If approved, the University of Wyoming’s newest request for $54.65 million from the Legislature will be used to combat inflation in salary increases and utilities, as well as help complete construction projects.
“Inflation is a serious issue for people across the country and here,” Chad Baldwin, Associate Vice President, Communications & Marketing. “The hope is that it would help people be able to afford to deal with these increased costs of living.”
Of the estimated $14.5 million allocated to salary and wage increases, only full-time benefited employees that are not a part of self-sustaining auxiliary enterprises will benefit.
“This particular request is not for student employees because most of them are not full-time benefited,” Baldwin said. “Now, I know that generally, in the past, when there have been raises for benefited employees, there have been raises for non-benefited part-time employees, like student employees.”
Another $13 million will finish construction projects, including the Student Collaborative Research Outreach Learning Laboratory (SCROLL).
“Where SCROLL comes in is basically a subspace that will support several programs and become an incredibly transformative and really innovative space to support our research,” Mark Lyford, Executive Director of the Science Initiative programs, said.
Located on the fourth level of the new Science Initiative building, the 7,000-square foot space will be sectioned into four sections; offices, an active-learning classroom, a collaborative student center, and a lab.
“These labs would frankly be no different than the actual research labs,” Lyford said. “I’m doing what I’m doing because I had research opportunities in undergrad, so these spaces will give students the skills to be successful in many different areas.”
More specifically, these spaces will house each of the following programs: Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences, Wyoming Research Scholars Program, and Learning Actively Mentoring Program.
“Data shows time and time again that simply lecturing to students, as we’ve done for centuries, is not an effective way for students to learn. Instead, having them engage and learn through active learning is how students become much more successful,” Lyford said.
A portion of the money will also go towards completing some of the basement of the Science Initiative building, where more expensive, elaborate equipment will be stored, and animal research will be conducted.
“There’s a lot of overlap in what we want to do, and that’s our first step is reaching out to some of those other STEM departments,” Lyford said. “But I think the next step is, we know, and we should do for our students, is by reaching out to more and more disciplines to find those connections.”
The remaining 4 million dollars will be allocated to various listed expenses, including insurance, utilities, and UW extension programs.
“Part of our land grant mission of a university here is to serve our state, and the extension program, in particular, is dedicated to helping our rural communities,” Baldwin said.
