Lawmakers voted Thursday to exempt additional University of Wyoming programs from a proposed $40 million reduction to the school’s block grant, a move critics say will put a disproportionate strain on other parts of campus.
The proposed exemptions include a recently endowed outdoor recreation and tourism institute, a high-bay research facility and an oil and gas research program.
The Joint Appropriations Committee, which acts as the Legislature’s primary budgeting arm, met virtually Thursday to finalize the draft budget before the session convenes next week.
Most of the committee’s work was completed in January during its budget hearings. The process stirred controversy when the committee pushed for several drastic budget cuts aimed at the state’s lone four-year public university.
Led by Republican members and allies of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus, the committee voted to axe $40 million from the University of Wyoming, or approximately 11% of its block grant. The panel also voted to deny funding requests related to UW athletics, an energy-related initiative, the school’s family medicine program and matching dollars intended to incentivize major gifts. Lawmakers also took aim at defunding Wyoming Public Media, whose license the university holds. Altogether, the cuts and denials totalled nearly $61 million.
The committee originally made two exceptions — the $40 million cut could not be applied to the College of Education or the College of Agriculture, Life Sciences and Natural Resources.
On Thursday the committee adopted additional exemptions.
Rep. Jeremy Haroldson, R-Wheatland, brought a successful motion to exempt two programs and one facility — the Jay Kemmerer Wyoming Outdoor Recreation, Tourism, and Hospitality (WORTH) Institute, the Center for Innovation for Flow through Porous Media and the High Bay Research Facility.
“One of the things that I’m afraid of and what I don’t want to see happen is, I don’t want it to be a situation where we see disproportionate cuts going to certain areas of the university,” Haroldson said when Sen. Mike Gierau, D-Jackson, asked him to explain the motion.
Haroldson said he recently visited UW’s campus and described the College of Agriculture building as a “1950s” facility in need of updating.
“There’s other areas of the school that seems like they get quite a bit more, and we’ve seen some discrepancies through the last couple of years in my opinion of maybe some funding going in different directions,” Haroldson said.
Exempting certain colleges and programs, however, will only guarantee that other parts of campus will face disproportionate financial strain, Gierau said.
“We talk a lot about not wanting to pick winners and losers, but here we’re picking winners and we’re penalizing the losers and penalizing them more,” Gierau said. “Each one we add, we cut everyone else more.”
In separate Joint Appropriations Committee discussions to dismantle the Wyoming Business Council, several committee members accused the state’s economic development agency of picking winners and losers.
“Confusion reigns supreme here with regard to this motion,” Gierau said on Thursday.
Unlike other state agencies, where lawmakers have line-item spending oversight, the Legislature provides UW with a block grant, affording the school a kind of autonomy.
In recent years, however, lawmakers have sought an increasing say in the university’s business, including restricting the school’s curriculum and programing via budget footnotes.
Protected programs
None of the three new proposed exemptions are one of the university’s colleges or schools, meaning they are not degree-granting programs.
The Jay Kemmerer WORTH Institute’s mission “is to expand, and diversify Wyoming’s economy by supporting the outdoor recreation, tourism, and hospitality industries,” according to its website.
The institute produces research, provides workforce development to students and working professionals, and works directly with communities, private businesses and other stakeholders.
In 2024, Jay and Karen Kemmerer provided $5 million to formally establish the institute. That money was matched with $1 million in state dollars to form a permanent endowment fund.
The Kemmerers, who live in Jackson, regularly host high-dollar fundraisers for conservative politicians, including one in 2021 that cost Jackson Hole Mountain Resort its partnership with Patagonia. Jay Kemmerer and his siblings co-owned the resort at the time. He remains a co-investor in the ski resort following its 2024 sale.
Over the years, the Kemmerers have also donated directly to Republican candidates, including Gov. Mark Gordon, Sens. Bo Biteman and Ogden Driskill, as well as the political action committee associated with the Wyoming Freedom Caucus, according to campaign filings. The Kemmerers also donated to Sen. Gierau, a Democrat, in 2022.
Constructed in 2017, the university’s High Bay Research Facility “contains 90,000 square feet of traditional and high-bay research laboratories, offices and meeting areas,” according to its website, with the goal of providing “sufficient space, capacity and state-of-the-art equipment to grow various niche areas of research” at UW.
The Center of Innovation for Flow through Porous Media is a program housed within the high-bay facility. It involves research “that will improve understanding of how to maximize recovery from unconventional oil and gas reservoirs,” according to its website.
The research relies on a mix of public and private funding.
Committee discussion
Taken altogether, the two programs and one facility are “really in line with the land-grant mission” of the university, Appropriations Cochairman John Bear, R-Gillette, said.
Bear and other lawmakers have asserted that UW has strayed from its founding purpose as a land-grant university.
“Nothing could be further from the truth,” Kermit Brown, chairman of the University of Wyoming Board of Trustees, wrote in an op-ed last month.
At Thursday’s meeting, Sen. Driskill pointed to long-established areas on campus, including the colleges of law and engineering, that will be hurt by the cuts.
“I think we’re heading down a pretty scary path,” Driskill said.
Haroldson’s motion passed. Gierau then sought to restore the $40 million cut in his own motion.
“Let’s have a robust discussion about what we want to do with the university,” he said, adding that a broad stroke cut “ain’t no way to do this.”
Gierau’s motion failed.
The 2026 legislative session convenes Monday. It will then be up to the full Legislature to decide on the budget and proposed cuts.
For more legislative coverage, click here.
Freedom (not Wyoming) Caucus is corrupt. It’s UW cuts protects Ag even when Ag is only 2.5% of the state’s economy. But they are Ag. They protect WORTH because donor is member. Self serving corruption. But they are killing health sciences and business despite the shortage of healthcare workers and accountants. Fact: the Freedom Caucus is self serving, corrupt and focused on ideology. They are not solving problems. Fact: Everything they are doing is making Wyoming less attractive to young people, students, people, investors, and businesses. They are creating a retirement haven for ideological extremists–like themselves.
Following Bear’s simplistic reasoning, the athletics program does not align with the land grant mission, so we should cut it. It is idiotic to impose cuts that will hurt 99.9% of students and programs because you don’t like 0.001% of classes that are electives and haven’t been taught in three years. Fact is UW ranks among the best universities on ideological balance and freedom of speech. The Freedom Caucus are not solving problems, they are playing games. The Freedom Caucus is not Wyoming. They are DC politics. And they are dishonest–remember the lies on the fliers?
Who thought WYGOP would be so generous to Colorado State U?
This is a timely article for us as we publish unique regional college guides to colleges and universities in the western states and will be including UWY in our forthcoming 3rd book in the series which is focused on the Mountain States. We are a nonprofit based in Ashland OR . I hope the legislature realizes what a gem UWY is and find ways to support it rather than tear out some of its best programs.