Lawmakers voted Tuesday to cut $40 million from the University of Wyoming, or approximately 11% of the block grant for the state’s only four-year public university.
On top of the $40 million cut, the committee voted to defund Wyoming Public Media and to deny funding requests related to UW athletics, an energy-related initiative, the school’s family medicine residency program and matching dollars intended to incentivize major gifts. That brings the total to nearly $61 million.
The Wyoming Legislature’s Joint Appropriations Committee is meeting in Cheyenne this week to write a budget bill ahead of next month’s legislative session. That work follows three weeks’ worth of budget hearings and involves the panel voting on Gov. Mark Gordon’s recommendations for every state agency.
Unlike other state agencies, where lawmakers have line-item spending oversight, the Legislature provides UW with a block grant, affording the state’s lone four-year public university a kind of budget flexibility.
When it was time Tuesday for the committee to consider the block grant, Sheridan Republican Rep. Ken Pendergraft brought a motion to reduce it by $40 million.
“There’s some, in my mind, there’s some reshuffling of priorities [on] where the state should actually be spending money,” Pendergraft said at the meeting. “And when I look at the University of Wyoming, I think that that’s a place where we could probably pull in the reins for a little while.”
At Pendergraft’s suggestion, the committee also voted to exempt the College of Education and the College of Agriculture, Life Sciences and Natural Resources from the cuts.
Pendergraft is a member of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus — a group of hard-line Republicans who won control of the House in 2024. The upcoming budget session will be the first since the group gained such a foothold and secured a majority of seats on the House Appropriations Committee.
“We are monitoring the situation very closely and acknowledge there are a lot of steps along the way before a final budget is signed into law,” Chad Baldwin, UW spokesperson, told WyoFile.
‘Crippling amount’
Pendergraft’s motion prompted a heated and emotional debate between committee members.
Sen. Ogden Driskill, R-Devils Tower, called the cut “a crippling amount” and the kind of decision that will “haunt the state.”
“This is the main university that educates our kids in Wyoming. They don’t have three other choices like they do somewhere else. This is what we have,” Driskill said. “This body is sending the message to the people of Wyoming, our own people, ‘Don’t stay here. Don’t come here.’”
Rep. Jeremy Haroldson, R-Wheatland, spoke in favor of the motion, telling the committee he had concerns that “there are things being taught in our university that don’t align with the way of life.”
But cutting $40 million won’t address concerns over curriculum, Driskill said.
Laramie Democratic Rep. Trey Sherwood also spoke against the motion, citing the way it would directly impact her constituents. The university is located in Laramie.
“The governor gave us a balanced budget, which he’s required to statutorily. And when we get down to it, we are also required by law to pass a balanced budget. So we’re not in a deficit. There’s no loss of funds,” Sherwood said. “This proposal to remove funds from the University of Wyoming, in my mind, is cutting for cut’s sake.”
Morale is “quite low” on campus, Sherwood said, pointing to UW President Ed Seidel’s upcoming departure and Laramie’s high cost of living.
“I just want my constituents back home to know that I see that, and I feel the stress that you are under, and I wanted to say publicly, thank you for your service, and know that this is one day, and we will continue to fight for you through the process,” Sherwood said.
The motion was passed on a voice vote, with at least Sherwood and Sen. Mike Gierau, D-Jackson, voting against it.
More proposed cuts
On top of the $40 million cut, the committee denied a request to fund an assistant professor for UW’s family medicine residency program in Casper, as well as $12.5 million in matching funds intended to boost fundraising.
“This, to me, is the double whammy of this whole deal,” Gierau said. “You cut the block grant and … then you cut ways that they can try to raise money to earn it back.”
Lawmakers also voted to trim $450,000 from the governor’s recommendation of $4.5 million for a critical minerals initiative at UW.
“To best serve the state, UW now needs to support interdisciplinary research and education focused on technologies that use Wyoming minerals,” the governor’s budget explanation states. “This requires that UW strengthen its facilities for advanced materials research and develop technologies such as sodium batteries (that will use trona), advanced magnets, and quantum computers and sensors (that will use Wyoming rare earth elements).”
Pendergraft brought two additional motions aimed at UW that the committee ultimately adopted — one to cut $6 million from the university’s athletics department, another to prohibit $1.69 million in state dollars from passing through the block grant to fund Wyoming public radio (the station is formally referred to as Wyoming Public Media).
The $6 million request stems from a landmark NCAA settlement in June that allows colleges to compensate student-athletes for their name, image and likeness.
“The settlement fundamentally reshapes the financial structure of college athletics, requiring institutions to directly support student-athletes through compensation, expanded benefits, and compliance measures,” according to the budget book.
Haroldson, a Freedom Caucus member, pushed back on the motion, arguing it “will have a ripple effect across the state.”
“The University of Wyoming, being a [Division 1] school, it’s the only thing we have. And in my community, I mean, it’s an exodus,” Haroldson said. “If you want to go and see what Highway 34 looks like on game day, it’s pretty impressive.”
In his explanation for seeking to cut public funding for Wyoming public radio, Pendergraft said, “it’s not the role of government.”
“It is not the concept of government to have an immediate extension like a ‘Pravda,’” he said, referring to the former Soviet Union’s Communist Party newspaper, which served as a government mouthpiece for state propaganda.
Gierau pushed back.
“I understand the concept about using state dollars, but where you lose me is when you say things like ‘Pravda.’ And let me explain why,” Gierau said. “Because then it leaves the impression that what you’re doing is, you’re against it because of what they’re saying, not the fact that they’re saying it. And that is a slippery slope.”
While the University of Wyoming holds WPM’s license, the station is editorially independent.
“We were disappointed but not discouraged, and we will continue to advocate our case to legislators,” Christina Kuzmych, Wyoming Public Media general manager, told WyoFile in a statement. “While we respect their positions on public media, we cannot overlook the thousands of listeners our audience tracking systems indicate rely on public media for information, cultural programming, and entertainment.”
The cuts will impact eight staff members from news to engineering, according to Kuzmych.
“WPM cannot effectively serve a state that spans approximately 97,000 square miles with just two engineers. If these cuts remain in place, something will have to give.”
At the end of the debate, some lawmakers who supported the cuts sought to ease tensions with colleagues.
“Everybody feels a little bloodied up after those discussions,” House Appropriations Chairman John Bear, R-Gillette, said.
“We’re all friends. We’re all here to do what’s best for the state of Wyoming. So we’ll keep working at it,” he said.
The committee has the rest of the week to finish crafting the budget ahead of the session that begins Feb. 9.
Editor’s note: WyoFile reporter Maggie Mullen worked at Wyoming Public Media four years ago.
Line item examination could well lead to increased efficiency but WPM is a valuable public resource at the end of the day. Let us continue to benefit from the balanced reporting on crucial issues. If WPM deserves to be eliminated, maybe Fox News does also?
Shake the box please.
Thanks for this fine report. I was also delighted to catch your interview on this topic on “Here and Now” on my local Public Radio station, WYPR in Baltimore, Maryland, while I was out in my car this afternoon. I spent much of my childhood and youth in Casper (NCHS Class of ’59) and was always impressed with the evidence that the people running the City (both elected officials and citizen leaders) considered my future worth investing in. I got a fine education in Casper schools and cannot understand the stinginess of the current budget-cutters. Keep up the great work!
It is a taxpayer funded school. The administration at the school isn’t elected our legislators are. Should we spend on gender studies but take away from school lunches or Medicade? There’s only so much. Universities need to change. Expensive campuses will be a thing of the past in the near future. If you don’t change, that’s when you’ll see empty buildings and students going elsewhere. Not politics but technology driving the real change.
The shocking part of this isn’t Bear and Pendergraft, and their radical stances. It’s that the rest of the JAC is going along with their stupidity. How the two worst Wyoming legislators have such a strong voice and influence over policy is a great mystery. These guys only represent a portion of two counties, and they are driving the agenda for the State. Most of the rest of Wyoming didn’t vote for these clowns, but are going to suffer because of them. The rest of the Legislature needs to stand up and repudiate their damaging proposals, and tell them to sit down and shutup.
Well said!
If we could find a replacement for Ken Pendergast in November 2026 I would be so happy. He is detrimental in many ways but particularly in the area of education. He does not support public schools and is now wanting to curtail UW’s ability to teach. Everyone has a choice what they study while in college and i prefer an open and expansive opportunity to learn. I sure don’t want Pendergast telling me what i need to know….
As registered Republicans in Natrona County, both my wife and I are totally opposed to these proposed cuts. The so called “freedom Caucus” has gone too far this time. There must be a way for reasonable Wyoming voices (voters) to speak up and rein this madness in. I trust there will be some discussion, public forums, something before this comes to a final vote. We are two voters who will be watching. Stop the madness !
That will make at least four of us in Natrona County who is wondering what in the hell happened to the republican party. Such short sighted cruelty emanating from this party currently, both nationally and locally, should be raising some alarm bells among our neighbors you would think.
You can’t fix stupid. Like the comment says below: We won’t be woke but we will be broke. Not everyone in the State watches Fox to get their news – KUWR is a state-wide treasure. These so-called legislators should be impeached. Contact this counterfeit ignorant person and tell him he is dead wrong. The email address for Wyoming State Representative Ken Pendergraft from Sheridan is Ken.Pendergraft@wyoleg.gov.
Capitol Phone: 307-777-7881
District Phone: 307-461-2436
Sheridan Office Address: 459 W. Burkitt St., Sheridan, WY 82801
I have no issues with conservatives or conservatism, but I have to say, the Wyoming Freedom Caucus seems monumentally misguided. I recall visiting Myanmar some years ago and seeing the buildings of the once-vibrant Rangoon University dark, empty and covered with black mold. Those in charge of the government kept other schools open but dumbed down curricula such that, over time, the populace became more and more ignorant — without (for most) realizing what was missing. Wyoming should generously fund its public university and protect freedom of research and expression. That’s how to maintain a strong society. Or is that not the Freedom Caucus’s goal?
This is one more step in the ‘slowmoving’ demolition of UW. I earned two degrees in Laramie and worked there for 13 years. It was a great land grant, research and teaching university, but right-wing government began cutting it’s funding over 20 years ago. This is the latest assault by scared little men who ‘can’t handle the truth’. RIP UW and Wyoming Public Media 😢
Yay Freedom Caucus on pulling the UW NIL funding. Bad move on pulling the funding for Wyoming Public Radio. Quit lumping all UW funding together.
UW athletic director now making $851,000 per year. The only way to stop some of this is to just pull the funding.
I heard Sen. Troy McKeown (R-Campbell) on the radio today belittling the letters he received from constituents raising their concerns about how cutting property taxes will destroy community services. In a mocking tone, he said “the sky is falling! The sky is falling! It’s all over.” These “citizen legislators” don’t want your comments or concerns. They feel they know best what Wyoming needs. God help us.
The Freedom Caucus is determined to destroy the University. There can be no other explanation. Legislators like rancher Pendergraft from Sheridan, who I doubt ever saw the inside of university classroom, wants also to defund Wyoming Public Radio which he refers to as ‘Pravda’, reference to Russia’s state newspaper. What a downright silly, immature comment. The Freedom Caucus has the state of Wyoming in a race to the bottom.
As an alum of UW I find this cut completely short sited and vindictive towards education as a whole by the Freedom Caucus. I was on the Parent Council at UW while my kids were students at UW for several years just prior to 2020 and watched several Presidents try to maneuver through severe budge cuts at that time. The University hasn’t exactly been rolling in the dough for decades! They’ve taken budget cut after budget cut for years! The Freedom Caucus is just anti education and free thinking.
All I hear from our leader is that this is the greatest economy we have ever seen, that he has fixed everything that was wrong and that we are prospering. Yet all I hear at the local level is that we are broke and cant fund basic services.
The Free Dumb Caucus’s answer to the mass exodus of young Wyomingites is to *check notes* send them out of the state sooner by defunding and destroying the state’s only four year university. Yep that will stop it. /s
As a Wyoming native, UWYO graduate and the daughter and wife of two devoted and long time professors at UWYO, I am horrified that the legislature has decided to strip our land grant university of much of its dollar resources and to defund public radio. And I want to repeat, PUBLIC, radio of their funding. It’s a disgrace really. Especially as the gentleman who reported the quiet part aloud that, after all, he didn’t agree with some things being taught to our, and I want to repeat, OUR children. School, whether it is preschool or higher education, is not there to teach our children what to think. It is there to teach our children HOW to think. We are shaming ourselves when we strip free thinking from our society. So ironic that the closing of minds to one way to think comes from the freedom caucus. Be brave people. Allow for growth not tightening of thought . 💔🇺🇸🤠 Kelly Houston Eggers
No surprises here. More rule by the rich. Deny the commoners the opportunities and education they need to change the system.
An aid to the governor spoke, Randall Luthi, to students at the University within the past year an a half, he stated that the majority of the legislature has not set foot on a college campus. Any college campus. Not even for a sporting event. These are the people making decisions. Luthi called upon the students to educate lawmakers.
Are the legislators supporting the cuts to the University of Wyoming and Public Radio worried that too many of our young people are staying in the State? I thought we shared a concern that we are loosing too many to other states! We are loosing, I believe, a greater percentage of our young people than any state in the Union! That is not a mark of honor or health. Maintaining and strengthening a strong and vital state university is the first step in stemming that loss.
Being “educated” is a threat to these idiots in our legislature. I am embarrassed by our state government. I want to know specifically what UW is teaching that is problematic for Pendergraft. Education has always been the thing we strive for. Enlighten ourselves and things begin to make more sense. Critical thinking is a result. Obviously some of our legislators are not enlightened. Who the heck votes these guys into office? Voters, look into these people before you put them in these positions! And I for one, will continue to support Wyoming Public Radio. They report the news honestly and provide much entertainment and thoughtful programming for me. I don’t mind upping my monthly donation to support WPR. Problem for our government is that they tell the real story in comparison to Fox News.
They are just fallowing their savior keeping people misinformed and illiterate so they can be manipulated . Seems to be working all over Wyoming.
Cut UW funding, but not from Agriculture College!! So revealing. Agriculture is less than 2.5% of the Wyoming’s economy, but it gets a significantly disproportionate share of the UW budget and State budget. These uneducated elected officials are just lining their pockets. I guess it is the government’s role when it’s lining their pockets and protecting their individual interests. They’re uninformed grifters using simpleton logic to direct resources to their own interests. With such misguided ‘leadership’, UW will have a hard time hiring a decent president, keep good faculty, attract good students, attract businesses, etc., which all will hurt Wyoming’s future. We really need to get Freedumb Caucus out…time to reject national stupidity and return to good ole Wyoming conservative values.
Those of us not in the ranching, farming, hunting, trapping and outfitting communities just don’t count, even though we are in the majority. You’ve got to wear cowboy hats and boots if you want legitimacy.
There’s a complete lack of intelligence in this legislative cesspool.
And people wonder why young people are leaving Wyoming. But you know, Trump says that uneducated people love him.
We had to destroy Wyoming in order to save it. – new motto of the WY Freedumb
Caucus.
Depending on your age and military experience, you may recognize this as a variation on the infamous statement of an anonymous US Army major back in 1968 when asked why the village of Ben Tre (then capitol of Kien Hoa province, South Vietnam Nam) had to be destroyed.
I know it’s the status quo across this nation, but taxpayer money shouldnt go to indoctrination and propaganda.
Only a conspiracy theorist would think anyone is being ‘indoctrinated ‘.
Gordon, is that what you think of Wyofile?
Will charter schools teach, or indoctrinate, Wyo students?
https://wyofile.com/will-charter-schools-teach-or-indoctrinate-wyo-students/
What indoctrination? What propaganda? Can you cite examples? No, because you, like the Freedom Caucus, are just parroting what the ideologues are saying. Is Math indoctrination? Statistics? Is the teaching of Languages propaganda? English? You people are so focused on your animus about trans students, what you call DEI and the teaching of true, incontrovertible history you see “liberal” boogeymen everywhere. Where’s your critical thinking, Mr. Guenter?
Universities are not just about advancing ones education, (Math, Science, History, etc.).
For generations in many cases, they have become cultural/societal engineering factories. Young minds being molded/reprogrammed towards an institutions or even individual faculty members worldview.
To deny this goes on, is to deny human nature.
We all want others to believe as we do, agree, share the same concerns, etc.
Universities simply have the greatest access to young moldable minds.
You are on the wrong side of history, Chad. Burning it all to the ground is not the answer.
That’s the job of the church
Chad, the molding of young minds starts at an early age by parental ideologies, and or social media, way before they get to college. We need to encourage/enable our younger society to become informed, educated thinkers. And, no, we all do not want everyone to think/believe as we do, constructive conversations breeds thoughtful analysis and we grow from that….No one is right all the time!
I recommend watching “The Brainwashing of my Dad” for anyone wondering how some of our neighbors and family members have become so obstinately irrational. It is on Amazon. Some Americans have been choosing to marinade themselves in right-wing propaganda day in and day out for decades, and the Freedumb Caucus is the result.
Thank you for this tip! I just watched the documentary — fascinating and informative about recent media history and also a heartwarming family story 🙂
Using public funding for public media is the ANTIDOTE, Chad. The poison needing treatment is the indoctrination and propaganda spread 24/7/365 on the public airwaves by commercial FM drivel and grunge , AM Talk /Spurts/Christian / Rightwing white noise radio , and anything broadcast or streamed by a for profit corporation.
Quick question, Chad: how much of your precious time is devoted to listening or viewing anything put for by public radio, pyblic television , or the Corporation for Public Broadcasting ? Where do we find the propaganda and indoctrination you seem to think is there. Please be specific.
Honestly , it seems to me you don’t partake of a millisecond the public’s fabulous programming of edification , enlightenment, and entertainment. Tell us how much you indulge in public media to justify why you feel qualified to offer your opinion of same ? In my 55 years of working in the media, I find the detractors to almost universally be unqualified to criticize the media. They just don’t like what they see and hear. But that’s just them .
So sad. 20 years ago the university, in partnership with the governor and state legislature, was making great strides towards becoming a powerhouse research and educational institution in the Intermountain West. Since 2010, though, because of cuts and the threat of cuts, UW is no longer on that trend line. Too many great professors have left or have retired. Too many up and coming professors have decided to go elsewhere because after all, who would want to work at a place where the funders (the legislature) do not understand or appreciate the work you do.
This is ridiculous, using budget leverage to punish institutions they don’t like. Going after the University of Wyoming or Wyoming Public Media is reckless and short-sighted. The University of Wyoming represents a tiny piece of the state budget, and Wyoming Public Media operates largely on donations with minimal state support—yet both deliver incredible value to Wyoming.
Cutting or threatening funding for higher education and public media doesn’t make Wyoming stronger, freer, or more fiscally responsible. It hurts students, communities, and anyone who values access to information and opportunity.
We should be investing in the institutions that educate our kids and keep our communities informed, not tearing them down.
Disgraceful. Truly. Guess people being less educated works really well for the Freedumb caucus.
Unfathomable that our legislature addresses the long-standing issue of brain drain and young person flight from Wyoming, by gutting the only 4-year institution in the state. The Freedom Caucus literally couldn’t be worse at governing, and the state is going to feel the ramifications of electing these fools for decades to come.
Headline: Uneducated Simpletons Cut Education
Hugh, you are the winner in the best comment category.
This is ridiculous….if you keep beating up on UW it is going to force our kids to go out of state…and never look back. If you don’t want your kids knowledgeable and educated then don’t send them to college, but don’t punish everyone else’s kids. This University has to compete against all the colleges in the country and by cutting their funding and resources and dictating what they can and can’t do or teach is a slow death for UW. K-12 population has been declining, so the college will eventually see reduced enrollment as it is, and these kinds of decisions, including previous legislative decisions affecting UW will make it very difficult for UW to compete against other colleges for students, athletes, and faculty.
In all my years in Wyoming. 69 years I have never seen this type of stupidly. Not only in UW budget cuts but in Budget Cuts in general. I know of nobody that wants Funds cut at the University. I know of no one
That wants to see emergency services cut
They are afraid of public radio because it tells the truth.
So let’s get rid of athletic funding. Wait and see what type of money comes in if we are a division two school. UW athletics raises phenomenal amount of money.. The money comes from mini rich alumni .
People of Wyoming. We have seen what kind of damage that the Trump administration is doing to this country. The freedom caucus is going to do destroy our state. When you go out and vote look at what the people you vote are doing to the state and don’t just vote blindly.
People are questioning how to keep our kids in Wyoming. The answer is they’re leaving because they want a better future they want to live in reality not the reality that our legislature is putting forth to them
This is only news to those of us reading this article. Work like this is scripted including assigned roles before being brought to session for presentation.
Senator Gierau don’t get your “panties in a wad” over the use of “Pravada”, “we are all friends here”!
We won’t be woke. But we’ll be broke.