A fissure has formed between a large portion of the faculty on campus and the higher levels of administration at the University of Wyoming, owing to an ongoing quiet disagreement about the appropriation of funding for the newly created “School of Computing,” run by President Ed Seidel’s partner, Gabrielle Allen. This rift has recently come to a head with the dismissal of Cam Wright, the Dean of the College of Engineering & Physical Sciences.
According to Donal O’Toole, a former professor at the University and previous Chair of the Faculty Senate (2018-2019), in an email sent out to the faculty mailing list, “This is the culmination of an ongoing disagreement between Wright and Old Main about several issues. An important one was the desire of Ed Seidel to redirect $500K of legislatively appropriated funds from the college to the soon-to-be stand-alone School of Computing, now run by Seidel’s partner Gabrielle Allen. Faculty senate discussed the SoC’s (School of Computing) move to SER-like status last Monday, March 24. The timing may be significant.”
Dr. Wright had argued against this for some time. After a letter was sent to him from former Provost Kevin Carman directing him to allocate funding for the School of Computing from the College of Engineering & Physical Sciences, Wright responded with a letter of his own, stating, “It is my understanding that the Tier-1 Engineering Initiative funds were intended to be dedicated to CEPS and programs under its authority. I am aware of no provision of the Tier-1 budget which authorizes the redirection of funds from a budget specifically intended for CEPS to an independent unit outside its supervision. Unless you can direct me to specific, and persuasive, authority for the premise underlying the MOU, I cannot in good conscience sign the MOU. As Dean, I am charged with protecting the interests of my College.”
It is suspected by some faculty members from various departments that both Kevin Carman’s and Cam Wright’s dismissals are a direct result of disagreements with this allocation of funding, or failure to execute on it. These faculty members have chosen to remain anonymous to avoid the risk of retaliation for speaking freely on the subject. While there has been no concrete evidence put forward to support these claims, many faculty members seem to agree with them. In addition to this, another anonymous source claimed that two auditors had pointed out that the allocation of funding may be a conflict of interest given Seidel’s relation to the School of Computing’s director. These two auditors now reportedly work at different schools.
Other faculty members have been putting up small signs around campus as a seemingly quiet protest against Cam Wright’s dismissal, with one such sign in the Physical Science building quoting him saying, “Stay strong, and don’t shy away from doing the right thing.”
When the Branding Iron reached out to the Office of the President to hear their side of the story, the response was, “Thank you for contacting the Office of the President. As you may have seen, an official statement was made regarding leadership in the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences earlier today (see attached). While we cannot comment on personnel matters, if you have questions regarding next steps for the College, we will be happy to answer those via email.”
While many details of this story remain unclear, one thing is certain; a growing rift has been forming between the upper levels of administration at the school and a large portion of the faculty and staff. What will be done next about this remains to be seen.
