UW Spokesman Denies Indoctrination Claims, Points To Survey

The possible impact of proposed budget cuts on University of Wyoming programs, whether UW is indoctrinating students in "Woke'' ideology, and how well the school is doing in training students for Wyoming industries were some of the topics covered in a Townsquare Media interview with University of Wyoming spokesman Chad Baldwin in a recent interview.

Baldwin appeared on Saturday on the ''Weekend in Wyoming'' program on am 650, KGAB.

The interview focused on potential cuts of to Governor Gordon's budget were approved by the Legislature's Joint Appropriations Committee in January. The proposed cuts include $40 million over two years from the state's block grant programs to the university. Another roughly $21 million was cut from money the university had asked for in the next biennial budget.

The legislature will convene in a budget session on Monday, February 9.

The $40 million would represent roughly 11 percent of the university budget. The Appropriations Committee specified that the College of Agriculture and the College of Education would be exempt from the cuts.

The cuts are being supported in the Legislature by the Freedom Caucus, a group of very conservative lawmakers in the Wyoming House. The caucus in general is calling for cuts in the size of government and in spending, with a goal of getting spending down to roughly the levels of before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Specific to UW, some caucus members feel the university is not doing a good enough job of  focusing on training students for the skills needed in Wyoming. Some caucus members also say the University has gone "woke" and doesn't align with Wyoming values.

Rep. Haroldson Cites ''Eco-Feminism" And ''Queer Theory"

Rep. Jeremy Haroldson, [R-Laramie, Platte counties] in a video posted on the Freedom Caucus Facebook page, says ''What we are finding is that the gender studies is still there. This is eco-feminism. This is queer-theory training for students... we are seeing a huge discrepancy between what parents are telling me and what we are seeing at the university."

He says students are being told they can get a job at a salary of $83,000 from the coursework "but I'm not seeing that."

Haroldson points out that the university is largely taxpayer funded, and says these types of courses are not what Wyoming taxpayers want to pay for.

Haroldson is Speaker Pro-Tempore of the Wyoming House of Representatives.

Baldwin: If UW Is Trying To Indoctrinate Students, We Aren't Doing It Very Well

But Baldwin says a recent national survey found the student body at UW is the 7th most conservative in the country. ''So if there is any attempt at indoctrination going on, it's not working very well." Baldwin adds that he has worked at UW for 14 years "And I haven't seen any kind of all-out attempt to indoctrinate anyone."

You can hear the entire Chad Baldwin Interview in the audio file below: