The University of Wyoming will be celebrating the 75th anniversary of Wyoming Union next week. An institution at UW since 1939, the Wyoming Union has changed in a number of ways since its inception.
Plans for construction of the Union began in 1931 under a committee chaired by Dean J.A Hill, according to the UW website.
Darcy DeTienne, the union director, said that this is inaccurate, and that plans did not first start until 1936. DeTienne also said that Hill believed that it was imperative to construct a student’s union.
“Here is a quote from him in 1936, ‘we actually need a union we do not have such a home for students.’” DeTienne said.
According to a 1939 editorial issue of The Branding Iron, the union was more than just an entertainment structure—it was a place for business and conferences as well.
UW was comparatively late in constructing a student union, with many similar structures cropping up on campuses around the U.S. during the 19th century.
“The history of unions in general started back in the 1800s,” DeTienne said. “Our union was a dinning hall and the third floor was a men’s dormitory for a while. It had a ballroom, banquet room, student and faculty lounges, offices for student government and student publications, a post office and eventually a bookstore.”
The versatility of the Union came at no small cost. The initial cost of the building’s construction was almost a quarter of a million dollars, a hefty sum in the 1930s, DeTienne said.
According to the 1939 Branding Iron editorial, UW’s administration expected 13,000 visitors to the union during the opening week. Today the building takes in this many visitors on an almost daily basis.
“During the academic year we probably get about 12,000 people a day, Monday through Friday, through the building,” she DeTienne said. “I really think we are doing such a great job in getting the people into the building.”
The Wyoming Union was only available to members when it first started, according to the 1939 Branding Iron editorial. Membership fees were nine dollars for resident faculty members and six dollars for students.
Today the building serves as an important hub of student life, as well as a symbol to alumni.
“Honestly I think [the Union] is very important,” DeTienne said. “A lot of students that are here for homecoming when they come back, they come back to the union, because they were involved here or they ate here or they hung out here, it is definitely a gathering place. I believe pretty much every student at some point or another has contact with the Union.”
In the future, the Union staff hopes to continue to fill its role as a gathering place for everyone at UW. The building is done growing, though, as the size of neighboring buildings will not allow for expansion.
“We are always going to revise and make sure our programs are current, that are services are current,” DeTienne said. “Long-term plans include infrastructure things you need to take care of—as students change, we have to change with them. Sometimes long-term plans are kind of hard to address.”
One of the Union staff’s main goals is to provide different activities that can satisfy many students on campus.
“One of our goals really is to make sure … we can provide something for everybody, and I think we do a good job of that,” DeTienne said.
She said that the student participation level in the union activities is above the national average.
“We are always looking for ways to increase student participation,” she said. “Every two years we do a marketing survey and our numbers remain stable.”
The Union staff is always open to new ideas that can lead to larger student engagement.
“If we can get students to connect to the university—outside the classroom especially—then that is going to increase the retention,” DeTienne said. “Hopefully they will stay and get their degrees or hopefully they will learn and develop their own personal skills.”
