Why Am I Still Here?

Guest column by Peter Shive
University of Wyoming professor emeritus

— November 9, 2013

When I came to UW in 1969 I had no intention of staying. Attracted by the excellence of the Geology Department, I figured I’d stay a few years to build a reputation and then move on to a more prestigious University. Yet here I am, 44 years later. Why is that?

First, I quickly noticed that it wasn’t only the Geology Department. After those first few years I found myself saying to students, “If you do a little homework beforehand, you can get just as good an education here as you could at Stanford (my alma mater) or Harvard.” I still believe that.

Later I became aware that, although we are a major land-grant University, there are things about UW that make it special, make it stand out among its peers. I then found myself saying to students, “We may be a university, but we are not a factory. If you come here, you will be treated like a person, not a number.” I still believe that.

Then, when I turned 50, I made a major career change that dismayed my department colleagues, my department head, my dean and probably my provost. At most other universities, I probably would have been fired. But at UW I was allowed to make the changes I sought and to continue to pursue my unusual career dreams. It is for that reason that, in the seven years since retirement I have continued to work for UW without salary or benefits, performing various administrative tasks and even teaching occasional courses. I have been so well treated here that I have an overwhelming and continuing desire to give back.

The feelings this evokes are harder to articulate. I’ll put it this way. I would be able to say to anyone — students, faculty, staff and residents of the state, “There has been a basic decency of process here, woven into the fabric of the University and probably even of the state itself.” I suspect that anyone who has been here more than three years knows what I am talking about.

And so I have been shaken by the changes that have occurred here this fall, and by those that are proposed for the future. They are absolutely inconsistent with the three statements above. I don’t want to have to say to people, “Come here for the football games, but send your kids somewhere else. And if you stay here in any capacity, watch your back.”

The current mantra is, “Let’s become the number one land-grant university in the country.” I beg to differ. I would say instead, “Let’s work to improve, as we have. And on the way, let’s not dishonor the qualities that already make us great, even if they may not be as measurable as the number of dollars paid to us by energy companies or the scores of athletic contests.”

— Related story: “Students and faculty question spate of resignations at University of Wyoming under Sternberg,” by Gregory Nickerson

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