The Associate Students of Wyoming (ASUW) hosted President Ed Seidel during their weekly meeting on April 4. Seidel discussed issues facing the campus, such as parking, raising tuition, Saddle Up, advising, ChatGPT, and sustainability across campus.
Seidel started his discussion with parking, where he acknowledged the issue and even shared his own personal struggles with the problem. He mentioned he was late to the event itself because he could not find parking and noted he occasionally takes the bus.
“I just want you to know there is also pretty clearly some disruption going on right now that is inconvenient for everybody,” Seidel said. “Everything will be done by sometime in the fall semester, and that means not just the parking garage, which will be open probably early in the summer, but including additional lots and so on.”
“There will be a net gain of over 200 parking spaces,” he added
Another issue Seidel also addressed was the introduction of Block Tuition, which will be implemented during the fall 2023 semester. Block tuition allows all undergraduate students to pay the same cost, or “block” rate, if they are enrolled between 12-18 credit hours.
“It’s shown that places that do have [Block Tuition] typically have better graduation and retention rates,” Seidel said. “We’re trying to do things that we think will make a difference in terms of graduation and retention rates.”
Seidel mentioned there would be an exemption process, but did not clarify what it will entail or who will qualify.
Senators continued fall 2023 discussions by next addressing Saddle Up, with many wondering if the administration planned to change the program for incoming freshmen.
“I don’t want to just sugarcoat that there were problems,” Seidel said. “We have decided to make it less lengthy per day, and there will be more breathing room in the day.”
“We know that it’s intense, and we know that it also had some downsides. We also know, I don’t know if we can attribute this to Saddle Up specifically, but we have had better retention rates this year.”
While retention rates may be up, some ASUW members raised concerns over the current advising system in terms of student success.
“We are going to, I think, increase the strength of our central advising structures,” Seidel said. “We know that’s one of the most important factors for student success. And I would just say that, that we are committed to doing it as well as possible and to increase the availability and the number of advisors over time.”
AI software such as ChatGPT is another major issue facing the UW community. Seidel spoke to the expectations he plans to put in place for both students and faculty.
“We know that we’re not going to ban the use of ChatGPT or anything, but we want to make sure that students understand under what conditions that I think can use them,” Seidel said.
“There will be training sessions at The Ellbogen Center for Teaching and Learning to help train the faculty. The faculty will then also instruct students on what their expectations are on how to use [AI models] and what would be allowed.”
Along with technology, the issue of sustainability across campus also arose. Senators questioned if Seidel had plans to help make the campus more eco-friendly.
“I want to make this much a much bigger topic here,” Seidel said. “It’s a challenge that really is felt more deeply by students and adults. I think it’s a topic we haven’t spent enough time on at the campus.”
“There are programs around sustainability, and so we’re growing that. The programs are very popular, and I know that, so we have to expand that. So it might be something that we can work on together.”
Seidel also discussed his goals for the next three years and the positive outcomes of the recent legislative session.
“We had $170 million in one-time funding [from the legislature] for things like new dormitories, the New West stadium redo, also the natatorium, which is a swimming pool,” Seidel said. “We received also funding for some other programs as well.”
Seidel also announced the addition of a computing and an engagement minor, which will be available to any major across campus starting in the fall of 2023.
