Former University of Wyoming President Ed Seidel ran the state’s land-grant flagship university for six years. On his final day at the helm, Seidel reflected on his tenure.
He came to UW in the summer of 2020 amid a global pandemic. He had interviewed for the job back in March, days before the pandemic hit Wyoming and shut down much of the country.
“With all the interview questions, I didn’t get a single question on ‘How would you handle a global pandemic?’ or ‘How would you handle what might be a $50 million budget cut?’” Seidel said. “And yet, those were the first two things I really encountered coming in.”
Seidel said he was determined to take a scientific approach. That wasn't always easy, he said, because the state was not very receptive to public health recommendations like closures, masking, testing, or vaccines.
“It was a hard start, and I thought, ‘Well, if I can make it through this, I can make it through anything,’” he said. “And actually, I feel pretty good about how we did manage it all.”
Seidel also came to UW during a time of declining enrollment. Throughout his six years as president, UW's student headcount never really recovered, falling by about 1,000 students. Seidel said UW is fighting a national trend, driven by declining birth rates and shifting views about the value of a college education.
“We have declined a little bit, but not very much,” he said. “I think we're going to keep pushing very, very hard in the future on enrollment. And I think we have a really good value proposition for people. I think we’ll at least be one of those universities that does pretty well in spite of declining numbers of students that are available.”
But the university’s student body today is about 9% less than when Seidel got here and about 20% less than it was a decade ago. That drop is partially responsible for the $15 million shortfall in this year’s university budget. Seidel said UW is pushing hard to boost retention, and it’s going big on internships and experiential learning. But he said hard choices about what to keep and what to jettison will have to be made by the next president.
“Can we continue to offer the same number of programs?” he said. “I don't think so.”
Other indicators show UW’s health trending upward. One area is research. Five years ago, UW was doing $90 million in research. Last year, it more than doubled that to $193 million. In 2025, UW also became a Carnegie R1 research university. Seidel said that’s a boon for both graduate and undergraduate students alike.
“It also provides funding for faculty summer salaries, so it allows us to have more support for faculty,” he said. “The university is now visible to funding agencies, so it makes us more credible if we write a proposal to a funding agency that says, ‘That’s a Carnegie R1 university.’ That gives us just a little more credibility and a little more pizzazz in writing a proposal and getting attention.”
In 2023, UW outlined its commitment to political neutrality and free speech and started promoting civic dialogue on campus. Seidel said the status of free speech has changed pretty significantly during his time here.
“We’ve become a leader at a national level,” he said. “That’s helped us, for example, navigate what turned out to be sometimes violent and ugly demonstrations on other campuses.”
The University of Wyoming, like many colleges, faced accusations that its instructors were advocating for liberal or more radical politics in the classroom.
“There was a sense that we, as a university campus, are more liberal, and maybe that’s true,” Seidel said. “But there was a sense by quite a few people that not only the University of Wyoming but potentially any campus is so liberal that they don’t allow conservative voices on the campus. When I started hearing these kinds of things, at first I thought, ‘Well, that doesn’t ring true.’ But then I thought, ‘Well, let’s just do a real look in the mirror.’”
Seidel said there could have been isolated incidents of discrimination against conservative viewpoints, but nothing widespread or systemic.
“I think it was largely perception,” he said. “But I think it’s been a healthy exercise to go through it. I think we were able to raise, overall, the level of dialogue and understanding, particularly of the First Amendment and the Constitution.
However, at the same time this free speech work was occurring on campus, state lawmakers banned diversity programs at UW and took aim at specific courses they wanted UW to cancel.
The question could be asked, “How can one say there’s free speech on campus when, for example, UW can no longer legally host its long-running Women in STEM conference?”
Seidel said UW is “navigating that” by no longer “singling out particularly narrow groups.”
The politicians who banned diversity programs said those programs discriminated against the groups they weren’t tailored for. The new anti-diversity rules also prohibit UW from supporting the Youth Latina Conference, and they’ve ended the Black 14 Summer Institute. UW also closed an on-campus multicultural center.
“It’s not about free speech,” Seidel said. “It’s just about what kind of programming can we offer. So someone can still say, ‘Oh, I think we ought to be able to have Women in STEM programs.’ I might, as just an individual, say that. I’m not saying that as the university president because we’re declaring ourselves to be a neutral organization. But I think there are different approaches over time to: How do you ensure that different groups are able to participate in academic programs or any other kinds of programming?”
Seidel’s six years in university administration saw several high-profile removals and demotions. UW lost celebrated leaders in the College of Health Sciences, and then the dean. There was the abrupt ouster of Seidel's provost in 2024, and then a few months later, another abrupt ouster, this time of the engineering dean. Seidel said he tried to avoid those firings but said he needed to maintain high standards.
“Sometimes there are also just clashes of style or personality,” Seidel said. “And there are people that may work well in one environment, but just don't work as well in a particular [other] environment. So we’ve looked at all of those things.”
He said he stands by the various ousters and demotions.
“I don’t believe that I would back off on any of the decisions that had been made on any of the changes,” Seidel said.
Frustrated faculty said the administrative upheaval that happened under Seidel showed UW had a culture of secrecy. The outgoing leader said that perception was unavoidable, given laws and other rules around executive session discussions and employee privacy.
“One of the hardest parts of this job is that you’d love to explain some things, but you’re just not able to,” he said. “You just don’t go into the details of these things because people’s careers and livelihoods are at stake.”
In a campus-wide email before his departure, Seidel shared that he’s been dealing with a recent diagnosis of prostate cancer. He decided to step down before that diagnosis, but it made him glad he did. He said he’s also looking to spend more time with his family, but he’ll be sticking around and has plans to teach a history of science class at UW next spring,
“I wanted to have more time for myself and my family. That was the fundamental driver of my deciding to step down,” Seidel said. “But I’m not ready to hand it all in.”
Seidel’s six-year term ended June 30th. Shane Reeves officially became UW’s 29th president the next morning.
