Paige Backman
pbackman@uwyo.edu
The student-led organization Good Mule Project was stripped of funding due to the university’s spending freeze, forcing the group to seek community support.
Funds from the state have been put on hold and any expenses classified as non-essential have been put on a hold from now until further notice.
“The university will review where we are at financially on November 5,” Union Director Darcy DeTienne said.
While there are many intentional and implied consequences of a spending freeze, one group who experienced the effect is the Good Mule Project, which is a component of the UW Service, Leadership and Community Engagement, SLCE, program.
The Good Mule Project website states its purpose is to “foster a community of dialogue and action around issues of multiculturalism and diversity through the lens of social justice activism.”
Friday the Good Mule Project held a kick-off event called “An Evening with Local Activists,” which was at risk for being cancelled due to funding.
Students and community leaders had been invited to give short speeches about how they are bringing about change in the community and on campus. Planning for the event was almost complete when the news about the discretionary spending freeze hit the SLCE office.
“We were in the exact wrong spot timing wise,” Student Coordinator for Community Engagement, Alanna Elder said. “We were going to have to cancel tonight because all of our accounts were frozen. We needed Forward Wyoming to step in and do this one.”
Forward Wyoming is a non-profit organization that focuses on building up the state and cultivating leadership qualities in youth. They heard about the possible cancellation of the event and decided to step in, LeeAnn Gerapes, Forward Wyoming executive director, said.
“We talked about not doing that particular event and let’s do something else in the spring,” DeTienne said.
The coordinators started calling the speakers and informing them of the changes when Forward Wyoming offered to pitch in. Due to Forward Wyoming’s efforts and funding the event was able to continue as planned, Elder said.
“We didn’t want to see such a great groups event go unrealized,” Grapes said.
She said the Good Mule Project already did most of the planning and Forward Wyoming was happy to make that vision a reality.
“We have formed a sort of partnership,” Grapes said. “We really liked that they were trying to foster a community dialog. Sixteen percent of the voters under 30 in Albany County cast ballots in 2014 and we would like to see that number go up. But we knew that it is an organization similar to ours and we felt this was a great opportunity.”
Without the partnership the event would not have happened.
“Because we are student fee funded we are always judicious about how we spend student monies,” DeTienne said. “But we plan on continuing our events.”
