University of Wyoming Alumni Association (UWAA) will be hosting a virtual town hall with guest speakers Anne Alexander, the Interim Provost, and Kimberly Chestnut Steich the Vice President of Student Affairs, this afternoon at 5:30 Mountain time. They will speak on the updated plans for UW this fall in regards to student success and the plans on how to keep students safe and healthy. The host will be the Executive Director of UWAA Keener Fry.
“The purpose of this event is to keep our alumni informed about UW reopening plans and the effort put forward by our faculty, staff and administrators to get to this point,” said Fry. “We hope our alumni feel updated and informed in regards to university plans. We also want to engage alumni from all over the country who might not otherwise be aware of UW’s plans for the fall.”
Fry said the UW alumni help students and potential students in many ways. There are four main aspects in how they help and that is career programming, sharing experiences, showing poke pride, and being ambassadors to promote admission. Fry said the alumni attending the virtual town hall come from as far as Florida and Oregon. The alumni association in general reaches Alaska, Oslo, Norway and many more far locations.
“These Town Halls definitely extend our reach to alumni,” said Fry.
This is not the first meeting though to reach out to the UW alumni. Fry said this is the third virtual town hall and has been planned since late June. Previous town halls have featured Coach Bohl and the Athletics Director Tom Burman, the head of the men’s basketball Coach Jeff Linder and the head of women’s basketball Coach Gerald Mattinson. Fry said the past events received great feedback from the alumni and therefore he is looking forward to the town hall this afternoon.
“The purpose of the UWAA is to provide the pathways to share the legacy, pride and spirit of UW worldwide,” said Fry. “Each of these Town Hall presentations will have featured important and visible aspects of UW life and are of interest to our alumni. So, really, I have been excited about sharing them all with our alumni.”
Individuals who had registered for the event prior to August 18 were able to submit questions which the guest speakers and Fry will answer in the meeting. Some of the topics Fry anticipates answering questions on include a timetable of reopening campus, how education will be delivered excellently even though classes are primarily online, student life opportunities while still following social distancing and mask wearing guidelines, how safety will be managed when all students are finally back on campus, and much more.
Fry said the event is primarily for UW alumni but he expects current students and parents to also participate due to it overall being a great way to gain some information on UW and what is happening. Here is the Zoom link https://uwyo.zoom.us/j/94453494055 to attend the town hall.
