University of Wyoming President Ed Seidel was at a gas station filling his car some days ago when a stranger approached him. “Wow, you guys really did it,” Seidel recalled the person saying to him. “Congratulations!”  The stranger’s words came after a hand-wringing legislative session for the university. As the session began, the school faced the prospect of major cuts and possible layoffs. Weeks earlier, lawmakers on the state’s budgeting committee voted to ax almost $61 million from the governor’s recommendation for UW funding, including $40 million — almost 11% — of the school’s block grant.  But after a marathon of debate and negotiation, lawmakers ultimately restored most of the funding to levels originally recommended by Gov. Mark Gordon.  “I maybe breathed a little sigh of relief,” Seidel told WyoFile during an interview in his office Monday, “but I was always hopeful that we’d be able to do it.” Even as lawmakers upped their scrutiny of UW, Seidel has historically avoided publicly commenting on the day-to-day affairs of the Wyoming Legislature. “I’ve often wanted to say a lot more than I say,” he said. But as a relative newcomer to Wyoming, Seidel explained, he’s still trying to understand how people in the state might hear and react to certain statements. “I’ve been kind of cautious about speaking out about things, and for good reasons, I think, over the years. But this time just felt different.”  Seidel felt he needed to take a different approach in responding to the proposed cuts. He consulted with board members. “We’re like, ‘OK, let’s do it. We’re going to be much more vocal.’”  Two days after the budgeting committee voted for the $61 million cuts, Seidel sent out a campus-wide email addressing the panel’s actions. He and UW Interim Provost Anne Alexander also wrote op-ed pieces that were published and circulated in various media outlets.  The school’s funding then took a winding journey through the Legislature. Senate lawmakers voted immediately to restore most of the governor’s funding recommendations for the school. The House, meanwhile, went back and forth, settling on a budget that put half of the block grant back on the table with caveats.  Seidel traveled to the Capitol multiple times a week during these debates. He attended receptions and met in the hallways with any lawmaker who wanted to talk. Alexander, Governmental Affairs and Community Engagement Vice President Mike Smith and several UW deans also spent time there.  As the session neared its end, the small group of House and Senate lawmakers tasked with forming a unified budget landed on a surprisingly swift deal that restored most of the governor’s recommendations. Both chambers approved this final proposal.  “I’m thrilled with the budget outcome in so many ways,” Seidel told WyoFile. “We, I think, gained a lot of momentum as a university, because so many people across the state spoke out on our behalf.”  According to Seidel, this included donors, alumni and people working for the university, some of whom also wrote op-eds and reached out directly to their local state representatives. Seidel said lawmakers told him that this outreach “really made the difference.”  The final state budget for UW included some requirements in the form of footnotes. Lawmakers opted to keep a caveat in the unified budget that requires the school to use some of its state money to review its “organizational structure and staffing patterns,” identify positions and degree programs that could be eliminated and “recommend opportunities to further restrict any diversity, equity and inclusion” programming.  Seidel said he welcomed these provisions, adding that the school is already “really on exactly all the things in those footnotes.”  “I mean, we’re constantly having meetings on these things.”  He pointed to the large text-filled whiteboards on his office walls.  “If you look at my whiteboard there, I’m sure you’ll see things about efficiencies. One of them will say, ‘low-enrolled programs.’ That’s two years old. That’s one of my top priorities. In fact, over there are all of the priorities from the strategic plan, so that I never forget them. It’s the closest to my desk.”  Seidel said he’s “kind of glad” to see these directives stated explicitly in the footnotes, because they will “just give an extra push to finding those efficiencies.”  Another footnote would have required UW to submit a $5 million cost savings and reinvestment plan to the governor and state budgeting committee or risk losing $10 million in state funding, but Gordon vetoed the provision. The positive outcome for UW’s state funding comes at a time of precarity for universities across the nation as politicians have turned an increasingly critical eye to institutions of higher learning, often airing their grievances in the public sphere. “Everybody’s under a lot of stress right now, because just the whole nation is really in some turmoil around higher education,” Seidel said.   UW hasn’t escaped this turmoil. Lawmakers have scrutinized the state’s lone four-year public university, taking aim in particular at its diversity, equity and inclusion programming. Last budget session, lawmakers passed a directive barring the school from using any state money for its Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion or on any other diversity, equity and inclusion programming. UW’s Board of Trustees subsequently backed Seidel’s recommendation to close the office and reassign staff. The outlook for university leaders is also bleak. According to the American Council on Education’s latest survey of university presidents, the average tenure of presidents dropped from 8.5 years in 2006 to 5.9 years in 2022. “Higher education is a tough gig right now, and being president is the toughest of the tough gigs,” Seidel said.  Seidel, who took the helm as UW’s president in 2020, is himself stepping down from the position in June, following a no-confidence vote by the faculty senate last year. He will stay at the university as a faculty member.  The school is in the process of choosing a new president. Three finalists for the job will be invited to campus next week, Seidel said. He had worried that the proposed budget reductions, if instituted, might make it more difficult to recruit a new president. But the session’s outcome left him with a more positive outlook for the school’s next leader.  “Actually, I think it’s a pretty good situation for a new president to come into,” Seidel said. “And whoever the final candidates are, I’m going to tell them all that it’s a great place, and they’ve got a lot of momentum now. So if you’re picked, please come.” The post After budget battle, Seidel looks optimistically to University of Wyoming’s future appeared first on WyoFile . ...read more read less