Tagged: University of Wyoming

The University of Wyoming Cowgirls Volleyball team believes that this could be their year.  18 years after their last NCAA tournament appearance and coming off two strong seasons, the Wyoming squad believes it will take a big step forward this year.  Wyoming Public Radio’s Bob Beck has more.

Noting that it’s been more than three years since employees last saw a pay hike, the University of Wyoming board of trustees has approved a supplemental budget request to resolve that situation.  

Trustees unanimously approved a request of more than five million dollars to allow U-W to provide merit-based pay hikes that would average around three-percent.     

The University of Wyoming just finished its second straight year raising over 40 million dollars in private donations.  U-W Foundation President Ben Blalock says the support the University gets from the state leads to donations from the public.

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The National Science Foundation announced today (Friday) that the University of Wyoming will receive a 20-million-dollar grant to study water resources in the state.  It’s the largest grant ever received by the University.   U-W Researcher Steve Holbrook says they hope to answer a number of water related questions and help future water managers.

Officials from the University of Wyoming dispute a recent report from the Institute For Competitive Workforce that pans college education in the state. The ICW is the nonprofit affiliation of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

After a three year wait the NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputing center is being pieced together as scientists get ready for what will be one of the fastest and significant computers in the world.  

Today workers in Cheyenne were busy putting the computers together.  Meanwhile, those affiliated with the project can hardly contain their excitement.  Marijke Unger will be among those running the facility.  She says it will study a range of things.

“And that spans everything from solar physics to ocean circulation models to climate simulations. ”

The presidents of the University of Wyoming and Colorado State University have reaffirmed plans to sell a 50,000-acre ranch in southeast Wyoming.

The University of Wyoming Foundation and Colorado State
University Research Foundation have jointly owned the Y Cross Ranch
since 1997.

UW President Tom Buchanan and CSU President Tony Frank met and
decided this week to move ahead with selling the ranch by sealed
bid, possibly later this year.

 The University of Wyoming says it will have to cut positions as part of its eight-percent budget cut sent to Gov. Matt Mead this week. 

The governor requested the proposed cuts because of concerns about a reduction in revenue due to falling gas prices.  They are for the budget that begins in July of 2013.  University Spokesman Chad Baldwin says with 75 percent of U-W’s budget tied to salaries, he says they have no choice but to cut some positions.

During Wyoming Public Radio’s relationship with UW’s Master of Fine Arts program, we have also acquired some people who wanted to learn to be public radio reporters.  Three people have joined us, including this next writer.  Irina Zhorov is an accomplished photographer who wanted to develop her writing skills.  She recently graduated from the M-F-A program.  When Irina came to Wyoming from Philadelphia she had questions about her new state.  Today she tells us about her conclusions in her “Letter to Wyoming.”

Earlier this year the Wyoming legislature set aside some 30 million dollars in matching money to help pay for a major upgrade in U-W’s College of Engineering.  With an anticipated cost of nearly 100 million dollars, it would be U-W’s most expensive building project.  The last major addition to the College occurred in 1980.  Right now labs are too small, classrooms are crowded and the front portion of the building has a distinct 1920’s flavor.  As Wyoming Public Radio’s Bob Beck reports…at a time when other building projects were occurring on campus…the chairman of the Senate Appropriations

     The University of Wyoming is joining other state agencies in trying to determine how it will trim eight percent from its budget.  U-W Provost Myron Allen says an eight percent cut most certainly means that some positions will have to be eliminated.  However, Allen says it’s still too early to say if U-W will have to eliminate degree programs.

“I’d prefer not to implement across the board reductions, so there probably be some programs that are hit a lot harder than others.  But whether we will have to eliminate some programs, I don’t know yet.”

A team of UW engineering students recently traveled to Alabama to compete in NASA’s annual moon buggy race. The race is for high school and college students who have designed and built non-motorized vehicles that resemble lunar rovers. Teams from all over the world participated, on a race course meant to resemble the surface of the moon. The winning moon buggies aren’t actually going to space, but as Wyoming Public Radio’s Willow Belden reports, the project is a major learning experience for the students.

A doctoral student at the University of Wyoming has developed a new method for producing and selling vegetables. The student’s name is Nate Storey, and he’s designed a growing system in one of the university’s greenhouses that requires no fertilizer, produces virtually no waste and yields four times as much produce as traditional greenhouse setups. Wyoming Public Radio’s Willow Belden reports.

The University of Wyoming Board of Trustees met today/Thursday to discuss a proposed tuition and fee increase that would begin this fall.   If passed, that option would bump up in-state tuition by 2% for the next two years. Non-residents could pay 4.5% more this fall. 

University of Wyoming Board of Trustees will discuss whether or not to increase tuition rates this week, with a final vote taking place on Friday. Under the proposal, in-state tuition would increase by 2%, while non-residents would pay 4% more this fall, and an additional increase of 2% the following year.

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Noted Wyoming author Mark Jenkins is currently writing stories for National Geographic.  He will be discussing a recent article called the Healing Fields, the legacy of war and the search for Miss Landmine Cambodia during a lecture in Laramie on February 27ths at five in the UW classroom building.  Jenkins will also make some additional appearances in the state.  He talks with Bob Beck.