My bigger concern is the impact on recruiting faculty. It's Women's Studies today. It might be Geology, Chemistry, Biology or Atmospheric Science tomorrow if they deign to study anything that might touch on climate change. It might be the law school - as it was when I was in Law School - if a professor questions livestock grazing practices on federal land. It's the slippery slope of restricting thought. Frankly, if you want to cut funding for the WS department - fine. But they did much more than that. They said that even if UW brings in 100% outside money to fund the department, they can't. The WS amendment is clear that any funding of a WS program (no matter the source of funds) means UW loses all state funding.ragtimejoe1 wrote: ↑Mon Feb 26, 2024 3:52 pmHow many students is that? 5? 10? Not being a jerk but from a practical standpoint, I doubt lack of women's studies impacts UW that much. Most likely those that are interested in Women's Studies AND UW will just pick another major. I might be wrong but I seriously doubt UW was pulling a lot of students solely for the Women's Studies program.OrediggerPoke wrote: ↑Mon Feb 26, 2024 3:31 pm
I can’t see how the legislature directly limiting the courses and degrees available for students as helping enrollment. For those students (perhaps unwisely) desiring to study and/or earn a degree in Women’s Studies, clearly Wyoming is no longer a viable option.
Pairing the WS amendment with the idea of having the WY Legislature being able to line item anything they want on a whim by doing away with the block grant form of funding makes it 100x worse. Again, what whizbang Tier 1 prof is going to come here if they risk getting whacked because they might be a little controversial? Are we that scared of new ideas and different thoughts that we can't even have people discuss certain topics? Censorship and limiting academic freedom is the refuge of the weak. If your ideas are so gall-derned superior, what are you afraid of?