The University of Wyoming has named Brig. Gen. Shane Reeves the 29th president of the state’s lone four-year university.
The UW Board of Trustees voted Thursday to offer the Sweetwater County native and military leader a four-year contract with an annual base salary of $500,000.
“I am deeply honored and humbled to return home and serve as the next president of the University of Wyoming,” Reeves said in a UW statement announcing he had accepted the position. “The future is bright for our incredible community, and I am excited about what we will accomplish together.”
As dean of the Academic Board at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York, Reeves has led more than 700 faculty and staff members across 13 academic departments with an annual budget of about $80 million, the UW statement said. He will oversee 3,130 benefitted employees and a budget of $533 million at UW, university spokesperson Chad Baldwin said.
“We are thrilled that a proven leader with a track record of academic success and strong Wyoming roots has agreed to become the next president of Wyoming’s university,” Kermit Brown, chairman of the board of trustees, said in the announcement. “We have every confidence that General Reeves will lead UW’s faculty, staff and students — working with the trustees, state leaders, alumni and many other supporters — to lift Wyoming’s world-class university to even greater heights.”
Reeves, a brigadier general with a 30-year military career, will retire from the Army to take the reins from UW President Ed Seidel in July.
Seidel, the fifth president hired in just over six years, announced in July that he would step down from his position several months after the faculty senate gave his leadership a no-confidence vote.
Hiring process
In September, the board initiated the hiring process by appointing a 17-member search committee composed of trustees, faculty, staff, students and industry representatives.
From a pool of over 100 applicants, the board selected two finalists — Reeves and Kelly Crane, who has served as dean of the College of Agriculture, Life Sciences, and Natural Resources since 2024.
The board’s vote concluded a roughly seven-month hiring process that wrapped up with two public forums on campus Monday and Tuesday. After hearing directly from the two candidates, the trustees offered students, faculty, staff and community members a 24-hour window to submit feedback via an online survey.
Some expressed frustration with the university’s decision not to offer an online viewing option, making it difficult for the 2,522 students, staff and faculty outside of Laramie to participate in the process.
The leaders of UW’s faculty and staff senates, along with the Associated Students of UW, voiced support for Reeves’ appointment as president, according to a UW press release.
The next president
While Reeves has spent most of his career outside Wyoming, including deployment in support of combat operations in Iraq as a brigade judge advocate, he is a native of Rock Springs. After graduating from Rock Springs High School in 1992, Reeves enrolled at West Point and earned a bachelor’s degree in European history in 1996, according to the UW announcement. He was then commissioned as an armor officer at Fort Irwin, California, where he served in several positions.
He transitioned to law and holds a master’s degree in military law from the Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School and a Juris Doctor from the College of William and Mary, along with a bachelor’s degree in science from the U.S. Military Academy, according to his U.S. Military Academy biography. He has worked in legal positions from Fort Riley, Kansas, to Taji, Iraq. He has spoken, written and taught extensively on international law, and is a founding member and director of the Lieber Institute for Law and Land Warfare at West Point.
Reeves and his wife have resided in West Point for more than 10 years and raised three children there.
Back in Wyoming, Reeves “looks forward to traveling around the state to hear from the people of Wyoming about the state’s university, which he describes as an indispensable institution for Wyoming’s future,” a UW press release said.
His priorities include “deepening connections with the university and state communities, building the team, establishing an artificial intelligence task force to ensure we lead in the evolving landscape of higher education,” the press release said. “And of course, watching our Pokes dominate in sports this fall.”
WyoFile reporter Katie Klingsporn contributed reporting.
Congratulations General and welcome back to Wyoming.
Don’t screw it up.
The key will be how much he will/can protect the University from Wyoming’s “politics in the extreme” to attract top notch faculty and students. I wonder if his coming to UW will be in a seat of power akin to Dubois back in the early oughts, or like Seidel’s tenure which had too little power from the beginning, and was way too vulnerable to the freedom caucus.
Impressive. My perception is that Shane Reeves cares about the success of students at UW as well as faculty. Additionally, I feel like he will bring a much needed winning mindset to the University of Wyoming.
General Reeves unquestionably has all of the academic and administrative skills to be a great UW president. I hope that he also handle the mud slinging politics that is an inherent part of the position. I wish him the best of luck.
Sounds like a great choice.