WORLAND — Little feedback on proposed cuts at the University of Wyoming is “not a bad thing,” according to a local trustee.

David Bostrom, a UW trustee whose term ends in 2019, said that while he has not received direct feedback on either the proposed cuts of 16 degree programs or the budget reduction plan outlined last week, he feels that shows the Wyoming residents have confidence in the trustees.

“What it says is that the people around the state have confidence, and maybe even faith in what the university is doing, what the state is doing and what the governing bodies are doing. We’re doing the best we can and the solutions the administration are coming up with appear to be the right decisions,” Bostrom said.

He said he has received some informal feedback as he’s visited with people on the street or events. “As a whole the attitude is one of well, the state’s gone through it, we don’t have as much tax revenue so that university is going to have to do the same thing. I think it’s probably an acceptance of the reality we are faced with.”

Degree program analysis

However, he noted he is a little bit surprised that the trustees overall have not received much comment on the analysis of degree programs. “The university to me, because of who we are, we are the only state-supported, land grant, doctrinal-granting institution supported by the state, that puts on a responsibility to try to do all things for all people, that’s horribly expensive.”

After initiating academic degree program reviews in March, the University of Wyoming is considering elimination of six low-enrollment bachelor’s degrees, eight master’s degrees and two doctoral degrees.

The recommendations also include proposals to consolidate or reconfigure several academic units, including the American Studies Program, the Department of Statistics, the Department of Philosophy, the Department of Religious Studies, and the Science and Mathematics Teaching Center.

Under UW Regulation 6-43, the recommendations are open for comment from UW faculty, staff, students and other interested parties through Nov. 19. The faculty, staff and student senates then will have the opportunity to provide responses by Jan. 27. Provost Kate Miller plans to review the responses, weigh them and make her final recommendations by Feb. 26 to President Laurie Nichols, who will offer recommendations to the UW Board of Trustees.

Bachelor’s degrees recommended for elimination are: American studies, Russian, energy systems engineering, art education, modern language education and technical education.

Master’s degrees recommended for elimination are: French, German, neurosciences, philosophy, food science and human nutrition, sociology, environmental engineering, and adult and postsecondary education.

Ph.D. programs that would be eliminated are: adult and post-secondary education, and statistics.

The provost’s recommendations follow two rounds of reviews of 56 programs: undergraduate majors with fewer than 50 graduates total from 2010-15; master’s programs with fewer than 25 graduates from 2010-15; and other programs requested for review by deans.

Bostrom said with the changing economic times, the university has to look at different ways of doing things. He said one thing that will be looked at is potentially developing more partnerships that mirror the WWAMI (Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and Idaho) program, where medical students get their basic education at the University of Wyoming or their state institution and then transfer to Washington State to complete the degree. He said there are things that Wyoming does well that other colleges could send students to finish degrees.

As for the process of analyzing the degrees, Bostrom said, “I think the process is the most important part and I didn’t used to think that.” He said the process wasn’t from the top down but rather involved deans and professors. “It’s not something where there was a target put on any program … it’s a matter of look at your programs, determine what they do, their value to the students, their value to the state and how do we go about doing a better job of managing our resources. If it becomes necessary to consolidate programs or eliminate programs what should we do from inside. So I think the process was marvelous. I think Laurie Nichols (president of UW) did a great job in managing that process and determining what do you want to do not what do I (Nichols) want to do or the board of trustees want to do, but what does the institution want to do.”

He said the process looked at the entire institution. He said the process is just a start in that every program, academic and non-academic, should be reviewed periodically “to be certain that our mandate by the (Wyoming) Constitution to provide the best education possible at the lowest cost possible is being achieved. How do you do that if you don’t analyze all the programs on an on-going basis.”

Bostrom noted that while the university is looking at making cuts, the president has expressed a desire to add a program in the hospitality area because it is something that fits Wyoming.

Budget reduction

Following the recommended degree cuts, the University of Wyoming issued a budget reduction plan from the Financial Crisis Advisory Committee.

Bostrom said, “Part of our budget reduction plan is looking at what we can do to control costs, to better focus the institution, but part and partial to that is what additional revenue opportunities do we develop on our own so that we are prepared to fund necessary things without asking the state for more and more money because there just isn’t very much money left.” Some of that additional revenue is seeking more private donations.

He said there are areas of importance that the state will have to consider funding including the tier one engineering effort and science initiative.

According to the plan, the budget reductions are a result of a drop in the university’s state block grant, driven by Wyoming’s economic downturn and loss of state government revenue. In the biennium that began July 1, UW has lost nearly $41 million in state funding.

The plan for the fiscal year that begins July 1, 2017, would result in about $10 million in permanent reductions. Already implemented for the current fiscal year are $19.3 million in reductions — to be carried through the second year of the biennium and beyond — achieved largely through the elimination of 102 vacant positions ($6 million), hiring fewer part-time and adjunct instructors ($2.7 million) and across-the-board cuts ($7 million).

A retirement and separation incentive, which produced about 50 additional staff and faculty vacancies, is expected to save a total of $7 million over the biennium.

Under the new plan for FY 2018, another separation incentive would be offered, this one targeting faculty members with at least 15 years’ service. The goal is $4 million in savings, with $2 million of that returned to the Office of Academic Affairs for hiring new faculty members in high-priority areas.

In addition, about 15 faculty and staff vacancies that have come open since the FY 2017 reductions would be eliminated, saving an estimated $750,000.

A total of just under $6 million would be cut through allocations to units across campus: Academic Affairs ($2.05 million), the Division of Administration ($1.31 million), the Department of Athletics ($1 million), Information Technology ($500,000), the Division of Student Affairs ($300,000), the Office of General Counsel ($215,000), the President’s Office ($191,340), the UW Foundation ($175,000), the Office of Research and Economic Development ($80,532) and the Office of Governmental and Community Affairs ($100,000).

The Academic Affairs reduction breaks down to $475,000 for the College of Arts and Sciences, $350,000 for the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, $150,000 for the College of Business, $110,000 for the College of Education, $125,000 for the College of Engineering and Applied Science, $150,000 for the College of Health Sciences, $75,000 for the College of Law, $500,000 for the Outreach School and $110,000 for UW Libraries.

Bostrom said while athletics are not addressed in this plan, as it looks at the academic portion of the university, the athletics department has also had to make similar budget cuts. He said the athletics department has an advantage over the rest of the university in that it appears to do a better job in the area of private fundraising. For example, he said the High Altitude Performance Center, that has wide support across the state, and with the governor and legislators, received $20 million of state funding and $24 million of private funding.

“We have to do a better job of private fundraising so we can become less reliant on public support,” Bostrom said, adding however, that as the only land-grant university in the state, UW will continue to receive significant state support but it may not be as much as past years because “they just don’t have the money.”

People are encouraged to email their comments and ideas to [email protected] or they can contact a trustee member, including Bostrom.