UW offers many different options to help all students. Some of these options include alternative formats for reading assignments, test taking and note taking accommodations, real time captioning, interpreter services and extended time for test taking and assignments.

Chris Primus, the associate director of Student Educational Opportunity, said, “UDSS also has an assistive technology lab with software designed to make use of computers more efficient and possible for students with different disabilities.  For example, we have a program called Dragon Naturally Speaking, a voice recognition program designed to respond to voice commands.  Students who express themselves better orally than they do when they type may find DNS handy, as will students with hand function limitations.

“We have software that will read back what is written on the screen, a handy tool for students with low vision or blindness, or those with learning disabilities affecting reading.”

UW’s disability program also ensures that every student is evaluated on a case-to-case basis.

Amanda Hearne, a coordinator for the University Disability Support Services, said, “We gather self report information and documentation to decide what accommodations will be most efficient for them and most effective for their academics. So, just because we offer things like alternative format doesn’t mean that every student that comes to UDSS is eligible for that.

“It really depends on their documentation and their self-report says. And we look at that every semester for every class for every student. So, it is very much personalized to each student.”

While these services are readily available, students with disabilities still need to seek the help themselves. “In high school or elementary school, students are sought out with disabilities and they have [Individual Education Plans] created, or 504 plans, and they have a team working with them. Students who come to the University have to self identify. That is the difference between high school and college,” Hearne said.

IEPs are a set of goals a student sets for a year in school. A 504 plan refers to Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act and helps make sure students are involved to a certain extent with the normal activities of a school day.

A lot of the services that UDSS offers pertain to students with emotional or learning disabilities, but Hearne said that UW is fortunate to have good facilities for those with disabilities.

“With all the construction on our campus, we’ve seen a lot of increase in accessibility in our buildings, which is really cool. We have a very accessible campus for small town Wyoming,” Hearne said.

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The education I received in school about the civil rights leader was a whitewashed version.

Growing up, teachers talked about how King was the preeminent American civil rights leader of the 20th century. They informed us how, through non-violent civil disobedience, King brought down Jim Crow in the South and brought a measure (arguably a small one) of equality between blacks and whites.

Yet, I would argue that the history of King most of us learned in school is one that embraces the good and rejects the controversial.

Most young Americans seem either ignorant of, or entirely unaware, that King was not just a proponent of civil rights for all Americans. He was also a man dedicated to peace who was a critic of both the Vietnam War and the American system of capitalism.

“Somehow this madness must cease. We must stop now. I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor of Vietnam. I speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes are being destroyed, whose culture is being subverted,” King said in a 1967 speech.

King’s opposition to the war seemed to be founded, at least in part, on the idea that African Americans were charged with fighting for a nation that treated them as second-class citizens. 

Yet, this happened during a time when many thought criticizing the Vietnam War was downright un-American, if not paramount to treason. But that did not stop him from giving voice to opposition.

“Now I’ve chosen to preach about the war in Vietnam today because I agree with Dante, that the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in a period of moral crisis maintain their neutrality,” King said in a speech. “And I say that those who are seeking to make it appear that anyone who opposes war in Vietnam is a fool or a traitor or an enemy of our soldiers, is a person who has taken a stand against the best in our tradition.”

King was also critical of America’s capitalist economic system that kept millions of Americans (especially African Americans) in poverty—then and now.

“The curse of poverty has no justification in our age. It is socially as cruel and blind as the practice of cannibalism at the dawn of civilization,” King said in a 1963 speech.

So why is it most of us are unaware of King’s more contentious side?

While it’s not difficult to honor King as a civil rights leader, honoring—or even recognizing—what can be seen as the more divisive aspect of the man is not so easy. Maybe the reason lies in the fact that civil rights is seen as completed, while the issues and controversy surrounding war and economics remain to this day.

Email: Shane Staley

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From Wednesday to next Monday, the group will perform in Glenrock, Afton, Lander and Cody in front of the towns’ high school students.

The Singing Statesmen will be finishing their tour in Cody, where the Wyoming All-State Music Groups will be meeting.

“We will perform for all of the students who auditioned into the Wyoming All-State Band, Orchestra and Choir, as well as music educators from across the state, and family of the All-State students,” said Lamartine.

The group was chosen based on their involvement and dedication to UW’s fine arts program, specifically the local musical scene.

“The UW Singing Statesmen are a high-profile men’s choir that focuses on fine choral literature representative of various style periods and vocal traditions from the western choral tradition, specifically cowboy and western songs associated with the state of Wyoming,” Nicole Lamartine, director of choral activities for UW and conductor of The Singing Statesmen, said.

This group is comprised of 50 to 60 male students from UW and is a non-audition choir. All students interested are excepted.

“This ensemble is available to both music majors and non- music majors and represents a community of musically interested students from across campus,” Lamartine said.

In 2008, Lamartine came into the position of choral activities director.

Along with teaching music education curriculum, conducting and applied voice, Lamartine conducts the Singing Statesmen, the Collegiate Chorale and advises the male the a capella group, Happy Jacks.

The Singing Statesmen’s tour of Wyoming specific goal is to address and encourage singing potential in Wyoming.

“The ensemble has toured Wyoming with the objective to promote male singing to students at the high school and community college level,” Lamartine said.

Email: Davis Bonner

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The Branding Iron is a Student Media project. Student Media gives University of Wyoming students valuable experience in writing, editing, advertising, sales, graphic design, photography and production through its publications with the guidance of professional staff members. If you find a mistake in an article, e-mail us at bi@uwyo.edu. We will make sure to torture the poor soul until it's corrected. Just kidding. We probably won't do anything, since we're busy studying for finals.

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42 percent of the state’s 2007-08 high school graduates who attended a Wyoming college needed remedial help in college math in 2008-09, and 24 percent needed help in reading, according to the Wyoming Department of Education.   The scarier news is that most of these students earned at least a 3.0 in high school.  Luckily, educators across the state agree that the Wyoming education system needs to improve, but how do we fix the problem?

The newly elected school superintendent Cindy Hill advocates for more teacher accountability, local control, personal commitment, and test reorganization.

I agree with all of these goals.  Yes, if a teacher cannot teach, fire him.  If a test is flawed, restructure it.  If local control works, keep it.  But, these goals seem too evident.  These are the changes we are seeing throughout the country in education reform.  These are not new ideas thought up by Cindy Hill in response to an education crisis in Wyoming; these are suggestions by national policy makers in response to a national decline in education.

I am asking how we fix this problem in Wyoming. This state is unique because of its large size and secularity.  Those born in Wyoming most often stay in Wyoming, and that creates an education circle.  A voluntary survey conducted in 2007 showed that 80% of UW Education graduates stay and teach in Wyoming.

I heard recently from a friend that if a student can’t cut it as an engineer, he moves to a business major.  If he can’t hack it in the business department, he becomes a political science major, and, finally, if he fails political science, he becomes a teacher.  If this is true, we can assume that our teachers are not the best and the brightest of the state, but, instead, the slackers, idiots, crazies, and those “nice” students who generally can’t figure out what they want to do.

This is also a national phenomenon.  According to  a best jobs of 2010 survey published in the Wall Street Journal, “teacher” was placed right above “sewage plant operator” and right below “appliance repairer.”  This shows, pretty decisively, that a student needs to be either highly committed to becoming a teacher or simply has no other options.  Nobody wants to graduate from college and have the same public image as a handyman.

According to CBS’s moneywatch.com, education majors across the nation graduate with the highest GPAs of any other major.  I don’t think that this is because education majors are so much smarter than the math, chemistry, and physics majors, but, instead, the education classes are much easier.  Many students take education courses to boost their GPAs in order to be accepted into more difficult programs, such as business.

Wyoming teachers with whom I have spoken hope to continue on to become principals and administrators in Wyoming.  Many of them will do online graduate programs from some unheard of college.  These “graduate” programs are geared for teachers who need something cheap and easy and, consequently, offer quick degrees that carry little in terms of real academia.  So, we are left with the worst students becoming education majors; education majors becoming teachers in Wyoming; teachers participating in easy graduate programs and becoming administrators and principals.

This has wide reaching implications for the state and for Cindy Hill’s theory of teacher accountability.  Teacher accountability only works if those who are evaluating the teachers are better learned than the teachers.  However, administrators, principals, and even State superintendent Cindy Hill were all educated by the University of Wyoming’s education department.  Does this mean that we have not, in fact, put our children’s future in the hands of the best qualified for the job, but instead those people who couldn’t make it in any other field?

I say yes.  We have, unwittingly, failed as a state and as a nation.  Teaching is one of the hardest jobs in this country.  Yet, we make our education program the joke of the university.  Change the program and make it more difficult.  We need to see students that can’t cut it in the education department become business majors, instead of the other way around.

This is easiest in a state like Wyoming.  I mean, 80% of education graduates go on to teach in the state. This means that if we make a conscious effort to be the best, most highly educated state in the nation, we could go a long way by simply changing the education department.  Require an entrance exam, a year of residency, tough classes and even tougher professors.  Bring in the best teachers and administrators from across the nation to show that teaching is not about curriculums, rubrics or lesson plans.  

If our teachers are the best writers, readers, mathematicians in the state, high schools will improve.  In time, the state will improve as more businesses are started or come to Wyoming in response to the better education and smarter graduates.

Until we change the program, Wyoming high school students will be taught by mediocre and unmotivated teachers.  Students will then enter college with little preparation in math and writing and will take remedial courses.  The brightest, most hardworking students will become lawyers, doctors, accountants, and scientists.  The worst students…well… they will become teachers.

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The Branding Iron is a Student Media project. Student Media gives University of Wyoming students valuable experience in writing, editing, advertising, sales, graphic design, photography and production through its publications with the guidance of professional staff members. If you find a mistake in an article, e-mail us at bi@uwyo.edu. We will make sure to torture the poor soul until it's corrected. Just kidding. We probably won't do anything, since we're busy studying for finals.

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Freudenthal will return to his alma mater to teach in the College of Law. His seminar at the college will focus primarily on energy law and natural resources; although he may also work with UW’s School of Energy Resources and the College of Business.

“What I want people to understand, is that you’ve got to understand the law, but you’ve got to understand the context in which it’s being applied before you’re going to be either a fully rounded lawyer or decision-maker,” Freudenthal told the Casper Star-Tribune.

Freudenthal stressed that his position at the university was temporary and that he would remain separate from the college to pursue his other interests.

As both U.S. attorney for Wyoming and as governor, Freudenthal has accrued knowledge of Wyoming issues specifically, especially concerning energy and the states’ natural resources, which he plans on passing to UW law students.

President Tom Buchanan said the former governor will be an asset to the College of Law.

“We’re honored that he’s accepted our invitation to join our faculty as a visiting professor,” Buchanan said in a press release. ”This is a tremendous opportunity for our students to learn first hand from the state’s top executive, who has such extensive knowledge about Wyoming law, government, economics and history.”

Freudenthal graduated from UW in 1980, starting his own private law practice thereafter.

In 1994, he was appointed as U.S. attorney for Wyoming where he remained until taking the Wyoming governor’s office in 2002 and was then re-elected in 2006. Freudenthal’s second term ended Jan. 3 and the position was left to current governor, Matt Mead.

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The Branding Iron is a Student Media project. Student Media gives University of Wyoming students valuable experience in writing, editing, advertising, sales, graphic design, photography and production through its publications with the guidance of professional staff members. If you find a mistake in an article, e-mail us at bi@uwyo.edu. We will make sure to torture the poor soul until it's corrected. Just kidding. We probably won't do anything, since we're busy studying for finals.

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Don Roth, associate director for academics in the School of Energy Resources, led the workshop, which focused on educating students how to best distinguish themselves to employers for internships and jobs in future.

While Wyoming’s energy market is a regional and even a global powerhouse, the workshop was not limited to Wyoming energy careers.

“We want to prepare students for the new global energy market. The energy market is constantly evolving, but there are some central skills we are teaching that can be used across the board in this, or any other industry,” Roth said.

Roth highlighted the importance of the event by touching on the need to prepare students to be not only academically successful, but also to have applicable skills that allow them to apply that knowledge gained in the classroom.

“We are teaching what you will need in order to be prepared for if you are pursuing a career in the energy sector not just in terms of content, but also in the process skills that allow to you apply process,” Roth said.

Roth also stressed that although many students wait until their later years of college to develop skills central to career development, one central goal of the workshop was to try and help students early in their collegiate career to be aware of these skills. 

“We are concerned not just about the experience a student has at UW, but also the placement of the student into the career that he or she is striving for. That’s the gold standard for us,” he said, “We want to catch students before they are on the way out the door.”

The workshop looked at the energy industry in a broad scope and attracted students interested in areas of energy development including wind, thermal, oil, gas, coal and solar.

Roth said that he thought there are a number of fundamental skills covered by the workshop that are universal to all career paths.  

“There are some basic skills we are working on that are essential to any career,” Roth said.

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“This is a good day: a good day for the School of Energy Resources, a good day for the University of Wyoming, a good day for the energy industry and a good day for the state of Wyoming,” Gov. Dave Freudenthal, who was one of six speakers during the morning ceremony, said. “This building will be an important addition to the campus, but the real significance is what will take place inside the walls.”

The ERC will  have  about 30,000-square-feet of space, highlighted by 12,000-square-feet of rapidly reconfigurable laboratory space.

“This building will provide a meaningful and adequate facility for the type of enhanced research that is necessary to sustain and ensure the long-term viability of the energy industry in Wyoming,” Ron Harper, chairman of the SER’s Energy Resources Council, said.

The facility will contain a collaboratorium, a classroom/auditorium and a 3D visualization research facility.

The 3D visualization facility will allow researchers to collect data and allow them to literally to walk through their data while wearing glasses when they enter the room, Mary Byrnes, associate director for Energy Outreach in the School of Energy Research, said.

“If individuals don’t have the ability to communicate language-wise with each other, they can certainly do it through the data by sensing the data visually,” she said.

The facility will have a strong dedication to alternative energy research along with its other duties.

“The construction of the Energy Resources Center will open a new chapter in the excellence of teaching and research of energy-related sciences at the University of Wyoming,” UW president Tom Buchanan said. 

“But as important as this facility will be to those efforts, the greater celebration is about the extraordinary partnership that has emerged between the state, industry leaders and the university to extend the vitality of Wyoming’s energy economy and develop renewable energy alternatives,” he said. 

The ERC was funded through private donations and state matching funds.

Encana Oil & Gas USA provided the largest private donation toward construction of the ERC: a $5 million commitment in 2007 that was matched by the state.

Construction of the ERC will begin this spring with completion expected in summer 2012, according to the release.

“The Energy Resources Center will be a tremendous asset to the university and to our state, and we are thankful that our industry partners share this vision,” SER director Mark Northam said.

“I am excited by the prospect of delivering a state-of-the-art research and collaboration center for the university and energy stakeholders throughout Wyoming.”

Email the author: mdonofri@uwyo.edu 

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With tradition and bragging rights on the line, Wyoming managed to pull off its first conference win.

The Cowboys pummeled Colorado State 44-0 in front of their home crowd at War Memorial Stadium; a rout that was Wyoming’s most lopsided victory in the 102-game history of the Border War.

Sophomore running back Alvester Alexander etched his place into Cowboy football lore, rushing for 147 yards and a school record five touchdowns.

“The coaches told me they were going to put it on my shoulders, so I needed to show them that I could carry that load,” Alexander said in the post-game press conference. “It was nice to have those big holes to run through. The offensive line practiced hard all week and then told me that they were going to block up front. They really did great.”

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“At this point we think that the investment portfolio is strong and that the opportunity for full funding of scholarships are also strong, but we will continue to monitor it,” Richards said. “I don’t think that this is a high probability concern at this point.”

Though no consensus has been reached on the severity by the state Legislature, it is certain that UW will keep monitoring the program intensely as they see it as extremely important.

“The Hathaway Scholarship has been the single most important program to help students go to college because it funds such a significant part of tuition,” Sara Axelson, vice president of Student Affairs, said. 

“I know it has impacted the freshman classes, and not only with high-achieving students from Wyoming, but with students who were looking at bordering schools and decided with that kind of tuition to stay in state.”

Since it was first implemented, the program has continued to change its standards.

Originally, when the Hathaway was first awarded for graduating high school students in 2006, there were no curriculum requirements for students graduating high school, just GPA and ACT requirements. 

For those graduating in 2011, students will have to fulfill the full course requirements as well as the GPA and the ACT. 

The curriculum requirement in high school includes foreign language, social studies, science, language arts and math, which each meet different levels of requirements for the different levels of the Hathaway Scholarship.

 “It has changed over the last four or five years as it has changed to what the Legislature wants it to be,” Danee Hunzie, a UW admissions representative and former Hathaway recipient, said.

Email the author: mdonofri@uwyo.edu 

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The Branding Iron is a Student Media project. Student Media gives University of Wyoming students valuable experience in writing, editing, advertising, sales, graphic design, photography and production through its publications with the guidance of professional staff members. If you find a mistake in an article, e-mail us at bi@uwyo.edu. We will make sure to torture the poor soul until it's corrected. Just kidding. We probably won't do anything, since we're busy studying for finals.

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UW is not an Ivy League school, but it has many great things going for it. By the numbers, it is one of the great schools out there.

Starting with tuition, UW is one of the best schools for the price. Whether in-state or out-of-state, it is known for its affordable price. This is true even after the recent jump in the cost of tuition.

In the 2009-10 year, UW almost ranked last out of all U.S. public doctoral institutions for its price of undergraduate resident’s tuition and fees with UW ranked 145 out of 150 for the cost of tuition for resident graduates.

Those are some good numbers for those individuals who are looking for an education at a nationally competitive university.

Another statistic that speaks to the school’s strength is the high acceptance rates of those who apply to UW with 96 to 97 percent of all applications that apply accepted for admission. This number is very high considering national standards. When you consider how UW is the only four-year institution of higher learning in the state, the acceptance rates are even more impressive. Although the acceptance rate is high, the enrollment rate is much lower, around 48 percent.

So how are our numbers nationally once the students are accepted?

A very important number to look at is UW’s fall-to-fall retention rate. It shows the number of students who are staying in college and not dropping out before graduating. UW is at 73 percent, which is the roughly the same as the national average of 76 percent. 

Additionally, the UW graduation rate each year is almost the same as the national average for other public institutions. About 22 percent of students enrolled at UW graduate in four years; nearly 55 percent of students who start out as freshmen at UW eventually graduate from the institution.

UW’s ratio of 14 students for every faculty member is also an impressive number for being the only four-year public institution in the state.

Although the university and its administrators have stressed that they do not like national rankings from many publications, the school does not do terrible in them.

UW moved into the first tier of nationally ranked universities listed in the 2011 edition of Best Colleges by U.S. News Media Group.

UW ranked 153rd among all national universities and ranked 81st among public colleges. The rankings were out of more than 1,400 schools nationwide.

These numbers are excellent for the University of Wyoming nationally, though I am sure that many in the administration will argue that the university deserves to be higher.

It doesn’t stop there. The Princeton Review ranked UW in its best Western Colleges and Top Colleges.

The National Research Council ranks the University of Wyoming’s Department of Economics and Finance in the College of Business as the nation’s leader in faculty research output and eighth overall in research productivity. The review ranked 120 economic doctorate programs in the U.S. 

UW’s department ranked in the top 10 in overall research productivity and quality, along with the economics departments at Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Princeton University, University of California-Berkeley Economics, University of Chicago, Harvard’s Kennedy School and the California Institute of Technology.

UW’s MFA Program in Creative Writing recently was named one of the top 50 programs in the country.

I’m sure there are many numbers and rankings that have been left out and probably deserved to be on this list, but the point is that if anyone needs proof of the high academic value of the school, you need only to look at the numbers.

Email: Max D’Onofrio 

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