When the University of Wyoming unveiled its “The World Needs More Cowboys” slogan in 2018, liberals howled.
You’ll surely remember that some faculty members, including the UW “Committee on Women and People of Color,” wrote to campus administrators begging them to shelve it, citing concerns of racism, sexism, and xenophobia.
One professor told the press that the term “cowboy” conjures up a “white, macho male image” and would be perceived as not welcoming.
Thankfully, UW leadership back then stayed the course. Because at the end of the day, the slogan is true. The world needs more cowboys. But does UW’s current administration agree?
Because all that begs the question of what kind of Wyoming we want to live in -- a Wyoming of cowboys, or a Wyoming of gender-fluid, eco-feminist gender studies majors?
I don’t think that is a tough question for most Wyomingites to answer.
Recent reporting, confirmed by UW’s own university publications, raises many questions regarding the university’s commitment to its core mission.
In recent years, the legislature has taken steps to root out the cultural Marxist rot from the University.
But despite a statutory ban on discriminatory DEI, UW administration has continued offering “woke” racist courses in defiance of the law, the university’s land grant mission, and above all, the wishes of the people of Wyoming.
Wyomingites support our university for what suits Wyoming, not what liberal east coast elites and professors wish it would be.
According to the Morrill Act, the University of Wyoming is to provide practical education to its students. A glance through the university’s own catalogue demonstrates that rather than heed the warnings of elected state leaders, the University has opted instead for mere “rebranding,” and not the cowboy kind.
Rather than, as indicated by legislation, eliminate the School of Culture, Gender, & Social Justice, administrators produced a fig leaf rebrand into the “American Cultural Studies” department.
It is apparent that the current administration has done nothing to eliminate impractical (and woke) degree tracks. They apparently prefer a Wyoming of gender queer theory over a Wyoming true to the code of the West.
We live in a world of limited resources and limited tax revenues. That means choices must be made, even by the University.
Instead of preparing young men and women for high-paying jobs in Wyoming, studies of eco-feminism and research in “whiteness” is sending our students off to places like Boston, Massachusetts or San Francisco, California.
And anticipating the protest chorus about “free speech” and “academic freedom”, let me say this – speech is free, college is not.
As to academic freedom to teach cultural Marxist drivel on the taxpayer’s dime?
I suggest that those who want such freedom head for one of the very fine privately-funded colleges or universities in this nation of ours where such garbage is encouraged.
Wyoming’s university is obligated to do more than that -- to deliver an educated, prepared workforce to brighten and broaden our future. And that it shall.
College has taken a popularity hit because people want education without indoctrination.
Wyomingites love UW because, as the 2018 marketing package suggests, in Wyoming we buck the system. We have no need to become a high-altitude Berkeley.
A great deal of commotion has arisen in response to our Appropriation Committee’s (JAC) cuts to UW’s block grant.
Some say, “There is no fat to cut at UW.” The mere continued existence of worthless degree programs exposes the truth – there is fat to cut.
Besides that, as enrollments have dropped, administrative spending has grown. Instead of eager 18-year-olds, some dorm buildings now house a growing UW staff. Yet UW administrators brazenly continue to defy the law by maintaining DEI under an assumed identity.
We cut to remove waste, rot, and woke from UW. This is because we are listening to the people who love UW, who attended UW, who sent their kids and grandkids to UW.
They want a university that reflects Wyoming and its values, not the values of leftist elites on our coasts.
I implore the UW board of trustees and administrators to join me, as they determine how to spend the block grant from Wyoming taxpayers, in fighting to preserve the land grant mission, to continue to educate students in curricula that will prepare them to contribute to society and Wyoming.
Together, we can do it the Wyoming way.
Respectfully,
John Bear, Representative
Wyoming House District 31
Chairman, House Appropriations Committee
