The University of Wyoming Board of Trustees met in the Union for the first time this semester. As the placement of the board meeting in the Union family room deviates from their usual meeting place in the Marian H. Rochelle Gateway Center.
Location changes where the result of an expected sizable public involvement on the some agenda items
The trustees started off the November session on Wednesday, November 16, with the board’s subcommittee meeting throughout the day.
Thursday, November 17, was the bulk of the actual board model hearings and considered motion-like items such as Chick-Fil-A, Saddle-Up, and further updates on the drafted university strategic plan.
Hearings on the possibility of Chick-Fil-A on the UW Laramie campus continued with a presentation of survey data from UW Business Enterprise and Associated Student of the University of Wyoming (ASUW) Student government.
As earlier in the semester a UW Dining Services survey polled from 4,021 students showed that Chick-Fil-A had a 67.6 percent approval rate among provided options.
During questioning from the Board of Trustees, the UW Business Enterprise team would reveal that a potential 90 percent of revenue profits would remain at the university.
The student government survey polled from a smaller number of 1,136 that 85.66% of students support the idea of a Chick-Fil-A coming to campus.
Survey data was not the only thing that the student government brought as ASUW President Allison Brown was backed by ASUW Senate Resolution #2835.
The resolution included three main statements from the student representatives: ASUW supports the majority of students opinion on the comings of Chick-Fil-A on campus, the Board of Trustees should take into account the harm to certain student populations, and that a certain amount of profits from the possible future vendor should be made available to those groups to counteract said harm.
Chairman Trustee John McKinley reminded the ASUW President of standing motions of end of year spending rules that at the current state, go to a sinking fund to retire bonds issurance on the new student dining and residence hall facilities.
“On one hand we accept and recognize your suggestion form ASUW, but probably the better avenue to address those budget issues would be through the ASUW process or the university wide budget process if ASUW sees a need that certain funds be directed to certain areas” said Chairman McKinley.
During debate, several trustees mentioned concerns they had with the original proposal that would later be rested after the presentation of the survey data and conversation with the UW community.
“I, too, was concerned about this when it was first introduced to us and have had the great opportunity to learn from my children and had a great debate about this and, I want to recognize and acknowledge ASUW their recommendations and feel quite comfortable supporting this,” said trustee Michelle Sullivan
With the conversation and student opinion in mind ,the Board of Trustees approved the provided business enterprise Chick-Fil-A UW contract unanimously.
It is still unclear at this time the exact timeline of the fast food chain joining the UW and Laramie communities in the UW Union.
When it came to the updates on the Saddle-Up program, the newly implemented freshman orientation program that occurred in the fall of 2022, the board seemed to have much more divided opinion.
The planning for Saddle-Up 2023 has already begun before the program’s effect on student retention has been quantified.
The Saddle-Up team, led by Provost Carman, did offer some items they were working on to improve the program including: limiting confusion with class offerings, longer lunch times, changing move in times, and the removal of the Adulting 101 class.
In conversation with the board, the Saddle-Up team did mention that quantifying the data of the program’s effectiveness on increasing the student retention rate between academic years would be difficult due to other student support programs starting within the same time period as Saddle-Up. It was also mentioned that the recent and ongoing pandemic has affected higher education retention rates across the nation, which would be another variable to take in.
The board, in one of its last key topics for students, held a forum for updates and questions for upper administration on the update on the creation of UW’s next strategic plan that started in the Spring of 2022.
The UW strategic plan entails the University’s goals, vision, objectives, values, and proposition every four-six years.
Although major applause was given to the upper administration team for codifying and solidifying this document to its current state, there was still major discussion on one of the stated values supporting engagement with tribal communities.
As the specific line of discussion in the drafted strategic plan stated, we value “Our partnership and engagement with thriving Wyoming and tribal communities in the creation and exchange of knowledge and resources.”
“It’s not that I object to any specific reference of the tribal communities, however, why not at this point reference the LGBTQIA + communities, the energy community,” said trustee Dave True.
“My fear is that by inclusion of a single group you are naturally excluding all other groups.”
Further comments from the trustees included debate on the addition, replacement, rewording, or protection of the language and inclusion of the tribal community with other phrasing such as ‘Wyoming values.’
“I think the needle that we are trying to thread here by including tribes is the acknowledgment of the geopolitical realities of sovereign nations,” said Provost Kevin Carman. “Not necessarily viewing themselves as Wyoming, per say, proud to be in Wyoming but its recognition somehow that there is a sovereign nation that is involved here as opposed to just the state of Wyoming.”
The upper administrative team, led by Provost Carman, in response to the trustee comments, stated they would review the wording and possibly find a different place on the document to acknowledge the Native American population.
The Board of Trustees concluded the November session on Friday 18 with a series of reports from the UW stakeholders and senates with the board to reconvene on December 14.
Why would True have a problem with naming the tribal communities specifically in the strategic plan? We have a lot of repairing to do between UW and our Native communities. We should acknowledge that more, if anything, not less.