Wyoming is facing massive budgetary cuts in the upcoming Legislature, and University of Wyoming is no exception. But, UW is ready to “cowboy up” and address the pending challenges ahead by increasing efficiency and making the college more attractive to new students and faculty.

The University of Wyoming originally requested $160 million, but Gov. Matt Mead trimmed it down to $60 million in his budget recommendations in December.

About $39 million of those funds will go toward building the facilities that will house the programs the Legislature previously requested and approved, said UW President Dick McGinity.

Other portions include $6 million for a fiscal system to help track the university’s spending, $8 million for athletic competitiveness and $11.5 million for an entrepreneurship program.

Just like how the rest of the state is gearing up for budget reductions, or even the elimination of programs, the university is evaluating its degree programs to see which ones are justified in terms of demand and quality, McGinity said. Basically, if a field of study only has a few students enrolled in it, then it’s not very cost effective to provide that program.

“Broadly speaking, the university badly needs an institution-wide accounting and control system,” McGinity said, noting the school has never had one before. “The administrative management of the university must get much more disciplined than it has been.”

Without this fiscal and accounting system, the university is unable to manage, track and plan its spending with the precision it would like, he said.

McGinity and UW trustee David Bostrom came to the Big Horn Basin last week as part of their effort to strategize with legislators and community college presidents across the state. 

“People feel a disconnect because Laramie is far away,” Bostrom said. “We want to let people know we are all available.”

 It's not just a game

It costs $33 million per year to keep the UW athletic program running, McGinity said. About $12-13 million comes from the state and the rest is from donors and outside sources.

“A competitive athletics program draws a lot of visibility to the university,” McGinity said. “It is a measure of the university’s relevance to the state and the nation.”

Investing in athletics is a catalyst for overall improvement at the university — as the athletic program improves, the number of applications to enroll at UW increases, Bostrom said.

“Athletics is the billboard of the university,” Bostrom said. “Look at the pride people take and the distances people travel to go to events at UW. The interest has grown through athletic success.”

The cost-benefit calculations are complicated, but improved athletics also leads to improved fundraising efforts, McGinity said.

“The university belongs to the people of the state and the people of the state have said ‘we would like our university to be competitive in athletics,’” McGinity said, adding the athletic scholarships are only given to prospective athletes with an interest in academics.

Salary increases

A university is only as good as the education it provides, and that means hiring and retaining the best possible professors to teach there. But, UW is competing on a global-scale for educators and it currently pays 10-15 percent below the average faculty position of its peer universities, McGinity said.

“Any time there is a request to increase salaries for a group of people, there is always the comparison back to the remaining folks who live in Wyoming, but that is not the market UW competes in for faculty and research,” Bostrom said. “It is an international market and we are well below our competitor institutions.”

Pay increases for university faculty have been on the school’s priority list for years, McGinity said. But, UW employees are also state employees and there is a hiring freeze in place for all state agencies.

Now the university is looking internally, evaluating programs and trying to find ways of being more efficient, McGinity said.

“We still have a responsibility to those students to be educated through whatever mechanism we can create,” Bostrom said.

But, this process is complicated because programs are integrated within the university and with community colleges across the state.

Fortunately, the new president of the university, Laurie Nichols, has been through this before.

“The new president, which the trustees in their wisdom found, has firsthand experience in every significant issue the university faces today, including the fiscal ones,” McGinity said. “The future is challenging, but we have a great start of making the university even better than it has been in spite of the fiscal challenges we face.”