The University of Wyoming said it will follow the governor’s order and implement a hiring freeze, as well as try and find ways to return some money to the state.
Governor Matt Mead this week said that the state needs to cut up to 200 million dollars from its existing budget due to a revenue shortfall. He hopes to acquire 18 million dollars through leaving unfilled positions vacant.
UW Vice President for Governmental and Community Affairs Chris Boswell said UW has not been asked to cut a specific amount, but he added that the most like place to acquire money from any agency is building projects.
“Whether that’s a smart thing to do or not I don’t know, but that’s where at this point in a biennium you can perhaps come up with very significant dollar amounts.”
It would be a matter of either canceling or postponing work on construction projects. As for the next budget, Mead made it clear that UW won’t have all of its requests met. Boswell said that UW does not plan to change its priorities.
“I think the priorities in the UW budget request will remain there and they are listed in order of priority. I think we all understand that many of the exception requests that are being requested by the University are not going to be funded.”
Those priorities include a faculty and staff pay raise and further building projects. UW will meet with the governor and discuss current and future budgets in November.
