Dive Brief:
- State lawmakers have directed the University of Wyoming to review its academic offerings and “recommend opportunities to eliminate degree programs” based on their enrollment and graduate numbers, per the state’s two-year budget signed last week.
- The Wyoming Legislature is also requiring the university to evaluate its staffing for redundant positions, and for any diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives that could be restricted.
- The university must submit a comprehensive report to the state by Dec. 1. The new mandates come after UW’s state funding survived a perilous legislative session during which lawmakers initially looked to slash as much as $61 million from the university.
Dive Insight:
Wyoming legislators wanted to slash millions from UW’s funding for the coming fiscal year despite recent enrollment growth at the state flagship.
After an initial budget markup proposed a $61 million slash to UW’s state funding, a joint legislative committee lowered the cut to $40 million.
Comments during the session alluded to ideological reasons for the cuts. Rep. Ken Pendergraft, a member of the state’s archconservative Freedom Caucus who proposed big funding cuts, told The Chronicle of Higher Education that he thought UW “has forgotten its founding purpose.”
Another member of the Freedom Caucus, Rep. Jeremy Haroldson, said during a committee meeting that “there are things being taught in our university that don’t align with the way of life” in Wyoming.
Lawmakers restored that funding in the budget bill by March. However, they added language that would withhold $10 million from the university until next March — and conditioning the money on the institution finding $5 million to hack from its budget.
Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon vetoed that language, writing that it "lessens the value of a study potentially stepping over dollars to pick up nickels and dimes” by "requiring a predetermined outcome."
But the governor left intact the requirements that UW scrutinize its staffing, academic programs and any DEI remnants. Lawmakers included the DEI language despite having already banned the university from having any DEI program or activity last year.
The final budget also included funding to fulfill specific requests from UW, such as $6 million for renovation for its education college’s career and technical education lab, $6 million for athletics operations, $4.5 million for a critical minerals initiative and $2.3 million to expand paid internships for students, according to UW President Ed Seidel.
As the university works to comply with the review mandates, the institution will seek “appropriate participation” from faculty, staff, students and other constituents, Seidal said in a public message Friday.
“Be assured that UW and its Board of Trustees will act in the best interests of the university as we work to comply with these legislative directives and communicate our progress to the state,” added Seidal, who is set to resign in June when his contract ends.
He noted that the university already has completed staffing studies in the past and has an existing process to evaluate and ensure program quality and review low-performing offerings.
“We now must deliver to meet specific efficiency objectives,” he said. “Together, we are committed to do so.”
Although lawmakers flirted with massive cuts to UW, the university’s enrollment has been on the rise. Overall enrollment ticked year over year up by a few students to reach a headcount of 10,819, while first-time, first-year enrollment grew nearly 1% to 1,444 students.
That fall growth came on top of a 1.4% year-over-year enrollment increase in spring 2025, UW’s first increase since the pandemic.
“These are not big increases, but any increases are welcome and celebrated at a time when higher education enrollment nationwide has been struggling to rebound from the pandemic — and when the number of high school graduates is declining,” Seidel said in a September statement.
The university has seen its operating loss — which doesn’t include state funding and other nonoperating revenue — increase in recent years as expenses have risen. At $262 million in fiscal 2025, state appropriations made up by far UW’s largest revenue source.
