Share this:In the discussion over a proposed annual reduction of $20 million to the block grant the University of Wyoming receives from state government, assertions have been made that the cut is necessary because UW has strayed from its founding purpose as a land-grant university. In fact, Wyoming’s land-grant university remains absolutely true to the federal Morrill Act of 1862 and its later iterations, as well as the founding principles in the state statute adopted in the state’s first legislative session in 1890 and in the Wyoming Constitution. Wyoming’s founders added to the Morrill Act language with a more detailed mandate in state statute. We have shed low-enrollment programs that don’t align with the state’s needs, and we will continue to do so. It would be a terrible shame if misunderstandings regarding what being a land-grant university really means end up being the cause of unnecessary cuts that severely harm UW’s ability to fulfill its land-grant mission.