University President Ed Seidel joined ASUW President Allison Brown and ASUW Vice President Hunter Swilling as they opened themselves to questioning at the ASUW Town Hall on March 1, 2023.
Topics discussed included parking, student wages, block tuition, AI technology such as ChatGPT, a new taskforce to evaluate freedom of expression on campus, housing and dining fees, UW’s support for indigenous peoples, and changes to the Saddle-Up program.
While those in attendance were able to ask questions directly to the group of presidents, an event moderator also occasionally interjected with questions.
Officials from various university departments were also present. Multiple times throughout the event, Seidel would briefly answer a question, then redirect the question to those officials, who would then provide a more in-depth answer.
Seidel offered brief remarks at the opening of the meeting, expressing that he hopes to connect better with students.
“I’m just really eager to hear more from students and get to know you better,” Seidel said.
“So I’m also happy to be in this session or any other way to get suggestions from you on how to better engage.”
The first question asked was about parking on campus.
“Parking in relation to the entire campus master plan has been discussed a lot over the last five or more years, but many of you are sort of new to the conversation. So I just want you to know, it’s not like suddenly there’s a plan, but it’s really been developed over time,” Siedel said.
“I think we’re making a lot of progress in all of these issues.”
Seidel then invited Bill Mai, Vice President for UW Operations, to elaborate on the topic. Mai explained that the Ivinson Parking Garage will not open until well after the spring semester ends.
“[The parking garage] looks really good, but it doesn’t allow us to park yet. Under the rules that we work under with the city, we will not be able to park in that garage until the exterior is done,” Mai said.
“We’ve also had some supply issues and some labor shortage issues associated with the garage. Our hope was to have that open when you all returned in January, and of course that didn’t happen. We had further hope to be able to open it in February or March. It’s March. It’s not going to happen.”
Mai went on to explain there are no plans to extend the hours of the bus to the South Lot.
“Right now, the extended hours are about four additional hours going to the East Lot; as of right now we’re getting about 70 riders in those four hours. It’s a lot of expense, a lot of fuel burning to transport very different folks,” Mai said.
“So as of right now we do not have a plan to extend to the South.”
A student then stepped up and asked if the parking garage would be available for students.
“The answer right now is that we don’t have a definitive answer. But the intent is yes to make as much parking as we can available in that parking garage for student groups,” Mai said.
“We have to see how the various pieces of parking shake out around campus, but our hope is that we can provide significant student parking.”
Another student then explained that they struggle to make ends meet with the money they earn from their on-campus job. They asked if there were plans to increase the campus minimum wage.
Another department official explained that they are aware of the issue, but no formal plans have been made to do so. Brown then interjected to explain that ASUW has created an Ad Hoc Committee to address the issue.
“This semester, we formed a committee looking specifically at student wages and employment,” Brown said.
“It’s no secret that a lot of students on campus are being underpaid for positions that they can get much more for off-campus.”
Seidel answered a question regarding block tuition, explaining that it has been passed by the Board of Trustees and will be taking effect next semester.
It was followed by a question about AI such as ChatGPT.
“A committee was formed at the beginning of January, and they wrote a report, and I sent a communication out about it,” Seidel said.
“My personal attitude about this is that we should be encouraging faculty to experiment with different ways to use [AI software].”
The event moderator then asked a question about freedom of expression on campus.Seidel explained that he organized a new committee in January to investigate and propose ideas regarding freedom of expression on campus.
“I’ve been thinking a lot about freedom of expression on campus,” Seidel said.
“But I want us to take a hard look in the mirror and say, ‘Are we doing anything that suppresses views from any point of view on this campus?’ It’s very important that we are open to every point of view. That’s what makes a university campus great.”
Participants of the meeting spent the next portion discussing increases to housing and dining fees.
“We’re even constitutionally bound in the state of Wyoming to make sure that education is, ‘free as possible.’ And of course, an asterisk is around ‘as possible,’” Seidel said.
“There are, particularly around housing and dining, going to be increases. There has been a large inflationary pressure that’s hitting that market very, very hard.”
The conversation switched briefly to a discussion about recent changes to SafeRide’s operating hours. Paul Kunkel, Director of Transportation Services, explained the Transportation Services would not support running both the buses and SafeRide at the same time in the evenings due to budgetary reasons.
From there, a Native American student asked a question regarding UW’s treatment of Native students.
“I wouldn’t trivialize the land acknowledgement statement. I think it’s a starting point for more that we need to do. And I agree, we need to do more,” Seidel said.
The final question of the event was regarding planned changes to the Saddle Up program. Seidel briefly touched on the subject before referring the question to Kim Chestnut, Vice President for Student Affairs.
Chestnut explained that statistics gathered by the university show that retention rates among students who participated in Saddle Up are higher than those who did not. She also explained the most frequent complaint received about Saddle Up was that students did not have enough freetime.
Seidel then provided closing remarks, encouraging students to engage with university administration.
“I’m really open to suggestions on if you’d like to do this more often, if you’d like to do it in another format, if you’d like to do anything else that we’re not doing to communicate better,” Seidel said.
One thing some of you may not realize, if you just write me an email, and I can’t answer emails from 11,000 students in a week, but I usually try to get an answer back. I may miss it. I’m just inviting you to engage, and there’s nothing I like more than to meet with some students.”
Students can contact the Office of the President through email at uwpres@uwyo.edu.
