In 1887, the University of Wyoming was home to just 42 students.
By 1963, that number had grown to 5,370, and 50 years later in the fall of 2013, there were 13,638 students.
Those numbers, however, only tell a small part of the story.
UW has an impressive impact on the state and the world, with exciting programs that create jobs, foster inventions, support important research and provide an educated workforce to lead us into a productive and healthy future.
Explore UW’s impact here and throughout this issue of UWyo Magazine.
On the Laramie campus, 48 new main buildings have gone up in the past 50 years, with three more in the works for 2014–16. More than 15 additions and renovations have taken place in Laramie, with four more planned by 2017. Outreach locations have seen 15 new buildings, plus renovations.
External grants and contract awards for research and technology transfer went from $54 million in 2003 to $86 million in 2012.
In 1982, the UW Foundation raised approximately $2 million with a total endowment of almost $29 million. Skip ahead 20 years to 2002 when the UW Foundation raised $20.3 million with a total endowment of $130 million. In 2013, the fundraising total of $56 million eclipsed all previous records with a total endowment $360.9 million as of June 30, 2013.
Enrollments at UW-Casper have gone from 232 in the 1976–77 academic year to 937 in 2012–13, and graduates have risen from seven in 1976–77 to 84 in 2012–13.
In 1989, UW employed 612 full-time instructional faculty members. Today that number has risen to 757.
The number of degrees awarded in the fields of energy, nursing, accounting, economics and finance, agriculture, business (doctoral), education (doctoral), and curriculum and instruction are all on the rise.
The number of international students between 1989 and 2013 has nearly doubled, from 446 to 815.
UW’s School of Energy Resources was created in 2006 and moved into the state-of-the-art Energy Innovation Center in 2013, offering students a nationally competitive education, while advancing energy-related science. Enrollment has doubled every year since the program’s establishment in 2009, and graduates enjoy a 94 percent placement rate.
The number of UW students studying abroad is growing rapidly—from 226 in 2005-06 to 362 in 2012-2013.
UW helped attract the National Science Foundation and the National Center for Atmospheric Research to build the NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputing Center, which opened in 2012 and is home to one of world’s most powerful supercomputers.