Editor's Note: After this story's original publication, a spokesman for UW clarified that comments made by both Seidel and Alexander were incorrect. While the gender studies major was canceled last year, the minor remains an option for students. The webpage Haroldson referenced is not out-of-date. It advertises the available minor program.
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to include comments heard during public testimony.
Lawmakers grilled University of Wyoming (UW) leaders about environmental and gender studies course offerings in Cheyenne on Friday.
They also heard from religious leaders cautioning about the idea of churches taking on functions of state government. Other public commenters defended the Wyoming Business Council, the state’s economic development agency.
The Joint Appropriations Committee (JAC) is in the midst of hammering out the draft budget bill that the full Legislature will amend and approve during the upcoming budget session in February. The biennial budget will decide how much each state agency, including UW, receives for the next two years.
UW officials already testified before the committee in December, requesting additional funds for coal research, athletics and other projects. They were “called back” for further questions Friday.
Representatives John Bear (R-Gillette), Ken Pendergraft (R-Sheridan) and Jeremy Haroldson (R-Wheatland), all members of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus, launched immediately into a discussion of UW’s course offerings.
“It's just come to my attention there's quite a bit of stuff out there that may be in conflict with what the people of Wyoming think the university would be training our young people towards,” Bear said, before turning over to Pendergraft.
The Sheridan rep proceeded to list several elective courses offered through UW’s Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources.
“I thought perhaps I would seek an undergraduate minor in sustainability,” Pendergraft said. “And if I were to do so … I would have my choice of the following: ‘Social Justice in the 21st Century,’ ‘Environmental ethics,’ ‘Global Justice,’ ‘Environmental Justice,’ ‘Environmental Sociology,’ ‘Food, Health and Justice,’ ‘Diversity and Justice in Natural Resources,’ or perhaps my favorite: ‘Ecofeminism.’ After I got through with that, I would be treated to such other courses as ‘Global Climate Governance’ and ‘Diversity and Justice in Natural Resources.’”
“I’m just wondering why these courses aren’t offered in Gillette,” he said.
Haub School Associate Dean Temple Stoellinger said at least one of those courses had already been canceled — “Diversity and Justice in Natural Resources,” which Pendergraft listed twice in his comment. She added students seeking a degree through the Haub School often pursue a concurrent major in another college.
“The remainder of the courses [you listed] are actually not Haub School courses,” Stoellinger said. “Those are courses that we just give students the option to take to fulfill the elective components of the minor.”
Bear responded.
“Unfortunately, what you've just described is something that is metastasizing, it sounds like, across the university,” he said. “So, President [Ed] Seidel, if you could just help me understand, is this really a direction that the university should be going?”
Seidel pointed to the Haub School’s efforts to support Wyoming tourism and other industries as evidence that it seeks to serve the state.
“I believe that the Haub School is a very strong component of the university, and I believe it is also responding to the times,” Seidel said. “But they're always looking to improve their curriculum and to figure out how to best serve the state, and I believe they do a good job of that.”
Bear returned to one of the courses Pendergraft had listed.
“How is ecofeminism helpful for a student who wants to stay in Wyoming and work in Wyoming?” he asked Seidel.
“I do not have an answer to that question,” the university president replied.
Stoellinger shared that the Haub School is largely funded by private donors, with about 20% or less of its funding, about $1.4 million, coming from the state.
Haroldson took aim at separate course offerings. Rather than listing specific courses, the Wheatland rep pointed to gender studies in general, saying his constituents “have kids that go to the university and then get degrees that don't work” and “don't have validity.”
“It's hard to defend you guys when we see these things come up, because these are the things that we’ve been fighting over the last couple of years,” Haroldson said. “[We’ve been] saying this isn't the direction that our publicly funded land-grant college should be pursuing, in my opinion and in the opinion of the people that have elected me, or a majority of them.”
He questioned how a graduate could make a career in Wyoming with a gender studies degree and asked Seidel why these courses were still being offered.
Seidel said the university was committed to keeping young people in Wyoming and that he viewed that mission as his primary job.
“And then we've also been restructuring programs,” he said. “Last year, the gender studies program was restructured. It’s no longer offered as a minor. There were not very many students in it at the time, and that was one of the reasons why … It's been part of the reform of the curriculum to re-look at: What does the state need and how do we best serve the state?”
UW canceled its gender studies bachelor’s degree track in 2025, citing low enrollment as the trigger. Gender studies courses are still offered and students may apply them toward an American Studies degree.
Seidel said the webpage where Haroldson found the gender studies degree listed might need to be updated. Haroldson said the state “sends enough money” to UW that having an out-of-date webpage was “absolutely unacceptable.”
“I would recommend and challenge you, when I make this search on Monday, I don't find it,” Haroldson said.
Interim Provost Anne Alexander clarified later in the hearing that the degree was still listed because, even though it’s been canceled, it is still being “taught out.” That means students who were already enrolled in the program when UW decided to ax it are being allowed to wrap up their degree.
“Once they are done, those will also no longer show up,” Alexander said. “But I've been chatting with my team on my phone, listening intently, and they are going to ensure that the program does not show up on the website as an option by Monday.”
In addition to the questions about course offerings, lawmakers also asked UW about its plans for an independent third-party financial audit of the work conducted at the High Bay Research Facility, the funding that passes through UW to Wyoming Public Media and how university leaders approach picking contractors for large construction projects, like the parking garage between Ivinson and Grand Avenues.
Mike Smith, the university’s lobbyist, told the committee UW prioritizes Wyoming contractors when possible.
“But there are those situations, and maybe the parking garage was one of them, where as the architects and builders are looking at: How do we set the criteria for that balance between using as many of those dollars here with Wyoming contractors, versus ensuring that the state gets its bang for the buck with the highest quality and lowest price,” Smith said. “Sometimes those things are balanced out.”
Church leaders and Wyoming Business Council
During public comment, faith leaders for Episcopal, Catholic and Methodist churches across the state warned lawmakers about churches taking more of a lead on mental health services.
In November, Wyoming Public Radio published a profile of chief appropriator Rep. John Bear (R-Gillette) on how he considers the relationship between religion and politics.
Bear referenced the story in his response to one faith leader, saying electeds don’t “legislate on theory or ideals, we legislate in the real world.”
He also said he never advocated that churches “take over” aspects of government, just for them to one day take a lead on things like mental health programs, SNAP and unemployment benefits.
Lawmakers also heard public comment defending the importance of the Wyoming Business Council.
On the other end of the spectrum, people asked for the council, and the state Department of Environmental Quality, to be defunded.
The JAC will begin work on the budget bill next week, deciding what funding to endorse or reject for every agency in the state government. The budget session starts Feb. 9.
