UW in the News

April 5, 2021

State, national and international media frequently feature the University of Wyoming and members of its community in stories. Here is a summary of some of the recent coverage:

Lawmakers last week restored $8 million in appropriations to both UW and the state’s community colleges, along with an additional $15.5 million for UW to buy a student housing complex. The Wyoming Tribune Eagle and The Casper Star-Tribune (CS-T) reported that Gov. Mark Gordon signed the overall supplemental budget. Yahoo! News, County 10 and The Rocket Miner published similar articles.

College Consensus ranked UW as the 23rd “Best Value Colleges and Universities for 2021.” Tuition costs were the main focus of the annual “Top 100 Most Affordable Consensus Ranked Schools 2021” list by the educational resource website.

UW and Casper College nursing students will help administer COVID-19 vaccines to Natrona County residents in a space provided by Casper mall officials, according to The CS-T.

The Cody Enterprise interviewed UW education Professor Allen Trent about the ramifications of Park County School District 6 eliminating full-time elementary art teachers in Cody. Trent has studied extensively on the benefits of how art education can be used in schools’ overall curriculum.

UW law Professor Michael Duff was interviewed for a Reuters article on Virginia passing a law making it easier for some health care workers who become ill with COVID-19 to collect medical expenses or lost wages. The law excludes health care workers who are offered a vaccine at work and refuse it. Duff also commented in a Law 360 article focusing on workers at an Alabama Amazon warehouse who voted last week to unionize. Both sides are expected to appeal the outcome.

SweetwaterNOW and WyoToday.com were among media outlets that published UW’s release announcing that all members of the university’s community are now eligible to be vaccinated for COVID-19, another major step toward a return to a traditional fall 2021 semester. All students are now eligible, reported Sheridan Media.

UW Associate Professor Ellen Currano was among scientists quoted in a New Scientist article that focused on the discovery that the asteroid that killed dinosaurs gave way to the development of the Amazon rainforest.

Mining.com reported that UW researchers are developing safe and secure geologic carbon dioxide storage in Campbell County. The process should eventually lead to the commercialization of large-scale subsurface storage near the Dry Fork Station.

Gabe Rozman, a UW senior research scientist, was among personnel from the Wyoming Game and Fish Department who recently collared deer in southwest Wyoming as part of a program to study the animals’ movements, according to The Uinta County Herald.

Denver Westword magazine cited the master’s thesis research of UW student Christian Lackner in an article about snowmaking. Lackner developed models analyzing potential impacts of climate change on the Rocky Mountain ski industry over the next 30 years. The Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology published Lackner’s study, conducted with UW Professor Bart Geerts and Yonggang Wang, a Texas Tech University assistant professor. Yahoo! News published a similar article quoting Geerts on cloud seeding.

UW’s Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources recently launched an innovative, noncredit online course for aspiring outdoor guides or enrichment for early-career guides. WyoToday.com published UW’s release.

The Wyoming Tribune Eagle published UW’s release noting that researchers will study soil health and factors that limit yield in high-elevation irrigated hay meadows in Wyoming and Colorado as part of a $500,000 U.S. Department of Agriculture grant.

A study from Christelle Khalaf, the associate director of UW’s Center for Business and Economic Analysis, and her colleague was cited in Energy News Network for an article, titled “Solar energy chasing nuclear capacity in Ohio, but lawmakers could slow its gains.”

EIN Presswire reported that Wyoming Game and Fish Department and UW researchers recently expanded their statewide ongoing research on bighorn sheep by capturing and collaring 14 animals from the Whiskey Mountain herd north of Pinedale. County 10 published a similar article.

A new pilot program, titled “Speak No Evil” that addresses race/racism, privilege and the current social atmosphere, was launched last weekend, The Laramie Boomerang reported. Fredrick Douglass Dixon, director of the UW Black Studies Center, and Ben Herdt, manager of academic advising for UW’s Advising, Career and Exploratory Studies, facilitate the program.

Reader’s Digest interviewed UW history Professor Renee Laegreid, who discussed why women were allowed to vote in Wyoming 50 years before the 19th Amendment.

A second computer science endorsement cohort at Northwest College is now open to local K-12 educators wishing to integrate computer science into their curricula, according to The Powell Tribune. It follows the governor’s Wyoming Innovation Network initiative, which calls for closer collaboration between UW and the state’s community colleges.

The Rocket Miner and Wyoming News Now published UW’s release noting that UW Extension is offering a five-day camp to teach about the challenges ranchers face during the Wyoming Ranch Camp next month near Evanston. The camp is open to recent high school graduates and college students.

Two “The World Needs More Cowboys” marketing campaign events are scheduled in Lovell and Worland later this month. Laramie Live published UW’s release on the announcement.

Wyoming Public Radio interviewed Don Jones, a UW assistant research scientist at the Wyoming Natural Diversity Database, for a segment on the various songs of migrating birds in the area.