Wyoming
University of Wyoming trustees keep President Seidel, form committee to address turmoil – WyoFile
Rising furor over the controversial demotion of a University of Wyoming engineering dean has brought the state’s only public four-year university to a tipping point.
Academic leaders, donors and others decried the demotion as emblematic of a culture of top-down and inscrutable decision making by the UW Board of Trustees and President Ed Seidel.
Twelve college deans signed a letter expressing “deep concern for the trajectory” of the university — citing the dean’s demotion and mounting pressures on academic freedom.
And on Monday, the faculty senate overwhelmingly delivered a vote of no confidence in Seidel, the first such vote in recent memory.
The outrage appeared strong enough to threaten Seidel’s leadership. Professors and deans expressed hope for lasting change to leadership that, according to the faculty senate, has driven the departure of talented academics and made replacing them difficult — ultimately threatening the learning experience for students.
The gravity of the moment was not lost on Seidel, he told the trustees Tuesday morning, reading from a written statement before they entered a closed-door meeting without him.
“How we handle this pivotal moment is important for the future of the institution,” Seidel said, “which is clearly facing a crisis.”
After an hour and a half behind closed doors, the board reemerged and issued its response. They will form a committee to study the issue.
The committee will include two trustees, and most likely one faculty member, one staff member, one student government member, Seidel and the provost, board chairman Kermit Brown said. “That committee will be charged with working on communications and working on ideas to more fully engage shared governance in the university,” he said.
Neither a timeline nor the new committee’s authority were discussed. The trustees are also crafting a “formal statement,” Brown said, “with regard to the current state of affairs and the work of the [new] committee.” That press release will be vetted by the university’s legal department before its release, trustees said.
The trustees had not published the statement by 6 p.m. Tuesday.
The trustees did not raise the prospect of imposing consequences on Seidel for losing the faculty’s trust. His current contract extends through the summer of 2026. Nor did the trustees address the underlying issues that sparked furor following Dean Cameron Wright’s demotion — most notably the allegations lobbed across campus that it was a retaliation for Wright’s opposition to funds being shifted from his budget to that of Seidel’s romantic partner, who heads UW’s new School of Computing.
Faculty senate members considered their vote a risky endeavor. Though many of them are tenured professors, they conducted yesterday’s meeting mostly in a closed session so that senators could feel safe speaking against university leadership. Once the meeting opened to the public, votes on the no-confidence resolution were issued by hand-written paper ballots to avoid any hand raising or spoken votes.
“You are justified in fearing retribution from this administration,” Bob Sprague, a former chair of the faculty senate, wrote in a letter to the body ahead of its Monday vote. But he also urged senators to “speak truth to power and send a clear message to the entire University community that this administration’s conduct is not acceptable.”
The faculty senate ultimately voted 43 to 11 to back a resolution that declared Seidel’s leadership “unacceptable,” though it did not call for him to be removed. Instead, in a final paragraph — referenced by Brown when he announced the new committee — it called for the administration and campus to work together to “reestablish an atmosphere of mutual respect, to rebuild trust and a willingness to work together.”
On Tuesday, faculty members returned to a campus Seidel will remain in charge of for the foreseeable future. During a campus town hall the president hosted yesterday, Seidel rejected any suggestions he would retaliate.
“I am absolutely against any form of retaliatory action,” he said at that event, according to a report in Oil City News. “I’ve been very, very clear about that. And I do not want to ever have any kind of a retaliation against someone for speaking their mind.”
After days of impassioned statements and letters from his critics, Tuesday appeared relatively quiet following the morning board meeting. Ray Fertig, the faculty senate president, did not respond to WyoFile voicemails requesting comment.
Two outspoken former faculty members, and Democratic Laramie lawmaker Karlee Provenza — who has criticized Seidel’s advocacy for the School of Computing and his conciliatory approach to the Legislature’s efforts to meddle with campus — told WyoFile the trustees’ response fell flat.
“They don’t have a really genuine, authentic response to anything is what it feels like,” Provenza said. She hoped faculty and deans would continue to push for change if they wanted something beyond the new committee, she said.
“One choice is ‘aw shucks, I didn’t get what I wanted, I don’t have any power in this situation,’” Provenza said. “But I think the other option is we have to build our power. There are more levers of power for faculty, for deans, and I encourage them to exercise those rights.”
Sprague and former president of the faculty senate, now-retired veterinary professor Donal O’Toole both noted that the committee, as Brown described it, appeared stacked toward the administration and the trustees, with just two faculty representatives and one student on a seven-person body.
“They will put forward probably some very watered down recommendations that ultimately will be ignored,” Sprague said. Ultimately, he feared the episode will lead to “no substantial improvement to the situation on campus,” and the trustees, he said, will “rationalize [faculty] unhappiness in various ways.”
O’Toole agreed that the trustees had opted for a tepid, middle-of-the-road path. “Seidel is a known quantity,” he said, “and [in the wake of criticism] he’s certainly saying all the right things.”
Beginning last week, when the faculty senate leadership expressed dismay in his leadership ahead of the full body’s vote, Seidel has been conciliatory and said he has learned from the uproar. In several statements and in yesterday’s town hall, he promised to renew his commitment to the university’s model of “shared governance,” which, notably, calls for faculty input on the removal of academic officers.
Faculty members say that part of the university’s governing code was firmly ignored when the board demoted Wright. The board demoted Wright even though every department head in his college — with the exception of school of computing head Gabrielle Allen, Seidel’s partner — called on them not to.
Coming back from a no-confidence resolution to a place where the campus is working well together will be very hard to do, O’Toole said.
“On the one hand, I think the faculty senate executive committee thought this had to be done,” he said. “On the other hand, they realized that in the short and medium term it’s going to make dealing with Seidel’s administration pretty frosty … The feeling is ‘we’ve sent the message, let’s hope for the best.’”
UPDATE: According to the Consumers Energy outage map, all power was restored around 5 p.m.
WYOMING, Mich. (WOOD) — Thousands of people in southwestern Kent County lost power Monday morning.
The Consumers Energy interactive power map showed a cluster of outages in the area, all of which were first reported around 10:55 a.m. The outages were located in the Grandville, Wyoming and Byron Township areas. In total, around 10,000 customers were without power as of 11:20 a.m., according to the map.
The outage was initially thought to be caused by a transmission line from ITC Michigan, but crews were able to determine the outage was the result of a tap failure that connects the ITC line to Consumers Energy substations.
Three substations were impacted by the outage. As of 2:30 p.m., crews had restored two of the substations and continue their work to get everyone back online. Approximately 5,600 customers remained without power as of 3:30 p.m.
Katie Chandler, who works as a bartender at Kate’s Bar in Evanston, can spot Utah residents right away. They’re the adults looking self-consciouslyover their shoulders before ordering a beer and a shot, like middle schoolers breaking the rules.
Chandler gives them a sweet smile when she serves them their drinks, along with a piece of friendly, free advice.
“I always warn the people from Utah to be careful,” she told Cowboy State Daily. “Because we are at a much higher elevation, and you do get drunker quicker.”
Chandler, an Idaho transplant who has lived in Evanston for five years, experienced this while barhopping the first time in Evanston. She was drinking about one 5% seltzer an hour, which normally wouldn’t be a problem for her.
But after the second one in as many hours, it felt as if she’d downed twice as many drinks in half as much time.
“I was like, ‘Babe, we gotta walk home,’” she said. “So, I always warn people now: drink some water and stay hydrated.”
Just across the state line, Evanston is the first place people from Utah hit when leaving their state to dabble in vice. That state’s stiff liquor laws push some to make a run for the border to get stronger drinks and buy booze, along with placing bets and buying fireworks.
A new Utah law that went into effect Jan. 1 bans people convicted of DUIs with blood alcohol content measurements of 0.160% or greater from buying booze. That makes Evanston’s bars and liquor stores enticing for those who can’t buy alcohol close to home.
This One Time A Utahn Walked Into An Evanston Bar …
Kate’s Bar isn’t the only place in Evanston where the bartenders have stories about Utahns and their liquor.
They’ve become the punchline in many off-hand jokes, and people love to tell their own “this one time, a Utahn walked into a bar in Evanston” jokes to whoever will listen.
Rhonda Berlener, the general manager at Suds Bros. Brewery in downtown Evanston, has dozens of them.
She, too, can spot the Utah “newbies” as soon as they sit down.
They’ll order a beer, finish it, then carefully ask if they can have a shot now. It’s like they’re waiting for someone to swoop in and tell them it’s against the rules.
“‘OK, so we’ll take a beer, and then as soon as we’re done, we’ll take a shot,’” she recalled one Utah couple saying. “And we’re like, ‘Well, we can just bring you that shot.’ And they’re like, ‘What?’ And we’re like, ‘You’re not in Utah anymore. We can line them up. How many do you want?’”
Some get so tickled at the idea they can have more than one drink in front of them at once that they go a little overboard, ordering a whole line of shots across the bar, just because they can.
The situation has led to signs at some establishments poking fun at Evanston’s Utah neighbors — like the tavern which posted a sign making it crystal clear that the place really is a bar, just in case anyone from Utah was feeling the least bit confused.
The Joke Goes Both Ways
The funny stories run both ways, entertainer A.J. Lamb told Cowboy State Daily.
He still laughs about the time he and a buddy discovered Utah’s famously weak beer at a party fresh out of college. At that time, Utah beer had a legal maximum of 3.2% alcohol content by volume. It was like drinking water to Lamb and his friend.
It soon dawned on them that no one at the party was keeping up with them. They made a game of that, challenging anyone to outrank them. They still barely felt a buzz, even after guzzling a heroic amount of beer.
A couple of weeks later, some of the Utahns from the party called Lamb up and said they were coming to Evanston for a rematch. They were “trained up and ready,” Lamb recalled with a chuckle.
What they didn’t count on was full-strength Wyoming beer at elevation.
After just a handful of beers over a couple of hours, the Utah drinkers were wrecked.
One managed to make it to his hotel room, though perhaps not the bed. The other fell asleep somewhere outside the hotel. The third landed in the Uinta County jail.
The takeaway line, which Lamb still uses when he’s talking to Utah friends, is “don’t drink with people from Wyoming.”
Here’s a funny, forgotten fact about that 3.2% beer, which was still in use up until 2019. When the law finally died, Budweiser brought its Clydesdales to Salt Lake City for a little parade — actually a funeral procession.
Pallbearers carried a coffin that said “RIP 3.2% Beer.” Others held up signs that read, “Bud Heavy is coming Nov. 1!”
If Utah residents are the punchline in Evanston drinking jokes, it’s usually a gentle kind of ribbing, Lamb said, the kind where people don’t feel bad about laughing at themselves with you.
t’s all in good fun, and usually includes a dose of empathy for folks who live in a state where ordering a nightcap has become a bit like taking the Uniform Bar Exam.
“People from Utah, they come up here and they’re just blown away,” Lamb said. “It’s like they’re on another planet when they see how we do things.”
No Sin City
With a population around 12,000, Evanston isn’t really a Sin City. You won’t see flashy signs and supermega hotels.
It’s a friendly small town with tree-lined streets draped in charm and history.
There’s an operating drug store with old-fashioned soda shop seats. Some of the restored buildings date back to the 1880s and house art galleries, restaurants and breweries, bakeries and coffeeshops, as well as the historic Strand Theater.
Despite the “Leave it to Beaver” vibe, Evanston has long had a Sin City relationship withUtah residents. It’s where they have been coming for decades to buy things their faithful neighbors might frown upon — a taboo trifecta of booze, fireworks, and lottery tickets.
These days, Utahns can also add off-track horse betting and full-strength vapes to that shopping list.
People still remember when the Utah Highway Patrol would set up in Evanston parking lots, watching their residents carting home illegal liquor from Wyoming, then confiscating it the minute those motorists crossed the state line.
Today, the law prohibiting out-of-state liquor from crossing the Utah state line has gone away.
People may still feel like it’s hanging over them, but Utah residents legally buy up to 9 liters of liquor for personal consumption and haul it home.
A Tourism Tangent
But there are still a whole host of finicky liquor laws that rankle enough to keep Utahns driving to Evanston for the foreseeable future.
Restaurants in Utah can serve drinks, but only when they’re tied to food. A plate of fries, then, even if you’re not hungry, is required.
Bars and taverns can pour without food, but they’re tightly age-restricted and carefully licensed. That means families with children younger than 21 aren’t allowed.
Restaurant or bar, only one drink at a time is allowed per person at any given table. Double shots in a cocktail aren’t allowed, nor shots to chase your beer.
By contrast, Evanston’s border town offers Utahns a much simpler proposition. Walk in, grab a bar stool and order a drink. No need for a flowchart of what’s on your plate or in your glass.
The relationship between Utah’s strict liquor laws and Evanston’s more relaxed bar scene isn’t just a cultural curiosity anymore. The dynamic has become part of the town’s tourism strategy.
Business owners along Main Street talk about the importance of keeping things open for business on the weekends and maintaining a friendly, welcoming, no-fuss atmosphere.
“Those out-of-state visitors are a huge piece of keeping downtown alive,” Berlener said. “If they feel comfortable here — if they can find a place to eat, have a drink, walk around — they’ll keep coming back.”
And Evanstonians will keep telling those funny drinking Wyoming from Utah stories.
Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.
Wyoming
Wyoming’s Hageman aims to block future ‘roadless areas,’ despite overwhelming support to keep public land pristine
by Mike Koshmrl, WyoFile
Rep. Harriet Hageman wants to stop future administrations from reinstating a 25-year-old policy that prevents roadbuilding on 59 million acres of the national forest, including 3.3 million acres of federal land in Wyoming.
A rescission of the Clinton-era 2001 Roadless Rule is already underway. In June 2025, U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced her intention to repeal the “roadless” class of land that’s found on nine national forests in Wyoming.
Subsequently, Rollins solicited public comment on that plan, which, based on the responses, is extraordinarily unpopular. More than 99% of the 200,000-plus people and groups who responded opposed the proposed rescission, according to a Center for Western Priorities analysis.
A Hageman-led bill, House Resolution 7695, would codify the Trump administration’s undoing of the Roadless Rule in law and also prevent it from reappearing. The legislation states that any future secretary of agriculture “may not take any action to propose, finalize, implement, administer, or enforce any rule substantially similar to the rule.”
On Thursday, Wyoming’s lone representative touted the bill at a congressional hearing, saying that it undoes an “environmental catastrophe.”
“The Roadless Rule has been devastating to the Interior West,” Hageman testified to the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources’ Federal Lands Subcommittee. “The Roadless Rule has been devastating to Wyoming.”
As an attorney a quarter century ago, Hageman was a staunch opponent of the Roadless Rule and litigated against it on behalf of Wyoming.
Hageman pointed out to her fellow members of Congress on Thursday that nine of the 10 “most catastrophic” national forest wildfires have occurred since the rule’s 2001 implementation.
U.S. Forest Service Associate Chief Chris French testified that his agency supports the administration’s proposed rescission, along with Hageman’s legislation and he offered to provide “technical assistance” to help pass the bill.
“The Forest Service is currently in the process of analyzing the more than 220,000 comments we received,” French told the subcommittee, “and anticipates issuing a final rule and draft environmental impact statement for public comment in the coming months.”
Several Democrats who sit on the Subcommittee on Federal Lands expressed concern about Hageman’s bill.
Rep. Andrea Salinas, D-Oregon, who in 2025 attempted to codify keeping the Roadless Rule, argued that roadbuilding can lead to more wildfires.
“The Forest Service’s own assessment found that building roads in these areas would actually increase the risk of fire,” Salinas said, “and another analysis shows that 85% of wildfires are human-caused.”
” data-large-file=”https://i0.wp.com/oilcity.news/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/blm1.jpg?fit=596%2C414&quality=89&ssl=1″ alt=”” class=”wp-image-126377″/><figcaption class=)
A newly created logging road cuts into the Black Hills National Forest’s Bearlodge Ranger District in May 2026. (Mike Koshmrl/WyoFile)
Earlier, Hageman called the claim that eliminating the Roadless Rule would create more wildfires “absolutely wrong.”
“The science and the facts and the history demonstrate, without question, that you are absolutely wrong,” Hageman said.
But French, the Forest Service associate chief, acknowledged that it’s a “longstanding fact” that “most” wildfire ignitions are human-caused and “most are going to be associated with where humans go, including roads.”
The equation, however, is not that straightforward, French said. Other research has found that wildfire severity is greater in “untreated” roadless areas, he said.
“You have to look at the whole scenario,” French said. “I think that’s why it’s often polarized. There are different facts you can pull out to support an opinion.”
National hunting and angling groups have strongly opposed the elimination of the Roadless Rule, which has helped ensure that non-wilderness backcountry remains a part of national forests across the country.
The idea of eliminating the rule also hasn’t gone over well with Wyoming conservation groups.
Gabby Yates, public lands program manager at the Wyoming Outdoor Council, pointed out the unpopularity of Hageman’s plan.
“By sidestepping the already scant public process that the administration is using to rescind the rule, H.R. 7695 adds insult to injury and ignores hundreds of thousands of Americans who are currently opposing the rescission,” Yates wrote in a statement.
The rescission, however, has been favored by many Western state Republican political leaders hoping to stimulate withering timber mills and a logging industry that’s been in the doldrums for decades. Many governors and congressional members have gone on record supporting the elimination of the Roadless Rule, including Gov. Mark Gordon and Sens. John Barrasso and Cynthia Lummis.
Hageman, who in 2022 soundly defeated Liz Cheney with an endorsement from President Donald Trump, is running for a U.S. Senate seat that’s opening up due to Lummis’ retirement.
In the Republican primary, she’ll face Sam Mead, a rancher and whiskey distiller who’s the nephew of former Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead and great-grandson of late Wyoming U.S. Sen. and Gov. Cliff Hansen.
Mead, 36, is a political newcomer running on a pro-public lands platform. He did not respond to WyoFile’s inquiry on Thursday before this story was published.
This article was originally published by WyoFile and is republished here with permission. WyoFile is an independent nonprofit news organization focused on Wyoming people, places and policy.
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