President Ed Seidel noted that UW’s enrollment woes are not unique.
“One of the backdrops that the provost mentioned is we have enrollment challenges, as does every university in this country right now,” he said.
He highlighted particular challenges facing Western states, including a projected 11% decline in college-bound high school graduates by 2029. Community colleges, too, are seeing significant declines in enrollment nationwide, which feed into universities including UW.
“That means we’re gonna have to fight harder and harder for students, and we’re gonna have to fight harder and harder to make sure they’re successful when they’re here,” he said.
Montana State University — the largest university system between Montana, Wyoming and the Dakotas, it claims — has seen enrollment rebound to pre-pandemic numbers, even reaching record heights.
Still, Seidel noted other national trends, including a broad questioning of whether higher education is worth the cost. While UW’s costs are low compared to many other institutions, he said a lack of faith in institutions of higher education in general also affects Wyoming.
Ultimately, Seidel said he’s set a “modest goal” of having 12,000 students by 2029.
Free speech and DEI
Seidel made an effort to mention freedom of expression on the UW campus several times during his speech, which was followed by a video addressing the topic.
“That is something that these days is really attractive for many students, and so I think we can differentiate ourselves in that way,” Seidel said.
In the video, Seidel said that professors are “not really” allowed to “push their causes” in the classroom.
“A college class might examine a controversial or political issue,” he said. “No subject is off limits. But here, you can expect to be engaging in academic inquiry and analysis, not activism.”
UW settled a lawsuit last October with a Laramie church leader who’d protested against a transgender student. The man had sued the school on free speech grounds after being temporarily barred from tabling in the student union.
Seidel also brought up the Legislature’s decision to cut $1.7 million from UW’s biennial block grant early this year — the amount UW spent on its Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
Lawmakers also banned UW from using state funds on that office and DEI resources.
“No subject is off limits. But here, you can expect to be engaging in academic inquiry and analysis, not activism.”
UW President ed seidel
In response, the UW Board of Trustees adopted a definition for DEI — something lawmakers hadn’t done — to try and root out what legislators were trying to prevent: favoring certain groups over others.
In the aftermath, the university closed its DEI office while maintaining most of the programming elsewhere. That included compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 and the Americans with Disabilities Act — thus maintaining the University’s eligibility for federal grants.
Earlier this year, it also replaced the decades-old Office of Multicultural Affairs and its Poke Pride Center with the Pokes Center for Community Resources and a clothing and resource closet in an effort to avoid activities that may be considered DEI.
When asked whether other programs had been shuttered so far this year because they could be perceived as aligning with DEI, Seidel told WyoFile he wasn’t aware of any. However, Seidel added, several departments are reviewing their programming to make sure it doesn’t violate the new DEI requirements.
Guns
Firearms came up a few times during Tuesday’s address. The first time was during Staff Senate President Adam Comeau’s turn behind the lectern. He noted that there was a survey sent out to the UW community asking whether the university should change its regulations to allow concealed carry in campus buildings.
“In response, members of [the] staff senate drafted a resolution to encourage administration to maintain its current regulations as they are now,” he said.
While the resolution is drafted, it hasn’t passed yet, he said. Staff senators can still take feedback.
UW had issued the now-closed survey Aug. 23 for people to provide feedback about concealed carry on campus.
“If we thought we had a lot of input on diversity, equity, inclusion, we’ve broken the record, I think, for firearms on campus,” Seidel said. “We had about 3,000 responses. It’s incredible.”
The previously rejected idea was revived by Gov. Mark Gordon, Seidel said.
“With the authority already in place to address this issue at a local level, I call on school districts, community colleges, and the University to take up these difficult conversations again and establish policies that allow for the safe carry of concealed weapons within their facilities,” Gordon wrote in a March letter explaining his veto of a bill passed by the Legislature that would have banned most gun-free zones in the state.
Seidel said UW is now doing that, and public testimony will be allowed at next week’s board of trustees meeting.
“I urge you to comment,” he said. “If you want to say something, please do. We’ll take it all in before we take any actions.”
Shuttles, services and research success
Beyond the big, attention-grabbing topics, most of the state of the university address focused on the minutiae of student, staff and university governance.
That included ways the UW community is working to help students, staff and businesses.
Some notable items included student government president Kameron Murfitt saying that an ASUW-funded shuttle to and from the Denver International Airport at the start of the year was a success.
“This service was greatly appreciated by all the students who partook, and I’m excited to announce that we will be continuing the service in December to take them back to the DIA for winter break, as well as to pick them up in January,” he said.
Speakers also addressed continued efforts to bolster student and staff mental health.
Provost Carman also said the university would soon be considered among the top 156 research universities in the nation as an “R1” institution.
“UW has well over 90 PhD students per year, and about $130 million in research expenditures,” he said. “We will be an R1 university in 2025.”
And there were plenty of mentions of a major staff reorganization, implementation of which has been delayed — for now.
To watch the entire state of the university address, go here.
Maybe (hopefully) more kids are realizing that a 4 year liberal arts degree is a ticket to be being qualified to work at Starbucks but then also have a mortgage’s worth of debt to pay off?
The only people who think doing things like closing the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion make UW a more attractive school are radical conservatives. Trying to frame it positively by using phrasing like “you will be engaging in academic inquiry and analysis, not activism” may fool other radical conservatives, but it does not fool most potential students. They can see that this means the administration is setting the tone, and that neither they nor the faculty are really free to express themselves. Poll after poll show that diversity, access to health care including women’s health, and social change are in the top 10 items that this generation of college students cares about.
Our enrollment is destined to decline even if we are less expensive. Wyoming resident for 50 years, Wyoming Community College Grad and supporter, and a UW Graduate twice….. Would I seek a degree from UW now? Probably not, and I suspect some prospective students have become aware of the take-over of our once outstanding university by a radical conservative legislature. If they can force their warped social norms on university culture, then it will likely eventually suppress academic freedoms thus curriculum.
To respond to L.Skow’s comment…
I scanned the quotations of Judge Warren Wendover (retired). The most appropriate statement I found follows: “There should be a sieve to remove the worst of bias and ignorance from people’s statements. Tidying up what a person says may not make him any more tolerant or intelligent, but it would save him from embarrassing justifications when he is reminded of it in the future.”
GOLLY GEE folks. Could the decline in enrollment be due to all the babies aborted over last. Say 25 years ago? Maybe even. Oh pick random number—-18 years ago? About age one would be freshman in college. Think about it. All those potential college age kids aborted out. There went our workforce/military aged recruits/voting blocks. All DEAD. KILLED BY MOM.
Typical response from you… Show your data supporting your spouting.
Harvey/Chuck. The number of abortions since 1974 in USA stand around 60 million aborted. Last 24 years stand at 625,000 a year. Or aprox 15,625,000 aborted. Those would all most likely be in a school system of some kind. So there are your numbers. Wyoming U would likely have gotten aprox 10,000 of those in last 5 years. There are your numbers Harvey. So your bluff is called. Just google your own numbers. It all out there for all to read. Chuck. I can take your name calling and ridicule. But Wyofile doesn’t print my reply. But I have 2 birds a flying for you. Now I don’t see any of you ProHarris fans ranting & raving on how well the last 3-1/2 years of her as VP has treated you all so well. None of you brag how well you been doing with inflation/rising prices/rising tax increases/rising energy rates. Especially electric bill costs. Not a peep from any democrats a whooping hollering for joy over her “accomplishments”. ODD! No JOY? Where is the Harris BRAVADO?
Just stop Larry. Doesn’t greeley have a local paper that you can post your brilliant false equivalencies to?
The amount of abortions in the last 18 years has very little, if anything, to do with the UW enrollment. I’d suspect low enrollment has more to do with policy, location, and (as someone else stated) a bigger focus on trade schools. But, somewhere in your rabbit hole of right winger, old guy, nonsense, the blame was put on abortion and you swallowed it up and are trying to peddle it as fact.
To be so invested in posting to an out of state news site is crazy to me. Multiple moderated comments that don’t get posted to “flying 2 birds” at strangers for not agreeing with your flawed logic tells most all they need to know. Some new hobbies would probably be a benefit.
More angry boomer nonsense. Nothing in your comment is remotely true or accurate.
The large majority of today’s incoming freshman are women, and most likely sexually active. The loss of medical choices available to them in WY has absolutely become a factor of consideration, along with issues of open bigotry and the chance of getting gunned down in their Chemistry 101 lab. It’s a tough pill to swallow, but WY’s best and brightest have been fleeing the state for two generations because of the strong downward trend of WY’s draconian politics and seedy approach to business and finance. While East Coast and Cali colleges remain top destinations with very tough entrance requirements, our beloved ‘Pokes struggle to attract students despite the comparative low cost and access to outdoor amenities offered by Laramie. University of WY has an information problem – the problem being potential students can easily find information about the hatefulness of their neighbors if they attend UW, and this causes them to look elsewhere. Time for WY to realize the call is coming from inside the house.
Spot on Coy! I also might wonder if some athletes are avoiding University of Wyoming due to the climate created by the Freedom Caucus? With that said I am certain that is a feature of their activities as they seem to desire a place that resembles the constrictions of Afghanistan while they saying they are for freedom.