UW defends budget requests ahead of session

Amid morale problems in the College of Health, plummeting student enrollment and the skyrocketing cost of journal subscriptions, UW looks to the future of AI, coal and nuclear research.

Finding new uses for Wyoming coal, investing in AI research and securing large private donations are among the projects the state could fund at the University of Wyoming — if state lawmakers give the institution everything it’s asking for.

As the Wyoming Legislature gears up for its biennial budget session next month, the Joint Appropriations Committee has been vetting budget requests from the state’s various agencies.

Those requests often include a “standard budget” — the amount of funding the agency needs to continue offering the services it currently does — and “exception requests” — additional funding for new or expanded projects in line with the agency’s mission.

UW administrators presented the university’s own request Monday, fielding questions from the appropriations committee and defending their ask for nearly $103 million in exception requests.

“I see our exception requests as very disciplined and very responsible and welcome discussion on every topic here,” Seidel told the committee. “We are once again this year focused on people and programs in this budget and — true to the commitment that we made last year with the legislature — we do not have any capital construction requests in this budget.”

The $103 million is on top of UW’s standard budget of $419 million. Taken together, the university’s total request for state funds comes to just under $522 million.

The request was actually crafted last summer, when it was turned over to Gov. Mark Gordon for review. While individual agencies like UW present their own budget requests before the joint appropriations committee, they do so only after the governor has made his own recommendations.

The governor’s recommended allocations slash UW’s exception requests in half. So while the university would like nearly $522 million from the state, the governor recommends giving it less — about $468 million.

The joint appropriations committee will “work” UW’s budget next week, deciding which requests to endorse and which to reject. Once the committee has worked UW’s and every other agency’s budget, it will settle on a complete state budget and send that budget bill to the full Wyoming Legislature.

The legislature will then hammer out, modify and ultimately approve a state budget during its 2024 session next month.

* The School of Energy Resources originally requested $20 million, but upped its request by $3 million during the school’s presentation before the Joint Appropriations Committee. // Table: Jeff Victor

Enrollment troubles campuswide

During his presentation to the joint appropriations committee, President Seidel acknowledged the university’s declining enrollment.

“Fewer people nationally recognize the value of post-secondary education,” he said. “We are focused on … getting the word out about the value of higher education and in particular, the University Wyoming's unique ability within higher ed to deliver that value for such a low cost.”

UW’s student headcount has plummeted by 11 percent since 2018 and it’s looking to aggressively recruit transfer students to turn that trend around.

Morale troubles in the College of Health

Lawmakers questioned UW administrators about an ongoing squabble in the College of Health Sciences — between a dean who is accused of mismanagement, authoritarianism and nepotism and faculty and staff who feel they’re not allowed to voice concerns.

“I think the perception perhaps on campus — not just with the students but with other stakeholders who receive services — is that if you disagree, you're gone,” Rep. Lloyd Larsen (HD-54) said. “You tell us all the time how important it is to be able to have great conversations and disagree without feeling jeopardized. And I'm not sure that we've done that real well.”

Neither Dean Jacob Warren, who was present, nor President Seidel said much about the specifics of the situation — which has involved the removal of two division directors critical of Warren, the resignation of several other employees and the launch of a formal dispute resolution process. But they said the search for replacements was moving along and that they were doing work to repair “lines of communication.”

“I do believe that we're addressing the issues,” Seidel said. “We also have a number of meetings coming up in the next couple of weeks also just to make sure we're taking the temperature and really paying attention to this. We’ve had extensive discussions with the board as well. So we're very much on this.”

Endowments and the push for private funding

One large chunk of the university’s exception requests, the endowment matching program, seeks state funding to match private donations dollar for dollar. UW requested $20 million; the governor recommended $5 million. Whatever the legislature ultimately awards UW would build on a 20-year program that Seidel said has already seen great success.

“We punch above our weight in terms of the funding we're able to raise — in the state of Wyoming and across the country in fact,” Seidel said. “Endowment matching has made a huge difference in terms of our ability to raise the funds.”

Endowment matching underpins the university’s push to fill a greater percentage of its coffers with private funding.

“We do raise over $60 million a year right now in private funds,” Seidel said. “We believe we can significantly enhance that.”

Journal subscriptions rejected by governor

UW also requested $2 million to help cover the rising costs of academic journal subscriptions, which faculty and students can access through Coe Library. Gov. Gordon rejected this request.

“Those prices for journals have gone up about 18 percent in the last five years or so, while at the same time, the budget for the library has gone down by 6 percent,” Seidel said. “The governor did not recommend this request and I’ll just say: we will do the best we can to meet those needs. But our faculty in particular, and our students, have got to have access to the top journals.”

Asphalt research and nuclear energy education

The School of Energy Resources originally requested $20 million, but upped that ask to $23 million during its presentation to the joint appropriations committee.

The bulk of that request — originally $14 million, but now $17 million — would go toward a coal solvent extraction demonstration project. That project would study the possibility of using Wyoming coal to manufacture a critical component of asphalt. Currently that component is derived from oil.

Gov. Gordon recommended funding half of the coal solvent request.

Another notable chunk of the school’s $23 million request was $2 million for nuclear energy capacity building, which would support education surrounding nuclear energy.