As the University of Wyoming prepares to transition to a new president and Arts and Sciences dean, it will do the same for the dean of the Outreach School.
Maggi Murdock will step down as associate provost for Academic Affairs and dean of the Outreach School and return to her faculty position in the Political Science Department next year.
“It’s just time. I like what I’m doing and who I work with, but I’ve been doing this for a long time,” Murdock said.
Murdock first came to the University of Wyoming in 1975 when she took a position as a faculty member in the Department of Political Science. She later accepted the position as dean of the University of Wyoming Casper College Center until taking the position of dean of the Outreach School in 2001.
During Murdock’s time as dean of the Outreach School, she has assisted with scenario and future planning for the school and has also worked with the university and President Buchanan to review the financial plans. The Outreach School also now has a 50-50 share of finances between the departments and colleges on campus for their distance learning programs.
The Outreach School has had some other developments under Murdock, including a new 96,000 square foot facility at Central Wyoming College and a new facility for the Agriculture Department at Sheridan College.
However, she refuses to take credit for all the advancements, giving most of the credit to President Buchanan and the people she works with.
“All the people in the outreach school are dedicated and knowledgeable people, but that’s something I can’t take credit for,” Murdock said.
Murdock feels that the Outreach School is important to UW because so many students outside of Laramie depend on it. About 25 percent of UW students are not in Laramie and in 2011 about one-third of students who were in Laramie were also taking online courses through the Outreach School, according to Murdock.
“I enjoy providing service to students who can’t come here and give them access to a UW education,” she said.
The Outreach School offers about 30 university degrees, certificates, and endorsements throughout the state. Certificates and endorsements are essentially specializations in certain career areas, including a land surveying certificate or an English as a second language endorsement. However, the Outreach School is not just about working with students from across the state as it has recently merged with the International program to do teleconferences with universities across the globe.
“It’s a way to provide education without borders. It won’t take the place of study abroad, however,” Murdock said.
Even though Murdock will return to the Political Science Department, she will not go straight back into teaching after leaving her current post.
“I applied for and was granted a year of sabbatical to work on a couple of goals,” Murdock said. “I will be finishing a research project and catch up because it’s been a while since I’ve taught a lot of these courses. I’ll also be developing some of these courses for distance teaching.”
Though she will no longer be the dean, she will still be working with Outreach School in a roundabout way by developing courses for distance teaching and said she is excited to still be working for the university.
“Working at a university is nice because you get to do a lot of different jobs,” Murdock said. “I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my job as a dean and I really like teaching students.”
