UW Looks at Consolidating Offices, Maintains Services in Jackson

The University of Wyoming is exploring the consolidation of its offices in Jackson but will maintain the current level of service in Teton County.

Effective in January, UW’s office in Jackson’s Center for the Arts -- where Riverton-based UW Recruitment and Enrollment Specialist Amy Schmidt has held monthly office hours -- will close. But the university is exploring an opportunity for her to hold those office hours in conjunction with UW Extension in Teton County.

“The educational opportunities in Teton County will not change,” UW Associate Vice Provost for Enrollment Management Kyle Moore says. “We intend for professional guidance, consultation and support from the university as well as our community constituencies to continue through monthly visits to personally meet with students and the community. But we have not finalized arrangements for the exact location.”

UW started a online education presence in Jackson in 2000, and the office in the Center for the Arts opened in 2005. As in the rest of the state, courses were delivered largely through a site-based, web-conferencing system. Now, because of technological advances, UW distance courses primarily are delivered directly online to students in their own homes, greatly reducing the use of UW’s web-conferencing facilities across the state. A number of those little-used facilities have been closed, including those in Afton, Newcastle, Wheatland, Green River and Rawlins.

Distance education support for Teton County students is still immediately available through email at aschmid8@uwyo.edu, as well as through the use of technology to provide telephone and web-conferencing support.

Schmidt has been serving distance students in the role of academic coordinator since August 2016, but her role -- and that of others at UW’s regional centers around the state -- has expanded in the past year. She continues to handle exam proctoring and advising for students in distance programs, but she also provides pre-program advising and transfer support for all UW students and prospective students as a representative of UW’s Office of Admissions.

UW offers online education programs at the bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral levels, in addition to its wide array of programs on campus and at its branch campus in Casper.

UW Extension, meanwhile, continues to operate with offices in all 23 Wyoming counties and the Wind River Indian Reservation. The Jackson office is home to three employees who serve Teton County, with services also provided by other area Extension educators in western Wyoming.

UW’s presence in Teton County also includes the UW-National Park Service Research Center at the AMK Ranch in Grand Teton National Park. And a significant number of UW outreach, academic and research activities take place in Jackson, including regular Saturday University programs and others conducted by UW’s Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources, UW’s School of Energy Resources and the UW College of Business’s Master of Business Administration Program.