UW in the News

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:

The UW Board of Trustees announced last week that former UW President Dick McGinity will serve as the “search recruiter” as the university begins the search for its next president, reported The Laramie Boomerang and The Casper Star-Tribune (CS-T).

<Bloomberg interviewed UW law Professor Michael Duff, who commented on the website’s article about Barstool Sports founder’s threats to fire employees trying to unionize. Duff said federal law allows managers and other agents of a company to criticize unions, but restricts them from threatening to punish employees who organize. Time Magazine and Yahoo! Sports published the article.

Duff, a labor law professor, also commented on two separate cases. He spoke with WyoFile about how Blackjewel’s bankruptcy case is affecting local coal miners, while investment firms associated with the company are being paid. He spoke with Pennsylvania Capital-Star about a Pennsylvania state worker who has filed a class action suit to demand that union dues be refunded.

Duff was quoted in a CS-T story, published on the Coal Zoom website, on an article about retired Kemmerer coal miners. The workers received good news when the mine’s bankrupt coal company submitted a motion to increase retiree benefits by $3 million.

The Laramie Boomerang reported that Laramie city leaders have asked UW officials to develop a long-range vision for its expansion that will allow the city to accommodate utility needs for coming decades.

UW ranked No. 109 among all public schools in the U.S. with an average student loan debt per borrower of $24,474, according to LendEDU. The report is an in-depth analysis of student loan debt figures at nearly 1,000 four-year private and public higher education institutions across the nation.

Noozhawk reported that UW’s research aircraft, King Air, will be used to help University of California-Santa Barbara scientists study extreme wind shifts that have plagued the state during wildfire season.

Steven Winberg, the U.S. Department of Energy’s assistant secretary of fossil energy, will tour several Wyoming facilities including UW’s School of Energy Resources this week, reported The Wyoming Tribune Eagle, The CS-T and Oil City News.

interviewed UW biologist Matt Kauffman in an article on how wild game-vehicle collisions endanger lives and hurt wildlife populations. Kauffman says highways are one of many ways human activities can impede wildlife movements.

UW economist Rob Godby spoke with The CS-T, which noted that Contura Energy has yet to complete the purchase of two Wyoming mines from bankrupt operator Blackjewel, according to a quarterly report released last week.

Godby and Jonathan Naughton, director of the UW Wind Energy Research Center, were quoted in a CS-T article on how new wind energy projects in Wyoming could generate thousands of jobs and billions in revenue. The Billings Gazette also carried the story.

Kipp Coddington, director of UW’s Center for Economic Geology Research, talked to Campbell County officials last week about the work happening with carbon technology and research in northeast Wyoming, The Gillette News Record reported. He also discussed that UW will continue to study energy policies across the country.

Business Telegram published UW’s release on a university program that will help Wyoming entrepreneurs receive legal advising services from UW law students, who will gain real-world experience. The Entrepreneurship and Business Law Practicum provides legal services in support of, and in partnership with, UW’s Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

Coin News Telegraph and The Wyoming Tribune Eagle published UW’s release announcing the second annual WyoHackathon will expand into a multi-day event called the Wyoming Blockchain Stampede at the 2019 WyoHackathon.

UW’s release, featuring UW’s medical Rural/Underserved Opportunities Program, was published on Oil City’s website. The four-week elective immersion experience in community medicine provides students early exposure to primary care medicine in a rural or urban underserved setting and matches them with local physicians.

NBC Nebraska, a North Platte television station, reported that UW is assisting with the Gering-Fort Laramie irrigation canal tunnel that collapsed last month. UW is assisting with ground-penetrating equipment.

According to information from UW Extension and Nebraska Extension, Wyoming and Nebraska could suffer an $89 million economic loss if crops affected by an irrigation tunnel collapse near Fort Laramie are a total loss, Rural Radio Network reported. The CS-T and Sheridan Media also reported on the story.

The Wyoming Tribune Eagle reported that the Wyoming Technology Business Center is relaunching e2e Wyoming with a meeting in Laramie this week. UW’s e2e is an educational networking program designed to improve the climate for the startup and growth of entrepreneurial companies. Wyoming Business Report published UW’s release on the meeting.

UW’s release announcing that former Wyoming State Auditor Rita Meyer will be the grand marshal for the UW Homecoming parade this fall was published by The Wyoming Tribune Eagle.

The Rock Springs Rocket Miner published UW’s release on UW Homecoming events that are planned Oct. 12-19.

Michigan Technical University scientists, along with UW researchers, have developed a method to analyze why moose choose to eat what they do; how their choices change in the presence of predation; and how moose diets actually affect the stability of entire ecosystems.

Sweetwater County students learned college and career readiness skills this summer in a program facilitated by UW’s College of Health Sciences Wyoming Institute for Disabilities. Wyo4News published UW’s release.

The Wyoming Tribune Eagle interviewed UW Extension’s Cole Ehmke, a personal finance management specialist, on how residents can protect themselves from data breaches. He recommended strong and complex passwords and two-factor identification on personal accounts.

Second-year UW medical student Rida Fatima, of Rock Springs, was among 22 Wyoming residents who became U.S. citizens last week in the first naturalization ceremony hosted in Albany County in two decades, The Boomerang reported.

UW graduate student Nathan Maier, who was part of a UW-led team that discovered how ice flows from the higher, colder sections of the Greenland Ice Sheet to the lower, warmer sections, pulled along by its own weight, was interviewed by Wyoming Public Radio.

Wyoming Public Media reported that the National Science Foundation awarded nearly $1 million to UW to support integration of computer science education in K-8 classrooms and public libraries across the state.

Wyoming Public Radio’s Bob Beck spoke with David Jones, who was recently appointed dean of the UW College of Health Sciences, about his plans for the college. Jones led the college for the past two years as interim dean.

Wyoming Public Radio interviewed UW graduate students Gabe Barrile and Matt Webster about their research on the western Wyoming boreal toad’s ability to fight disease.

UW master’s student Rhiannon Jakopak was the lead author of a paper on mule deer doe F210’s precision walkabout in western Wyoming, The CS-T reported. The paper, which was published in the journal Ecology, describes how the deer left her summer range in 2018, traveled 58 miles, then turned around and walked the same route back to her summer range.