UW slows reorganization plans amid faculty complaints
Administration detailed the reorganization plan it will bring to the board this month. The plan calls for significant changes, but delays other changes that were forcefully denounced by faculty.
University of Wyoming faculty appear to have successfully slowed down their institution’s plans for reorganization — although significant restructuring of the institution and a massive budget cut still loom over the campus.
When UW administrators present a reorganization plan to the Board of Trustees later this month, that plan will still include:
a reorganization of the College of Education
the shuffling and consolidation of several academic departments
the elimination of four graduate degree programs (MA in philosophy, MBA in finance, MBA in energy and Ph.D. in statistics)
But the reorganization no longer includes the transfer of several programs out of the College of Arts and Sciences, or the restructuring of the College of Engineering and Applied Science and College of Agriculture and Natural Resources.
Both of those changes are delayed to summer 2023 “pending further refinement,” according to a UW news release.
“After careful consideration of the feedback that we have received from faculty, students, staff and stakeholders, I believe additional time is needed for consideration of how best to implement the major reorganization of the colleges of Arts and Sciences, Agriculture and Natural Resources, and Engineering and Applied Science,” Provost Kevin Carman says in the release.
The administration is still moving forward with a $5.3 million budget reduction and is still hammering out details for further reductions that will bring the total to $13.6 million. Final details for these reductions have not been released, but will involve the elimination of some 20-25 vacant faculty positions.
The Wyoming Legislature cut UW’s two-year operating budget by $44 million during the 2021 legislative session, and the administration announced reorganization plans in July.
Discussion surrounding those plans has been heated. Faculty argue that the process has been rushed, failed to gain buy-in from the campus community, and can now move at a slower pace, given changes to the state’s — and university’s — fiscal outlook.
Wyoming Senate Minority Leader Chris Rothfuss — who is also an adjunct professor at UW — penned a letter to the Board of Trustees last week. Rothfuss urged the board to slow down the process and warned that he would not support exemption requests related to the reorganization if the university’s plans lacked faculty and staff support.
Rothfuss highlighted two developments that have occurred since the reorganization plan was first proposed:
State revenues from oil and gas — a significant portion of the money that funds the state of Wyoming and subsequently UW — are higher than expected.
And some of the pandemic federal funding Wyoming is taking advantage of comes with the requirement that Wyoming not slash high education funding.
"The urgency is gone," Rothfuss wrote. "There is no immediate budget crisis. We have the time to plan the path forward thoughtfully, collegially and cooperatively."
UW President Ed Seidel separately wrote a letter to the UW community, defending both the scope and timing of the reduction and reorganization. The president’s letter addresses several specific points raised by Rothfuss.
Seidel said restoration of the university’s budget by the legislature is not guaranteed.
“Without restoration of any of those legislative budget reductions, we will begin the next biennium $62.5 million below the state-appropriated operating budget approved two years ago,” Seidel wrote. “We are aggressively seeking additional state funding but understand that recurring funding opportunities are limited. If budgets improve in the future, we will be better positioned to grow.”
As it stands, reorganization is still moving forward and several elements of the administration’s original plan will still be presented for approval at the November meeting of the UW Board of Trustees. But some significant changes will be delayed, as they continue to be discussed throughout the next year-and-a-half.
Seidel defended both the process and the need for restructuring much of UW, saying the institution is at a “crossroads” and arguing that the reorganization will better position UW to become a “best-in-class 21st century land-grant university.”
“We have listened and will continue to listen to feedback, and we have made some significant adjustments as a result,” Seidel wrote. “While our deliberations and communications have not been perfect, nothing has been rushed, and no corners have been cut.”