Budget Cuts Of UW Programs Lead To Spending On New Programs

Last week we reported that The University Of Wyoming (UW) would be cutting $42 million, the university had to cut another $13 million- 75 jobs would be lost.

UW went on to explain how they plan to consolidate a number of departments, and shifting science and math programs from the College of Arts and Sciences to the Colleges of Engineering and Agriculture.

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But at the same time, UW plans to expand in other areas. President Ed Seidel spoke about making the university more attractive to potential students.

"So we're going to have to be more competitive and brand ourselves effectively in order to attract the students that we want and we will need to grow our enrollment somewhat," said Seidel. "We, of course, want not to lose our superpower of being small and intimate, but we're gonna have to grow our enrollment a little bit to maintain and grow critical mass in certain areas," Mr. Seidel said.(Wyoming Public Media).

This means that some of the money saved by the cuts will then be spent launching three focused initiatives to make the university attractive to students and donors, and maybe even corporate sponsors.

Mr. Seidel hopes to launch a School of Computing. He hopes the school will create jobs in the state.

"[It will] include a computer science for all components in the University Studies Program. It'll have a bachelor's degree with many tracks and minors that will allow students in all disciplines to get the needed 21st-century computing skills, as well as down the road masters and Ph.D. programs," said UW Math Professor Bryan Shader

Tourism will be another focus of the money shift.

"The state share of total GDP that is the total production in the economy is about 4.2 percent. If you were to compare that to energy, it's much smaller. Fossil fuels, for example, are almost 25 percent of GDP. But that is the second-largest sector and it can be much larger," said UW Economist Rob Godby

Finally, building entrepreneurism. UW wants to introduce this idea to freshmen and have them thinking about entrepreneurship during their time in college, according to Steve Farkus at the Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation.

Gov. Mark Gordon told the UW trustees that he strongly approves of the efforts. (WPM).