Faculty Senate debated selling the Y Cross Ranch at its meeting Monday before deciding to continue the discussion at its next meeting.
The Y Cross Ranch is to be put up for a sealed bid auction by November 13, meaning that bidders would simultaneously submit their bids without having knowledge of how much the other bidders have submitted.
The Y Cross Ranch is 60,000 acres and was donated in 1997 to the University of Wyoming Foundation and the Colorado State University Research Foundation. The land was donated by the Courtenay C. Davis Foundation and Amy Davis. Courtenay C. Davis owned the land prior to his death and left the land to his foundation and daughter Amy Davis, according to Resources and Publications on the University of Wyoming website.
Davis donated the land in conjunction with her father’s foundation following his death.
Much of the discussion Monday night entailed whether or not Davis will take legal action against the UW and CSU foundations if the land is sold because it could potentially be in violation of the gift agreement.
However, Dean of the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources Frank Galey said the terms of the gift agreement explicitly state the foundations have the option to sell the land after 14 years.
Sen. Donal O’Toole, a professor in the Department of Veterinary Sciences, proposed to postpone selling the land for five years.
In his proposal, O’Toole said the ranch had made many improvements and had generated an annual profit of $457,000. At the meeting, O’Toole also questioned whether or not the benefits of selling the land outweigh the benefits of keeping it.
O’Toole went on to talk about how important agriculture is to Wyoming as well as to the university.
“Land and cattle are still a part of our quality of life. A huge part of the reason people are here is because of the outdoor opportunities,” O’Toole said.
In his proposal, O’Toole stated that by waiting five years to sell the ranch, it would allow for more time to better inform students, faculty, and staff about the opportunities and resources the Y Cross Ranch offers and it could continue to be used for research purposes.
O’Toole also suggested that at the end of the five year period there be an advisory committee with representatives from each college that used the ranch to decide whether or not the ranch should be sold.
At the meeting, O’Toole expressed concern that selling the land could be an incentive for some employees at the Foundation to receive bonuses.
Ben Blalock, president and CEO of the UW Foundation, said employees at the Foundation would not benefit from the sale as individuals.
“In no way is the sale of this ranch tied to bonuses,” Blalock said.
Blalock also said that the ranch was not bringing in as much revenue as was previously stated.
“The gross revenue was $457,000 but that money had to be re-invested in the ranch and was not simply there to re-spend. The actual revenue was more like $80,000,” Blalock said.
Galey said the Y Cross Ranch is a wonderful learning opportunity and had made progress since it was first purchased, but also said that faculty often found it difficult to do research on the land.
“Many faculty members expressed difficulty with trying get out there because the donor was not very open to the faculty using the land, and it’s incredibly difficult to get students out there if the faculty members don’t go,” Galey said.
Sen. Warrie Means, a professor in the Department of Animal Sciences, said his department also had trouble doing research on the ranch but that his department still supports keeping the land.
“Our department has a list of projects that were unsuccessful due to all the roadblocks with getting out to the ranch. In light of that, I was instructed by my department to vote to postpone selling the Y Cross Ranch because it is such a unique experience and there’s no telling what it could be in 50 years,” Means said.
Following the discussion, Sen. Treva Ahrenholtz from the Department of Family and Consumer Science, moved to not vote on the proposal and continue the discussion at the next Faculty Senate meeting due to the conflicting amounts of revenue in the proposal regarding the amount of $457,000.
The senate voted to continue the discussion of selling the Y Cross Ranch at its next meeting on October 22.
